O. H. Haynes, Sr.

This article also contains the biography of Sheriff Haynes's daughter, Cleone Hodges.

Oscar Henry Haynes, Sr., or O. H. Haynes, Sr. (September 20, 1888 – April 18, 1969), was from 1933 to 1952 the Democratic sheriff of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana. A long-time Minden resident, he was the father of subsequent Sheriff O. H. Haynes, Jr., and the grandfather of Louisiana State University American football star Fred Haynes, who played for the Tigers in Baton Rouge during the latter 1960s.

Family background

Haynes was born in the village of Shongaloo in central Webster Parish, the oldest of eight children of John Oscar "J. O." Haynes (1848-1918), a native of Georgia, and his second wife, the former Julia Ann Butts (1862-1935). J. O. Haynes had a previous wife, the former Mary Ann Burns (1847-1885), a native of Arkansas whom he married in Claiborne Parish prior to the creation of Webster Parish. Mary Ann died a month after giving birth to the couple's ninth child. In 1887, J. O. married Julia, who the next year gave birth to Oscar Henry Haynes, Sr. J. O. Haynes hence had seventeen children between 1867 and 1906 by the two marriages.^[1][2]

Oscar Henry Haynes married the former Mary Lynn Burns (February 5, 1889 — February 7, 1971), the daughter of Andrew Jackson Burns (1851-1946) and Isabelle Burns (1853-1910), who are buried in the Old Shongaloo Cemetery. The couple had four children, all deceased, J. Y. Haynes and his wife, the former Edith Henry, Cleone Hodges (1909-2012), and Delmus Wells Haynes (1918-1919), who died prior to his second birthday, and the youngest, Oscar Henry Haynes, Jr. (1920-1996), and his wife, the former Freddie Louise Walker (born 1924).^[2][3]

Career as sheriff

Haynes was a deputy under Sheriff Arthur Montgomery Hough (1873-1933), who died of influenza early in his second term of office on May 7, 1933, a week after a devastating tornado struck the city of Minden, the parish seat of government.^[4] A special election, all-Democratic, was called to replace Sheriff Hough. The senior Haynes won with 50.8 percent in an 80-percent turnout of registered voters. The runner-up in the race, with 22.2 percent, was Louie A. Jones (1900-1965),^[5] the assistant superintendent of the Louisiana State Police who had earlier been a personal bodyguard of Governor Huey Pierce Long, Jr., and subsequently the warden of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola in West Feliciana Parish. It was the short-term Governor James A. Noe who appointed Jones as the warden.^[6] Jones lived thereafter in Baton Rouge. Another candidate, J. D. Huckaby, was the president of the Webster Parish Police Jury, the parish governing body akin to the county commission in other states. James Bryant Batton (1880-1939),^[7] a previous deputy sheriff and then the Minden police chief, finished last in the race with 7.8 percent of the ballots cast; he won a plurality only in his native Dubberly in south Webster Parish.^[8] J. Bryant Batton was the father of J. D. Batton, who unseated the senior Haynes for sheriff in 1952, and Jack Batton, a longstanding city council member who served a term from 1978 to 1982 as the mayor of Minden.^[9]

In 1936, Haynes defeated his intraparty challenger John F. Adkins, 3,094 to 2,055, to win his first full term as sheriff.^[10] Haynes held the sheriff's position for nineteen years. In Louisiana, the sheriff is the collector of property taxes, enforces criminal laws outside the municipalities, and is often considered to be the most powerful politician in the parish.^[11]

On February 19, 1952, Haynes was unseated by 43 votes in a Democratic runoff election. J. D. Batton polled 5,444 votes (50.2 percent) to Haynes's 5,401 (49.8 percent).^[12] In that same election Robert F. Kennon, a judge from Minden, handily defeated Carlos Spaht, a judge from Baton Rouge, in the race to succeed Earl Kemp Long as governor.^[13] On January 17, 1956, in conjunction with the gubernatorial comeback by Earl Long, J. D. Batton defeated the 67-year-old Haynes's attempt to return to the office of sheriff.^[14] In 1964, O. H. Haynes, Jr., unseated the three-term Sheriff Batton.^[15] When Batton tried to unseat Haynes, Jr., in 1967, he finished with just under 42 percent of the vote.^[16]

From 1933 to 1980, the office of Webster Parish sheriff was hence held by three men from two families, neither of which have continuing political impact.

