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, 16:21, November 14, 2019
{{Infobox officeholder
| name=Lawrence A. "Buster" Sheridan
| office=[[Louisiana]] State Representative for Washington Parish, later for District 75 (Tangipahoa and Washington parishes)
| party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
| term_start=1960
| term_end=1988
| preceded=Murphy R. Williams
| succeeded=[[Jerry Thomas (Louisiana politician)|Dr. Jerry A. Thomas]]
| birth_date=December 15, 1919
| birth_place=Place of birth missing
| residence=Angie, Washington Parish
| death_date=April 9, 2001 (aged 81)
| death_place=Bogalusa, Washington Parish
| resting_place=Spencer Cemetery in Enon in Washington Parish
| religion=[[Southern Baptist]]
| spouse=Melba Spencer Sheridan
| children=Peggy S. Arcement<br>
Dennis Sheridan<br>
Four grandsons}}
'''Lawrence A. Sheridan''', known as '''Buster Sheridan''' (December 15, 1919 – April 9, 2001),<ref name=ssdi>{{cite web|url=http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi|title=Social Security Death Index|publisher=ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com|accessdate=November 13, 2009; under pay wall}}</ref> was from 1960 to 1988 a [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] member of the [[Louisiana]] House of Representatives<ref>{{cite web|url=http://house.louisiana.gov/H_PDFdocs/HouseMembership_History_CURRENT.pdf|title=Membership of the Louisiana House of Representatives, 1812-2020 (Washington Parish)|publisher=Louisiana House of Representatives|accessdate=November 13, 2019}}</ref> from the [[village]] of Angie in Washington Parish, the most easterly of the Florida Parishes of southeastern [[Louisiana]]. During his latter part of House service he succeeded [[Shady Wall]] of Ouachita Parish as the chairman of the House Retirement Committee.<ref name=obit>{{cite web|url=http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/washington/obits/april01.txt|title=Lawrence A. Sheridan obituary|publisher='The Bogalusa Daily News''|date=April 9, 2001|accessdate=November 13, 2009}}</ref>
Sheridan’s obituary in the ''Bogalusa Daily News'' does not give the names of his parents, his place of birth, his formal education, or his occupation outside the legislature. He had one brother, the late Morby "Bob" Sheridan. He served in the [[United States Army]] during [[World War II]]. He was affiliated with the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the Masonic lodge, and the Order of the Eastern Star. He was a member and [[deacon]] of the Angie [[Southern Baptist|Baptist]] Church. He was a former president of the Washington Parish Fair Board.<ref name=obit/>
Sheridan’s legislative tenure coincided with that of legendary state Senator [[B. B. "Sixty" Rayburn, Sr.]], of Bogalusa. Until 1968, he and two other members served in an at-large district including Washington Parish. Sheridan then served in District 75, while colleague [[Ed Scogin]] of Slidell, won the District 76 seat. Sheridan was defeated for an eighth term in the legislature in the nonpartisan blanket primary in 1987 by the Democrat, later [[Republican Party|Republican]], [[Jerry Thomas (Louisiana politician)|Jerry Thomas]], a [[physician]] from Franklinton, who was then serving as the coroner of Washington Parish. Thomas polled 9,266 votes (60.2 percent) to Sheridan's 6,121 (39.8 percent).<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 24, 1987.</ref> In 1991, Sheridan sought a comeback but again lost to Thomas by an identical percent: 6,312 (39.8) to 9,532 (60.2 percent).<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 19, 1991.</ref> Senator Rayburn, meanwhile, was finally defeated in the 1995 [[general election]] by the Republican retired military officer Phil Short, who served only three years of a single term. Short in 1999 was succeeded for five years by Sheridan’s House successor, Dr. Jerry Thomas.
Sheridan died at the age of eighty-one at the LSU Washington-St. Tammany Regional Medical Center in Bogalusa. He was preceded in death by his wife, the former Melba Spencer (1919-1993).<ref name=ssdi/> Survivors included a daughter, Peggy Sheridan Arcement (born December 21, 1950), and her husband, George J. Arcement Jr. (born September 29, 1949), of [[Baton Rouge]]; a son, Dennis A. Sheridan (born 1953) and wife, Paula Mangum Sheridan (born 1954), of Whittier, [[California]]; four grandsons, Brad Joseph Arcement, David Arcement, Samuel Sheridan, and Kevin Sheridan, and a niece, Sue Sheridan Gardener of Bogalusa.<ref name=obit/>
Services were held at the Angie Baptist Church. Interment, with military rites, was at Spencer Cemetery in Enon in Washington Parish.<ref name=obit/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheridan, Lawrence A.}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:Southern Baptists]]
[[Category:United States Army]]
[[Category:World War II]]