Cecil K. Carter, Jr.

Cecil Kay Carter, Jr., known as C. Kay Carter, or C. K. Carter (October 19, 1929 – August 31, 1987),^[1] was a businessman from Shreveport, Louisiana, who served as a Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1972 to 1976.^[2]

Carter was unseated in 1975 in Senate District 38 by twenty-three votes, having lost to a fellow Democrat, Virginia Kilpatrick Shehee, an officer of the Kilpatrick Funeral Homes and Life Insurance companies in Shreveport.^[3]

On August 13, 1966, Carter finished a strong third in the race for the 4th Congressional District seat on the Louisiana State Board of Education. Incumbent Robert H. "Bob" Curry of Shreveport, who had twice been elected by his colleagues as the board president, was instead reelected. Another candidate seeking the position was Lonnie O. Aulds, a real estate businessman from Shreveport who subsequently served for a term in the Louisiana House of Representatives^[4] In that race, Carter ran newspaper advertising showing him shaking hands with George C. Wallace, former governor of Alabama, who was preparing for a 1968 independent run for the American presidency. In the advertisement, Carter stressed his support for "local control of education," rather than federal intervention spurred by civil rights issues.^[5]

In 1980, Carter was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States House of Representatives from the Louisiana Fourth District. He was eliminated in the nonpartisan blanket primary, and the position went to Buddy Roemer, later the governor of Louisiana. Roemer defeated his then fellow Democrat, the incumbent Buddy Leach in the 1980 general election.^[6]

In 1983, Carter sought a senatorial comeback but was blocked by incumbent Democratic Senator Richard G. Neeson, who had unseated Shehee in 1979 after her single four-year term in office.^[7]

Carter was born in Cleburne in Johnson County near Fort Worth, Texas, to Cecil Carter, Sr. (1907-1967), a carpenter, and his wife, Nettie M. Carter (1909-1982).^[8]

At the time of his death in 1987 at the age of fifty-seven, Carter was again seeking political office. He was challenging two-term State Representative Robert P. "Bobby" Waddell in District 4 in southwestern Shreveport. Carter had left a candidate forum early. An off-duty firefighter found Carter slumped in his idling car parked off Hollywood Avenue in Shreveport. He had died of a heart attack.^[1]Mrs. Carter, whose first and maiden names are unavailable, was the district supervisor of the Louisiana Tourist Commission.^[9]

Carter is interred at Forest Park West Cemetery in Shreveport.

A scholarship in the field of construction is endowed in Carter's name at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.^[10]

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