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Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder |name=Arthur William "Art" Sour, Jr. |office=Louisiana State Representative<br>for District 6 (Shreveport)]] |term_start=May 1972 |term_end=199..."
{{Infobox officeholder
|name=Arthur William "Art" Sour, Jr.
|office=[[Louisiana]] State Representative<br>for District 6 ([[Shreveport]])]]
|term_start=May 1972
|term_end=1992
|preceded=[[Frank Fulco]]
|succeeded=Melissa Flournoy
|birth_date=November 6, 1924
|birth_place=Shreveport, Louisiana
|death_date= {January 10, 2000 (aged 75)
|resting_place=Forest Park East Cemetery in Shreveport
|spouse=Mary Margaret Hodge Sour (1928-2009)
|children=Edwin William Sour<br>
John Michael "Johnny" Sour<br>
Margaret Stacy Sour
|alma_mater=[[Clifton Ellis Byrd|C. E. Byrd High School]]
|party=[[Republican Party|Republican]]
|religion=[[Roman Catholic]]
|branch=[[United States Army]]
|battles=[[World War II]]<br> (wounded in battle)
}}
'''Arthur William Sour, Jr.''', known as '''Art Sour''' (November 6, 1924 – January 10, 2000), was a [[Shreveport]] [[business]]man and a pioneer in developing a competitive [[Republican Party]] in his native [[Louisiana]]. A [[conservative]], Sour served for five terms from 1972 to 1992 as the state representative for District 6 in Caddo Parish.
==Background==
Sour was born in Shreveport to Arthur William Sour, Sr. (1895–1972), a native of Gretna in Jefferson Parish, <ref>{{cite web|url=https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=93113910|title=Arthur William Sour|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=April 20, 2017}}</ref> and the former Elizabeth "Adele" Diez (1897–1977), a native of Reserve in St. John the Baptist Parish in south Louisiana.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Sour&GSfn=Adele&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=20&GScnty=1117&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=93115058&df=all&|title='Adele' Elizabeth Diez Sour|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=April 20, 2017}}</ref>
One of Sour's sisters, Louise Pasquier, the widow of Charles F. Pasquier, Sr., was among the founders of St. Joseph [[Roman Catholic]] Church in Shreveport.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=louise-sour-pasquier&pid=185108395|title=Louise Sour Pasquier|newspaper=The Shreveport Times|date=April 19, 2017|accessdate=April 20, 2017}}</ref> Another sister, Adele Hoisington (1917-1945), named for her mother, was a former bank employee, who died with her husband, Earl L. Hoisington (1910-1945), in an automobile accident near Willard in Huron County in northern [[Ohio]], while the couple was on their honeymoon. Adele and Earl Hoisington are interred at Forest Park East Cemetery in Shreveport.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=93115536|title=Adele M. Sour Hoisington|publisher=''The Shreveport Times'' in Findagrave.com|date=November 25, 1945|accessdate=April 20, 2017}}</ref>
Sour graduated from [[Clifton Ellis Byrd|C. E. Byrd High School]] and served in the [[United States Army]] during [[World War II]], during which he was wounded in action. He earned his livelihood in [[petroleum]] and [[real estate]].<ref>Art Sour obituary, ''The Shreveport Times,'' January 11, 2000.</ref>
==Running for the Louisiana legislature==
Sour first ran for the legislature in 1964 on the [[Charlton Lyons]] [[Governor|gubernatorial]] ticket, but he was defeated by [[Democratic Party|Democrats]] in a multi-district race. In 1964, two Republican legislative candidates, [[Taylor O'Hearn]] and [[Morley Hudson]], were elected, but Sour and two other Republicans were defeated, [[Billy Guin]], later the last Shreveport public utilities commissioner, and Edd Fielder Calhoun (1931–2012), an insurance agent and civic figure originally from [[Oklahoma City]], [[Oklahoma]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=fielder-calhoun&pid=156372368|title=Obituary of Fielder Calhoun|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=March 9, 2012}}</ref> In 1968, Sour lost again in a race for the Louisiana House; all of the Caddo Parish Republican candidates were defeated that year except for [[Owen Adams]] of Greenwood in southwestern Caddo Parish. elected to the parish police jury, known as a county commission in other states.<ref>State of Louisiana, General election returns, February 6, 1968.</ref> Sour rebounded in 1972 to win the House seat, which he then held for twenty years.
