Ray Tarver

Ray Darryl Tarver (December 24, 1921 – December 11, 1972)^[1] was a dentist from Natchitoches, Louisiana, who served a single term as a Democrat in the Louisiana House of Representatives from Natchitoches Parish. His tenure from 1964 to 1968 corresponded with the first administration of Governor John McKeithen. He was unseated in the 1967 Democratic primary election by Jimmy D. Long, a businessman and member of the Long political dynasty, who held the seat until 2000. Long had lost the House race to Tarver in 1963.^[2]

Tarver was the youngest of three children born to Richard David Tarver, Jr. (1888-1963) and the former Lula Lee Ellzey (1892-1950). His siblings were Ann Dean Tarver, who was born in 1914 and married Gaynell Gus Tinsley, and Lovis Odell Tarver, who died in 1919 at the age of three, two years before Dr. Tarver's birth. Richard, Lula, and Lovis Tarver are interred at Pine Grove Cemetery in the Hagewood community of rural Natchitoches Parish.^[3]

In 1952, Tarver received his D.D.S. degree from Loyola University in New Orleans.^[4]

In 1956, Dr. Tarver married the former Evelyn Marie Youngblood, who was born on January 20, 1936, in Powhatan, a village in Natchitoches Parish. She is the daughter of Elmer "Ray" Youngblood and the former Rosa Leona King. Tarver died late in 1972, two weeks before his 51st birthday. In 1975, Evelyn married Carroll C. Carnahan.^[5]

Dr. Tarver is interred at Memory Lawn Cemetery in Natchitoches.^[1]

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