Death and interment

Haynes's father, J. O. Haynes, is interred at the Haynes Cemetery in Shongaloo.^[2] Haynes, however, who died at the age of eighty, is interred along with his wife, son O. H. Haynes, Jr., and grandsons Fred and Jerry Wayne Haynes, Sr., at the historic Minden Cemetery.^[17]

Mildred Cleone Haynes Hodges
Born	(1909-07-11)July 11, 1909 Shongaloo, Webster Parish Louisiana, USA
Died	September 9, 2012(2012-09-09) (aged 103) Boone, Watauga County North Carolina
Resting place	Mountlawn Memorial Park and Gardens in Boone
Residence	Boone, North Carolina
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Northwestern State University Louisiana State University
Occupation	Professor at Appalachian State University
Religion	Southern Baptist
Spouse(s)	Divorced from Jack A. Hodges
Children	J. B. Hodges Two granddaughters
Parent(s)	O. H. Haynes, Sr. Mary Lynn Burns Haynes
Relatives	O. H. Haynes, Jr. (brother) Fred Haynes (nephew)

Mildred Cleone Haynes Hodges

Cleone Hodges (July 11, 1909 – September 9, 2012), daughter of Sheriff O. H. Haynes, Sr., and sister of Sheriff O. H. Haunes, Jr., was from 1938 to 1974 a professor of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation at Appalachian State University^[18] in Boone in Watauga County in northwestern North Carolina.^[19] An article in the Watauga Democrat newspaper published a month before her death at the age of 103 referred to Hodges as "among the most loved of local residents — and a liberated woman long before the term was coined."^[20]

Hodges was born in Shongaloo but relocated with her parents south to Minden. Hodges had two other brothers, J. Y. Haynes and his wife, the former Edith Henry, both deceased, and Delmus Wells Haynes (1918-1919), who died prior to his second birthday.^[3][21]

Academic, athletic, and civic activities

Hodges first attended Northwestern State University, then the state teacher training institution in Natchitoches, Louisiana, before she enrolled for graduate studies at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. There she was an LSU Lady Tigers basketball player and once competed against the Olympian Babe Didrikson.^[20]

Hodges was hired at Appalachian State by the first chancellor the university ever had.^[22] She was long active in the First Baptist Church of Boone and was a life member and past president of the Rhododendron Garden Club. After retirement from Appalachian State University, she was for twenty-three years the secretary of the Watauga Parks and Recreation Commission and served as well on the Boone Town Beautification Committee.^[20][23] Athletic like her younger brother, O. H. Haynes, Jr., who played football for Minden High School in the late 1930s, and his son, Fred Haynes, who quarterbacked the MHS Crimson Tide and the LSU Tigers in the 1960s,^[24]

Hodges turned to golf when her son, J. B. Hodges, played the game in high school. She was a member of the Blue Ridge Golf Association, the Blue Ridge Ladies’ Golf Association, and the Boone Golf Club, at which she won the championship in 1975. For years, she participated in the Senior Games at local, state, and national events and won eight Gold Medals.^[20] She scored the third of her career holes in one at the age of ninety three, when she retired from the sport.^[25] Hodges was also an artist, whose oil paintings depict the Appalachian High Country.^[20]

Hodges's death and legacy

Hodges was divorced from the late Jack A. Hodges.^[20] In addition to her son, she was survived by two granddaughters, Erin Hodges-Demas and Alyssa Hogan, both of Hickory in Catawba County, North Carolina, three great-grandchildren, and her sister-in-law, Freddie Louise Walker Haynes of Minden, Louisiana, the widow of Sheriff O. H. Haynes, Jr. Hodges died at her Boone residence.^[23] She is interred at Mountlawn Memorial Park and Gardens in Boone.^[26]

In 1987, the Cleone Haynes Hodges Scholarship was established in her honor to support Appalachian State University students in the College of Health Sciences.^[22] In 2005, Hodges was inducted into the Watauga County Sports Hall of Fame.^[20] In 2012, on the occasion of Hodges's 103rd birthday, U.S. Representative Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina's 5th congressional district and herself a former Appalachian State University faculty member, rose to the House floor to offer a tribute to Hodges.^[25]

References