Rupert Peyton
Encyclopedia
Rupert Rudolph Peyton was an anti-Long
member of the Louisiana House of Representatives
from Shreveport
, the seat of Caddo Parish, having served at-large for a single four-year term from 1932-1936. Peyton is also remembered as a North Louisiana
journalist
and historian
.
. Peyton thereafter attended nearby Plain Dealing
High School
. Peyton then enrolled at Louisiana Industrial Institute at Ruston
in 1918 and served for three months there with the Students Army Training Corps. He did not attend college but learned his craft of journalism from practical experience.
Peyton's newspaper
career began as a reporter for the Haynesville News in Haynesville
in northern Claiborne Parish. He later worked for Shreveport Times and was then a reporter and city editor from 1925 into the 1940s
for the rival and since defunct Shreveport Journal, owned for years by the family of Douglas F. Attaway
. In 1931, Peyton was listed in Shreveport Men and Women Builders. After his Shreveport Journal tenure, Peyton edited three Bossier City
newspapers: the Bossier City Tribune, the Bossier City Press, and the Bossier City Banner-Progress. He also wrote other works for the North Louisiana History.
, Huey Long's preferred candidate, Oscar K. Allen
of Winnfield
, emerged triumphant, and the anti-Long Peyton was one of four state representatives elected at-large in Caddo Parish. One of the men that he succeeded was Cecil Morgan
, the leader of anti-Long forces in the Louisiana House in the prior legislative session.
Thereafter, Long, as U.S. senator, attempted in 1933 to tighten his control over Louisiana's election machinery, The tall, gangly Peyton, known for his use of invective, offered a facetious amendment which would have authorized election officers to "shoot and kill any person known or suspected of having cast his or her ballot against the present administration [Allen] or against the desires of Senator Long." On the last day of the legislative session, Peyton dressed humorously in ridicule of Long and proposed a bill to grant the title of "Your Majesty" to every man and woman in the state. When Long proposed a 2 percent tax on gross advertising sales by newspapers with circulations of more than twenty thousand, Peyton led the opposition. He also protested the presence of Long on the House floor, when the senator gave orders to his supporters on how to vote on legislation. Of Long's actions, Peyton said: "I am sick and tired of this, and I think every other member is disgusted too."
In 1976, Peyton penned a four-page article "Reminiscenses of Huey P. Long", which appeared in the NLHA Journal and is cited in the 2006 book Kingfish: the Reign of Huey P. Long by historian Richard D. White, Jr.
Peyton was later an aide to anti-Long Governor James Houston "Jimmie" Davis
, a native of Jackson Parish and a former member of the Shreveport City Council and the Louisiana Public Service Commission
. He also worked for a time for U.S. Representative Riley J. Wilson
of Ruston. From 1930-1950, he chaired the Shreveport Democratic
Executive Committee.
and local history. His last article in 1982 is about George Paysinger, a slave owned by plantation
owner John Hamiter. He also wrote about a country physician
, Johnathan S. Cheshire of Sarepta
in Webster Parish
, one of his own ancestors. Other NLHA articles are entitled "First Woman to Drive the Golden Spike at the Completion of a Railroad", "The Civil War Began and Ended in North Louisiana", "Yankee General Captures the Heart of Shreveport", and "Memoirs of a Shreveport Churchman: Miss Kate Sings at Old Salem Church". Peyton also wrote a column in 1974 in the Bossier City Press entitled "North Louisiana's Neglected History".
At the time of his death at the age of eighty-three, Peyton was survived by a daughter, Patricia Peyton, and four siblings. The Reverend Carl E. Rhoads, associate pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Shreveport, officiated at his services. Peyton is interred at Greenwood Cemetery in Shreveport.
Huey Long
Huey Pierce Long, Jr. , nicknamed The Kingfish, served as the 40th Governor of Louisiana from 1928–1932 and as a U.S. Senator from 1932 to 1935. A Democrat, he was noted for his radical populist policies. Though a backer of Franklin D...
member of the Louisiana House of Representatives
Louisiana State Legislature
The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...
from Shreveport
Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States....
, the seat of Caddo Parish, having served at-large for a single four-year term from 1932-1936. Peyton is also remembered as a North Louisiana
North Louisiana
North Louisiana is a region in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The region has two metropolitan areas: Shreveport-Bossier City and Monroe-West Monroe....
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
.
Early years
A Bossier Parish native, Peyton finished six years at the old Line School four miles west of the Red Land community. The school, a crude building built of logs, was named because of its location between Wards Three and Four in northern Bossier Parish. The facility closed in 1912 and merged with other one-room schools to become Red Land Consolidated School. Shortly before his death, Peyton recalled his youthful experiences at old Line in the article "Beloved School of My Childhood" published in The Journal of the North Louisiana Historical Association, since renamed North Louisiana HistoryNorth Louisiana History
North Louisiana History is an academic journal published twice annually in Shreveport, Louisiana by the North Louisiana Historical Association .-History:...
. Peyton thereafter attended nearby Plain Dealing
Plain Dealing, Louisiana
Plain Dealing is a town in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, United States best known as the birthplace of former U.S. Representative Joe D. Waggonner, Jr. The population was 1,071 at the 2000 census...
High School
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
. Peyton then enrolled at Louisiana Industrial Institute at Ruston
Ruston, Louisiana
Ruston is a city in and the parish seat of Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 20,546 at the 2000 census. Ruston is near the eastern border of the Ark-La-Tex and is the home of Louisiana Tech University. Its economy caters to its college population...
in 1918 and served for three months there with the Students Army Training Corps. He did not attend college but learned his craft of journalism from practical experience.
