Burgess E. McCranie 1953- 1957

Burgess McCranie was born in Plain Dealing, Louisiana (1905) and graduated from Bossier City High School. He was Bossier City’s first chief of police and was the first mayor to serve under a commission form of government. During his tenure as mayor, significant businesses were incorporated or expanded in the city, and the tax assessment roll doubled.

McCranie also served as executive director of the Bossier City Housing Authority. While serving as president of the Lions Club, he helped to raise $6,000 for band uniforms for the Bossier City High School Band and to send the band to the Lions International in Chicago in 1945 and to New York City in 1948. In 1951, he was the Administrator of the March of Dimes campaign for Bossier City.

Burgess McCranie died in December 1977.

Sources:

• Eric Brock, “Seven Mayors Led Bossier’s Second Half-Century,” Shreveport Times, 5 December 1998, sec. A, 13.
• “Former Mayor Burgess McCranie Dies in Bossier,” Bossier Banner, 5 January 1978, 1d.
• Mary Lila McLure, History of Shreveport and Shreveport Builders. (J. Ed Howe, 1951, 1937), 104U.S. Census Bureau, Ancestry Plus.com, U.S. Census 1920 Louisiana Caddo Shreveport ED #65.