Bryan A. Poston

Bryan Anthony Poston, Sr. (March 11, 1924 – October 3, 2009) was a businessman in Hornbeck, Louisiana, who served as a Democrat in the Louisiana State Senate from 1964 to 1992. He succeeded his father, Charles M. Poston, Sr., a one-term senator from 1960 to 1964.^[1]

Biography

Poston was born in rural Benson in southern De Soto Parish to Charles M. Poston, Sr. (1898–1968) and Marjorie A. Poston (1899–1995), both railroad employees.^[2] Poston was reared in Hornbeck in Vernon Parish, a small town midway between Leesville, the seat of Vernon Parish, and Many, the seat of Sabine Parish. He attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge before he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, forerunner of the Air Force, during World War II. Poston was an aerial engineer gunner sergeant on a B-17 bomber.^[3]

Just shy of his fortieth birthday, Poston was elected to the now District 30 Senate seat, which encompasses part of Calcasieu and Beauregard, Sabine, and Vernon parishes. During his tenure, he served for sixteen years as chairman of the Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee and for eight years on the Senate Retirement Committee.^[3] Poston did not seek an eighth term in the Senate in the nonpartisan blanket primary, or jungle primary, held on October 19, 1991. Instead, two Democratic state representatives from Beauregard Parish, Allen Bradley of DeRidder and James David Cain of Dry Creek competed for the post. Cain defeated Bradley;^[4] both later switched to Republican affiliation. Bradley left politics, and Cain lost a special election in 2006 for Louisiana insurance commissioner. He was term-limited in the 2007 primary for state senator.

Poston was a member, teacher, deacon, and Sunday school director of the First Baptist Church since April 15, 1957. He was affiliated with the Masonic lodge in Hornbeck for more than fifty years and of the Order of the Eastern Star chapter in Florien in Sabine Parish.^[3]

On June 5, 1943, Poston, at the age of nineteen, married then 16-year-old Judith M. Poston (born ca. 1927). Other survivors included two brothers, Charles M. Poston, Jr., and Morris O. Poston of Leesville; four children and their spouses, Bryan A. Poston, Jr. and wife, Jonell, Larry Poston and wife, Una, David Poston and wife, Sandra, and Marjorie Sullivan and husband, Sidney; ten grandchildren; four step-grandchildren; eleven great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.^[3]

Poston died of Alzheimer's disease at Sabine Retirement and Rehabilitation Center in Many. Services were held on October 5, 2009, at Warren Meadows Funeral Home in Many, with the Reverend Wayne Chance and the Reverend Bill Hines officiating. Interment was at Prewitt's Chapel Cemetery in Hornbeck.^[3]

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