Burgess McCranie

Burgess Edmond McCranie, Sr. (September 17, 1905 – December 31, 1977), was a government official who, among other positions, served from 1953 to 1957 as the seventh mayor of Bossier City, Louisiana, the ninth largest city in the state, as of the 2010 U.S. census. A Democrat as have been all but one of the mayors of Bossier City, McCranie was the first mayor under the city commission government, which was disbanded after twenty-four years, effective in 1977,^[1] in favor of the mayor-council format.

McCranie was the fourth of five children born in Plain Dealing in northern Bossier Parish to Thomas Kenton McCranie (1847-1914) and the former Viola Varina Wise (1861-1927).^[1] Prior to 1949, McCranie was the Bossier City marshal. That same year the police department was created, with headquarters first in the old city hall building downtown on Barksdale Boulevard. McCranie resigned as marshal to accept appointment as the first police chief. The department then had twelve officers but only one patrol car. He remained police chief until his election as mayor in the spring of 1953.^[2][3]

In 1956, Mayor McCranie was elected by his colleagues as vice-president of the Louisiana Municipal Association for the Louisiana's 4th congressional district.^[4] In 1961, four years after his single term as mayor had ended, McCranie became the executive director of the Federal Housing Commission in Bossier Parish. He also served as a Bossier Parish deputy under Sheriff Willie Waggonner. He was elected to the Bossier Parish Police Jury, the parish governing body, akin to the county commission in most other states.^[1]

McCranie was a member of the First Baptist Church of Bossier, prior to the period of Fred Lowery's ministry there, the Masonic lodge, and the Shriners.^[1] He and his wife, the former Mary Page Harlow (1915-1978), a native of Pine Bluff, Arkansas,^[5] had two sons, Burgess E. McCranie, Jr. (born February 2, 1940), an lawyer in New Orleans who resides in Metairie in suburban Jefferson Parish, and James Broussard McCranie (1952-2018) and his widow, the former Della Marie McFatridge (born December 14, 1956), of Roxton in Lamar County in east Texas. James McCranie worked for twenty-five years for Home Depot.^[6] The McCranies had four daughters. Sarah Page McCranie (1943-2007), a graduate of Bossier High School and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, was at the time of her death the Americans for Disability administrator for the city of New Orleans.^[7] Sarah was divorced from Richard Polton of Colorado Springs,  Colorado. Judith "Judy" McCranie (c. 1947-2000), was formerly known as Judy Hughes. The surviving daughters are Peggy Mezzic McCranie (born March 8, 1953) of Metairie and Tommie Sue Brooks (born May 27, 1941), wife of Gerald Brooks, of Bossier City.^[7] She was formerly married to Thomas Walker of Bossier City.^[8]

Burgess and Mary McCranie died eight months apart; they are interred at Forest Park East Cemetery in Shreveport.^[1][5]