==Defeating Frank Fulco==
When a single-member district plan took effect with the [[general election]] held on February 1, 1972, Sour, who was committed to the gubernatorial candidacy of fellow Republican [[David C. Treen]], then of Jefferson Parish and later St. Tammany Parish, upset Democrat [[Frank Fulco]], a protégé of the [[Earl Long|Longs]] and a former member of the Share the Wealth Club, to win the first of his five terms in the legislature. Sour defeated Fulco, 5,564 votes (53.2 percent) to 4,886 (46.8 percent). Shreveport political observers said that Fulco had ignored his fellow [[Roman Catholic]] Sour, already a two-time loser for the legislature, and concentrated instead on lining up commitments to become the next [[Speaker]] of the House, a position which ultimately went to Fulco's fellow Democrat, [[E .L. "Bubba" Henry]], then of Jonesboro in Jackson Parish and later the capital city of [[Baton Rouge]]. Other Republicans elected with Sour were [[B. F. O'Neal, Jr.]], of Shreveport, [[Clark Gaudin]] of Baton Rouge, and [[Charles D. Lancaster, Jr.]], of Metairie in Jefferson Parish.
In 1975, when Sour was reelected, he had only four Republican colleagues, and one of those, [[A. J. McNamara]] of Jefferson Parish, was actually elected as a Democrat but switched affiliation in 1977.
In the October 24, 1987, nonpartisan blanket [[primary]] election, Sour had a close call. He defeated Democrat [[Greg Barro]], later a state senator, by only seventy-seven votes. Sour received 5,744 votes (50.3 percent) to Barro's 5,667 (49.7 percent). That election provided a warning to Sour, who was a leading conservative among Republicans in northwest Louisiana.
Like his Louisiana legislative colleague [[Woody Jenkins|Louis E. "Woody" Jenkins]] of East Baton Rouge Parish, Sour was a member of the [[Council for National Policy]], a conservative alternative to the [[Council on Foreign Relations]]. The CNP, which meets in Washington, was begun by either Texas billionaire [[Nelson Bunker Hunt]] or [[Virginia]] direct-mail operative [[Richard Viguerie]] as a potential balance to the CFR. CNP members included the conservative spokespersons [[Phyllis Schlafly]] and [[Paul Weyrich]].
==Melissa Flournoy retires Sour==
In the October 19, 1991, jungle primary, when [[Edwin Edwards]] was staging his fourth-term comeback as governor, Sour was upset by the Democrat Melissa Scott Flournoy (born 1961), 9,728 votes (58 percent) to 7,151 (42 percent). It was a high turnout election, and Sour got more raw votes that year than in any previous election. Yet he lost with the smaller percent. Flournoy did not seek a second term in the Louisiana House but instead ran for the state senate in 1995 and was defeated by the Republican [[Max T. Malone]] of Shreveport.
Services for Sour were held on January 12, 2000, at St. Joseph Catholic Church, where he was a member, with Father Peter Mangum officiating. Sour was married to the former Mary Margaret "Maggie" Hodge (April 11, 1928 – December 19, 2009), the daughter of Edwin and Nelle Hodge of Hodge in Jackson Parish. Mrs. Sour graduated from Ruston High School and [[Louisiana Tech University]], both in [[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]] in Lincoln Parish.
She was a member of Noel Memorial [[United Methodist]] Church in Shreveport. Sour had two sons, Edwin William Sour (1950-2022) and second wife, Dora McMath Sour, and John Michael Sour (born 1953) and wife, Terri Brooks Sour; a daughter, Margaret Stacy Sour, all of Shreveport; four sisters, a brother, and three grandchildren.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=mary-margaret-hodge-sour&pid=137604008|title=Obituary of Mary Margaret Hodge Sour|publisher='The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=December 21, 2009}}</ref> Edwin Sour was formerly married to Margaret Mary Stagg, the younger daughter of the late Judge [[Tom Stagg]] of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, based in Shreveport.
Sour died at the age of seventy-five and is interred along with his wife and parents at Forest Park East Cemetery in Shreveport.
