Lawrence A. Sheridan

Lawrence A. Sheridan, known as Buster Sheridan (December 15, 1919–April 9, 2001),^[1] was from 1960-1988 a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives^[2] 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.^[3]

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.^[4] He served in the United States Army during World War II. He was affiliated with the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Masonic lodge, and the Order of the Eastern Star. He was a member and deacon of the Angie Baptist Church. He was a president of the Washington Parish Fair Board.^[3]

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, 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).^[5] 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).^[6] 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 (September 12, 1919–June 29, 1993).^[1] 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.^[3]

Services were held at the Angie Baptist Church. Interment, with military rites, was at Spencer Cemetery in Enon in Washington Parish.^[3]

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