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Louise Brazzel Johnson (October 6, 1924 – January 6, 2002) was a little-known insurance agent in Bernice in Union Parish who rocketed to state prominence when she upset the Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives in the 1971 Democratic primary. Johnson unseated 24-year incumbent John Sidney Garrett of Haynesville in Claiborne Parish to win the nomination for the District 11 seat in the legislature. Garrett had previously represented Claiborne and Webster parishes. The Union Parish portion of District 11 was represented previously by another Democrat, James Peyton Smith of Farmerville. After she defeated Garrett, Mrs. Johnson faced Gene Allen, the first Republican to seek the seat in modern times. She won overwhelmingly, 7,143 votes (74.8 percent) to Allen's 2,410 (25.2 percent). She served one term until 1976, and was succeeded by her fellow Democrat, Loy F. Weaver, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent from Homer, the seat of Claiborne Parish. In the nonpartisan blanket primary held on November 1, 1975, Johnson sought the District 35 state Senate seat then held by K.D. Kilpatrick, a funeral home director from Ruston in Lincoln Parish. She ran strongly enough to enter the general election held on December 13, 1975, against her intraparty rival, former state Senator Charles C. Barham of Ruston. Barham, Kilpatrick's predecessor in the Senate and a son of former state Senator and Lieutenant Governor (1952–1956) Charles E. "Cap" Barham, polled 16,878 votes (52.4 percent) to Mrs. Johnson's 15,385 ballots (47.6 percent). Barham's Senate service extended from 1964–1972 and again from 1976–1988, when he was succeeded by Randy Ewing, a Democrat from Quitman in Jackson Parish. Whereas Johnson was known for her opposition to the proposed Equal Rights Amendment, Charles Barham was an ERA supporter, a defining difference between the candidates. Barham also carried the backing of organized labor and the majority of the African- American community. On October 27, 1979, Mrs. Johnson ran unsuccessfully in a bid to regain her previous state House seat. She received 5,422 votes (38.5 percent) to the 7,093 ballots (50.4 percent) garnered by incumbent Loy Weaver. Two other candidates split the remaining 11.2 percent of the vote. Weaver was among a field of candidates who had run unsuccessfully in 1978 for the Fourth Congressional District seat vacated by Democrat Joseph David "Joe D." Waggonner, Jr., of Bossier Parish. ==Early years and education== Louise Johnson was born in Dubach in Lincoln Parish. She graduated at the age of sixteen as the valedictorian of Hico High School in Lincoln Parish and later from Chillicothe Business College in Livingston County in northern Missouri. She thereafter graduated ''magna cum laude'' from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, where she obtained both Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees. She studied abroad at the University of London. Prior to the organization of her successful Bernice Insurance Agency near Ruston, she had worked at radio stations KDTL and KWFM in Farmerville, the seat of Union Parish. She was also an award-winning flower arranger. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Louise B. Johnson」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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