Bert Hatten

Walter Bertram Hatten, known as Bert Hatten (born March 9, 1927),^[1] is a former newspaperman who served for three terms as the mayor of West Monroe in Ouachita Parish in North Louisiana, a position which he filled as a Democrat from 1966 to 1978. He is perhaps best known for his editorial column, "Inside Straight", in The Ouachita Citizen, a weekly in West Monroe.

Background

Hatten was born in Sikes in Winn Parish, Louisiana, to William Earl Hatten and the former Pina Head. The Hattens moved to West Monroe in 1940. There in 1945, he graduated from Ouachita Parish High School in Monroe.^[2] At the age of seventeen, Hatten entered the United States Merchant Marine during World War II; he served for three years. When the war ended, he was aboard the USS Grove City Victory, which was anchored in Tokyo Bay near the USS Missouri (BB-63), on which General Douglas MacArthur accepted the formal surrender of Japanese authorities. Upon his return from the war, Hatten continued his education at Northeast Junior College, now the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

Journalism career

Hatten's career as a journalist began in 1948, when he was attending college. He joined the reporting staff at the former Monroe Morning World. He remained at the News-Star World for fifteen years. By the middle 1950s, before he was thirty, Hatten was the managing editor at the Morning World, since merged into the Monroe News-Star. In 1956, he hired Sam A. Hanna, Sr., subsequently an award-winning journalist and newspaper entrepreneur in his own right, as an outdoor writer for The Morning World. By 1963, Hatten had left the Monroe newspapers to enter the insurance business.^[3]

On January 1, 1965, Hatten purchased The Ouachita Citizen from the families of Lee Hawkins, Amos Hood, and Dewitt Henry. He penned "Inside Straight", an editorial column focused on the people, places and events in Ouachita Parish. The Ouachita Citizen, a weekly newspaper, began in 1924 as the West Monroe Churchman. He published The Citizen for twenty-one years. Hatten's daughter Beth handled the operations of the business. In 1986, Hatten sold The Ouachita Citizen to Bob Barton, an employee of the Ruston Daily Leader in Ruston in Lincoln Parish. After a time in West Monroe, Barton later bought the Bossier Press-Tribune in Bossier City. In 1995, he was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives from Bossier Parish in northwestern Louisiana and served one term in the chamber.^[4]

In 1996, Hatten resumed ownership of The Ouachita Citizen but quickly sold it to Sam Hanna, Sr., and Hanna's son, Sam Hanna, Jr. (born 1969) of Monroe, the current publisher of the newspaper.^[5][6]

Political life

In 1963, Hatten was heavily involved in the campaign to return former Governor Robert F. Kennon to the state's highest office. Kennon, a Conservative Democrat who served as governor from 1952 to 1956, was eliminated in the primary election held on December 7, just two weeks after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Kennon had run as an anti-Kennedy candidate in what turned out to have been the former governor's last campaign.^[3]

On June 14, 1966, Hatten was handily elected mayor of West Monroe. He succeeded fellow Democrat J. Allen Norris, who served from 1952 to 1966. He defeated the Republican nominee, William Green "Billy" Haynes, Jr. (1912-1984),^[7] also a West Monroe insurance agent, 2,490 votes (68 percent) to 1,171 (32 percent).^[8] Five Democrats were elected with Hatten to serve on the city council. One of those aldermen, Charles Anding, a trade union official, was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1987 from District 15, which encompasses West Monroe. Another alderman, Truett Thorn,^[9] was a coach at West Monroe High School^[10] and the older brother of the Louisiana journalist Dale Thorn, another alumnus of the Monroe newspapers.^[11] Altogether, Hatten served with twelve city council members, all men.^[12]

Hatten often joked that his only experience in municipal government prior to his election as mayor had been in covering city council meetings for the Monroe newspapers. He hence relied on advice from seasoned mayors, W. L. "Jack" Howard of his sister city of Monroe and Clyde Fant of Shreveport, and other mayors from such smaller communities as Bastrop and Columbia. Hatten noted that Monroe and West Monroe, separated by the Ouachita River, never developed the animosity sometimes associated with other twin cities but instead took pride in the strength of each other.^[12]

During his tenure as mayor, Hatten oversaw the rebuilding of every street in West Monroe and the upgrading of the water and sewer systems, including the installation of the first sewage treatment plant. He also worked to upgrade the West Monroe Fire and Police departments and to construct Downing Pines Industrial Park, He supported the establishment of the West Ouachita Industrial Park. Under his administration a modern City Hall, Corrections Center and Convention Center were built on the former site of the Ouachita Valley Fair Grounds located on North Seventh Street. The new city complex was completed during the last days of the Hatten administration. He never occupied the new facility, at which his successor, Dave Norris, was sworn in and began his ten terms as mayor.

In 1971, West Monroe streamlined its municipal charter and expanded the powers of the mayor. Under Hatten's tutelage, the city constructed a new City Hall, police department, jail, and convention center on the former Ouachita Valley Fairgrounds.^[13]The West Monroe justice complex is modeled after a plan developed for the needs of smaller cities by the University of Illinois. West Monroe was the first municipality to follow this particular model.^[12]

In 1998, in a series of articles written for The Ouachita Citizen, which reflect on his time as mayor, Hatten said that he had received invaluable support from the general public as well as volunteers who helped to make city programs succeed. Hatten said that he has often received credit that should have been shared with others.^[12]In 1978, Hatten did not seek a fourth term as mayor and was succeeded by Dave Norris, a fellow Democrat and then a professor at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, who remains mayor and was unopposed in 2014 for a tenth four-year term.^[14] Hatten and Norris are virtually the only mayors of which the citizens of West Monroe have a collective memory. Since 1952, there have been only three mayors of West Monroe; from that time since, however, there have been twelve U.S. presidents.

Along with the late State Representative Shady Wall and Wall's wife, Lallage Feazel Wall, Hatten was a member of the first board of advisors of the Twin City Ballet Company, a regional dance entity that fosters community enrichment.^[15]

At some point after leaving the mayor's office, Hatten changed his registration from Democrat to Independent.^[1]In 2002, he was a donor to the unsuccessful campaign of Republican John Cooksey of Monroe, then the U.S. representative from Louisiana's 5th congressional district, who failed in a bid to unseat Democrat U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu.^[16]Hatten is currently the secretary-treasurer of Health In Government, Inc., in West Monroe.^[17]

Memberships and awards

Hatten served as president of the West Monroe Chamber of Commerce and was the recipient in 1962 of the Jaycees "Young Man of the Year Award". In 1988, he received the A. O. Evans Award. He is a member of the West Monroe Masonic Lodge No. 419, 32nd degree Scottish Rite and York Rite Bodies and Barak Shrine Temple.

References