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sour, Art}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:State Representatives]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:Catholics]]
[[Category:Catholic Politicians]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:United States Army]]
|name=Arthur William "Art" Sour, Jr.
|office=[[Louisiana]] State Representative<br>for District 6 ([[Shreveport]])]]
|term_start=May 1972
|term_end=1992
|preceded=[[Frank Fulco]]
|succeeded=Melissa Flournoy
|birth_date=November 6, 1924
|birth_place=Shreveport, Louisiana
|death_date= {January 10, 2000 (aged 75)
|resting_place=Forest Park East Cemetery in Shreveport
|spouse=Mary Margaret Hodge Sour (1928-2009)
|children=Edwin William Sour<br>
John Michael "Johnny" Sour<br>
Margaret Stacy Sour
|alma_mater=[[Clifton Ellis Byrd|C. E. Byrd High School]]
|party=[[Republican Party|Republican]]
|religion=[[Roman Catholic]]
|branch=[[United States Army]]
|battles=[[World War II]]<br> (wounded in battle)
}}
'''Arthur William Sour, Jr.''', known as '''Art Sour''' (November 6, 1924 – January 10, 2000), was a [[Shreveport]] [[business]]man and a pioneer in developing a competitive [[Republican Party]] in his native [[Louisiana]]. A [[conservative]], Sour served for five terms from 1972 to 1992 as the state representative for District 6 in Caddo Parish.
==Background==
Sour was born in Shreveport to Arthur William Sour, Sr. (1895–1972), a native of Gretna in Jefferson Parish, <ref>{{cite web|url=https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=93113910|title=Arthur William Sour|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=April 20, 2017}}</ref> and the former Elizabeth "Adele" Diez (1897–1977), a native of Reserve in St. John the Baptist Parish in south Louisiana.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Sour&GSfn=Adele&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=20&GScnty=1117&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=93115058&df=all&|title='Adele' Elizabeth Diez Sour|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=April 20, 2017}}</ref>
One of Sour's sisters, Louise Pasquier, the widow of Charles F. Pasquier, Sr., was among the founders of St. Joseph [[Roman Catholic]] Church in Shreveport.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=louise-sour-pasquier&pid=185108395|title=Louise Sour Pasquier|newspaper=The Shreveport Times|date=April 19, 2017|accessdate=April 20, 2017}}</ref> Another sister, Adele Hoisington (1917-1945), named for her mother, was a former bank employee, who died with her husband, Earl L. Hoisington (1910-1945), in an automobile accident near Willard in Huron County in northern [[Ohio]], while the couple was on their honeymoon. Adele and Earl Hoisington are interred at Forest Park East Cemetery in Shreveport.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=93115536|title=Adele M. Sour Hoisington|publisher=''The Shreveport Times'' in Findagrave.com|date=November 25, 1945|accessdate=April 20, 2017}}</ref>
Sour graduated from [[Clifton Ellis Byrd|C. E. Byrd High School]] and served in the [[United States Army]] during [[World War II]], during which he was wounded in action. He earned his livelihood in [[petroleum]] and [[real estate]].<ref>Art Sour obituary, ''The Shreveport Times,'' January 11, 2000.</ref>
==Running for the Louisiana legislature==
Sour first ran for the legislature in 1964 on the [[Charlton Lyons]] [[Governor|gubernatorial]] ticket, but he was defeated by [[Democratic Party|Democrats]] in a multi-district race. In 1964, two Republican legislative candidates, [[Taylor O'Hearn]] and [[Morley Hudson]], were elected, but Sour and two other Republicans were defeated, [[Billy Guin]], later the last Shreveport public utilities commissioner, and Edd Fielder Calhoun (1931–2012), an insurance agent and civic figure originally from [[Oklahoma City]], [[Oklahoma]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=fielder-calhoun&pid=156372368|title=Obituary of Fielder Calhoun|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=March 9, 2012}}</ref> In 1968, Sour lost again in a race for the Louisiana House; all of the Caddo Parish Republican candidates were defeated that year except for [[Owen Adams]] of Greenwood in southwestern Caddo Parish. elected to the parish police jury, known as a county commission in other states.<ref>State of Louisiana, General election returns, February 6, 1968.</ref> Sour rebounded in 1972 to win the House seat, which he then held for twenty years.
