mercoledì 15 gennaio 2014

George Dement, longtime Bossier City mayor, dies


Mayor Walker Roast
Former Bossier City Mayor George Dement speaks during a roast of current Mayor Lo Walker at DiamondJacks in Bossier City in 2008. / File/The Times

George Dement, a four-term mayor of Bossier City, died early Sunday after a lengthy illness.
Dement, who died 11 days short of his 92nd birthday, was already having days held in his honor in both Shreveport and Bossier City before he was elected in 1989. In addition to running one of the nation’s best-rated Holiday Inns, he was spotlighted by local and state media as well as top elected officials for his support of youth and sports.
Dement supported amateur boxing — his son Tim Dement was an Olympic boxer — and the Shreveport Sports for Boys Club.

In 1986, he was named recipient of the Shreveport Sports Foundation’s Sportsman of the Year Award.
“You enjoyed being around him,” said state Rep. Henry Burns. “He could really reach out.”

Burns recalled one example.

“One time he showed up at my place (the restaurant The Wooden Spoon) when I was first elected, at around 7 in the morning,” Burns said, noting he had been depressed and was thinking of leaving the business. “He walked up to me and handed me a little thing of salt and a light and he cited the Bible verse about the salt of the earth. He said ‘You remind me of when I started — my roots were in the food industry.’” Burns said that turned his attitude around completely. “He was sweet.”

Bossier Parish Sheriff Julian Whittington said Dement convinced him to join the Clean City committee and taught him about curb appeal.

“He would say ‘I go to these cities and see trash and I’d drive on the Interstate and think ‘no matter how good the city was, that was what stuck in my mind,’” he recalled. “He inspired me to keep Bossier clean.

“George knew how to make things happen,” Whittington continued. “George wasn’t that much of a technical person, but as far as ideas and getting people to go along, he knew the right things to do. He could get people behind him.”

Only twice in his tenure did Mayor Dement fire anyone, he told columnist Teddy Allen for a 2007 farewell piece published the year after he left office.

“Broke my heart,” he said. “They were friends of mine. But what was happening wasn’t right, and it was my job to make it right.”

“Mostly his mayoral days were bright,” Allen wrote. “Much like the submarine Dement served on during World War II, Bossier rose from the depths of the mid ‘80s and early ‘90s, surfaced, and cruised.”

Dement served on the submarine SS Razorback and one of his favorite “war stories” was telling of the time when he caused the boat to surface in the daytime in enemy waters.

In 2004, Dement was reunited with his longtime submarine when it moved to North Little Rock, Ark., as a display.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20140112/NEWS01/301120026/George-Dement-longtime-Bossier-City-mayor-dies?nclick_check=1

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