Peyton's newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
career began as a reporter for the Haynesville News in Haynesville
Haynesville, Louisiana
Haynesville is a town in northern Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, United States, located just south of the Arkansas border. The population was 2,679 at the 2000 census....
in northern Claiborne Parish. He later worked for Shreveport Times and was then a reporter and city editor from 1925 into the 1940s
1940s
File:1940s decade montage.png|Above title bar: events which happened during World War II : From left to right: Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching "Omaha" Beach on "D-Day"; Adolf Hitler visits Paris, soon after the Battle of France; The Holocaust occurred during the war as Nazi Germany...
for the rival and since defunct Shreveport Journal, owned for years by the family of Douglas F. Attaway
Douglas F. Attaway
Douglas F. "Doug" Attaway, Jr., was president and publisher of the defunct Shreveport Journal , a daily newspaper in northwest Louisiana. He was chairman of the board of KSLA-TV, the Shreveport, Louisisana CBS affiliate from 1966 until the channel was sold to Viacom in 1979...
. In 1931, Peyton was listed in Shreveport Men and Women Builders. After his Shreveport Journal tenure, Peyton edited three Bossier City
Bossier City, Louisiana
Bossier City is a city in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, United States.As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total population of 61,315. Bossier City is closely tied to its larger sister city Shreveport, located on the western bank of the Red River. The Shreveport-Bossier City metropolitan area is the...
newspapers: the Bossier City Tribune, the Bossier City Press, and the Bossier City Banner-Progress. He also wrote other works for the North Louisiana History.
Political activities
Peyton's legislative service paralleled his newspaper career. In the 1932 gubernatorial primary electionPrimary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
, Huey Long's preferred candidate, Oscar K. Allen
Oscar K. Allen
Oscar Kelly Allen, Sr. , also known as O. K. Allen, was the 42nd Governor of Louisiana from 1932 to 1936. He was a key lieutenant in the political machine of Huey Pierce Long, Jr., that dominated the state during the first half of the 1930s...
of Winnfield
Winnfield, Louisiana
Winnfield is a city in and the parish seat of Winn Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 5,749 at the 2000 census. It has long been associated with the Long faction of the Louisiana Democratic Party and was home to three governors of Louisiana.-Geography:Winnfield is located at ...
, emerged triumphant, and the anti-Long Peyton was one of four state representatives elected at-large in Caddo Parish. One of the men that he succeeded was Cecil Morgan
Cecil Morgan
Cecil Morgan, Sr. was a leader of the legislative forces that in 1929 attempted to impeach Louisiana Governor Huey Pierce Long, Jr...
, the leader of anti-Long forces in the Louisiana House in the prior legislative session.
Thereafter, Long, as U.S. senator, attempted in 1933 to tighten his control over Louisiana's election machinery, The tall, gangly Peyton, known for his use of invective, offered a facetious amendment which would have authorized election officers to "shoot and kill any person known or suspected of having cast his or her ballot against the present administration [Allen] or against the desires of Senator Long." On the last day of the legislative session, Peyton dressed humorously in ridicule of Long and proposed a bill to grant the title of "Your Majesty" to every man and woman in the state. When Long proposed a 2 percent tax on gross advertising sales by newspapers with circulations of more than twenty thousand, Peyton led the opposition. He also protested the presence of Long on the House floor, when the senator gave orders to his supporters on how to vote on legislation. Of Long's actions, Peyton said: "I am sick and tired of this, and I think every other member is disgusted too."
In 1976, Peyton penned a four-page article "Reminiscenses of Huey P. Long", which appeared in the NLHA Journal and is cited in the 2006 book Kingfish: the Reign of Huey P. Long by historian Richard D. White, Jr.
Peyton was later an aide to anti-Long Governor James Houston "Jimmie" Davis
Jimmie Davis
James Houston Davis , better known as Jimmie Davis, was a noted singer of both sacred and popular songs who served two nonconsecutive terms as the 47th Governor of Louisiana...
, a native of Jackson Parish and a former member of the Shreveport City Council and the Louisiana Public Service Commission
Louisiana Public Service Commission
Louisiana Public Service Commission is an independent regulatory agency which manages public utilities and motor carriers in Louisiana. The commission has five elected members chosen in single-member districts for staggered six-year terms...
. He also worked for a time for U.S. Representative Riley J. Wilson
Riley J. Wilson
Riley Joseph Wilson was a Louisiana educator, attorney, and legislator in the first half of the late 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century. A Democrat, Wilson served in the United States House of Representatives from 1915 until 1937...
of Ruston. From 1930-1950, he chaired the Shreveport Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Executive Committee.
Historical writings
Peyton's historical articles deal mainly with genealogyGenealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
and local history. His last article in 1982 is about George Paysinger, a slave owned by plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
owner John Hamiter. He also wrote about a country physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, Johnathan S. Cheshire of Sarepta
Sarepta, Louisiana
Sarepta is a town in Webster Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 925 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Minden Micropolitan Statistical Area....
in Webster Parish
Webster Parish, Louisiana
Webster Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The seat of the parish is Minden. In 2010, its population was 41,207....
, one of his own ancestors. Other NLHA articles are entitled "First Woman to Drive the Golden Spike at the Completion of a Railroad", "The Civil War Began and Ended in North Louisiana", "Yankee General Captures the Heart of Shreveport", and "Memoirs of a Shreveport Churchman: Miss Kate Sings at Old Salem Church". Peyton also wrote a column in 1974 in the Bossier City Press entitled "North Louisiana's Neglected History".
At the time of his death at the age of eighty-three, Peyton was survived by a daughter, Patricia Peyton, and four siblings. The Reverend Carl E. Rhoads, associate pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Shreveport, officiated at his services. Peyton is interred at Greenwood Cemetery in Shreveport.