==Defeating Frank Fulco==
When a single-member district plan took effect with the [[general election]] held on February 1, 1972, Sour, who was committed to the gubernatorial candidacy of fellow Republican [[David C. Treen]], then of Jefferson Parish and later St. Tammany Parish, upset Democrat [[Frank Fulco]], a protégé of the [[Earl Long|Longs]] and a former member of the Share the Wealth Club, to win the first of his five terms in the legislature. Sour defeated Fulco, 5,564 votes (53.2 percent) to 4,886 (46.8 percent). Shreveport political observers said that Fulco had ignored his fellow [[Roman Catholic]] Sour, already a two-time loser for the legislature, and concentrated instead on lining up commitments to become the next [[Speaker]] of the House, a position which ultimately went to Fulco's fellow Democrat, [[E .L. "Bubba" Henry]], then of Jonesboro in Jackson Parish and later the capital city of [[Baton Rouge]]. Other Republicans elected with Sour were [[B. F. O'Neal, Jr.]], of Shreveport, [[Clark Gaudin]] of Baton Rouge, and [[Charles D. Lancaster, Jr.]], of Metairie in Jefferson Parish.
In 1975, when Sour was reelected, he had only four Republican colleagues, and one of those, [[A. J. McNamara]] of Jefferson Parish, was actually elected as a Democrat but switched affiliation in 1977.
In the October 24, 1987, nonpartisan blanket [[primary]] election, Sour had a close call. He defeated Democrat [[Greg Barro]], later a state senator, by only seventy-seven votes. Sour received 5,744 votes (50.3 percent) to Barro's 5,667 (49.7 percent). That election provided a warning to Sour, who was a leading conservative among Republicans in northwest Louisiana.
Like his Louisiana legislative colleague [[Woody Jenkins|Louis E. "Woody" Jenkins]] of East Baton Rouge Parish, Sour was a member of the [[Council for National Policy]], a conservative alternative to the [[Council on Foreign Relations]]. The CNP, which meets in Washington, was begun by either Texas billionaire [[Nelson Bunker Hunt]] or [[Virginia]] direct-mail operative [[Richard Viguerie]] as a potential balance to the CFR. CNP members included the conservative spokespersons [[Phyllis Schlafly]] and [[Paul Weyrich]].
==Melissa Flournoy retires Sour==
In the October 19, 1991, jungle primary, when [[Edwin Edwards]] was staging his fourth-term comeback as governor, Sour was upset by the Democrat Melissa Scott Flournoy (born 1961), 9,728 votes (58 percent) to 7,151 (42 percent). It was a high turnout election, and Sour got more raw votes that year than in any previous election. Yet he lost with the smaller percent. Flournoy did not seek a second term in the Louisiana House but instead ran for the state senate in 1995 and was defeated by the Republican [[Max T. Malone]] of Shreveport.
Services for Sour were held on January 12, 2000, at St. Joseph Catholic Church, where he was a member, with Father Peter Mangum officiating. Sour was married to the former Mary Margaret "Maggie" Hodge (April 11, 1928 – December 19, 2009), the daughter of Edwin and Nelle Hodge of Hodge in Jackson Parish. Mrs. Sour graduated from Ruston High School and [[Louisiana Tech University]], both in [[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]] in Lincoln Parish.
She was a member of Noel Memorial [[United Methodist]] Church in Shreveport. Sour had two sons, Edwin William Sour (1950-2022) and second wife, Dora McMath Sour, and John Michael Sour (born 1953) and wife, Terri Brooks Sour; a daughter, Margaret Stacy Sour, all of Shreveport; four sisters, a brother, and three grandchildren.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=mary-margaret-hodge-sour&pid=137604008|title=Obituary of Mary Margaret Hodge Sour|publisher='The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=December 21, 2009}}</ref> Edwin Sour was formerly married to Margaret Mary Stagg, the younger daughter of the late Judge [[Tom Stagg]] of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, based in Shreveport.
Sour died at the age of seventy-five and is interred along with his wife and parents at Forest Park East Cemetery in Shreveport.
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sour, Art}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:State Representatives]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:Catholics]]
[[Category:Catholic Politicians]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:United States Army]]