Lantz Womack

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Lantz Womack (January 11, 1914 -- May 23, 1998) was a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives who served mostly Franklin Parish, from 1958, when he won a special election caused by the death of a freshman member, until his retirement in 1976. A banker and farmer from Winnsboro, south of Monroe, he was also a delegate to the 1973 Louisiana Constitutional Convention from Franklin and Tensas parishes.

[edit] Early years

Womack was born to Henry and Elma Womack in a family of five sons and three daughters. They lived in the small community of Goodwill in West Carroll Parish in northeastern Louisiana. In the middle 1930s, Womack played right field for the semi-professional Winnsboro Red Sox baseball team. Another future Louisiana state legislator, L.D. "Buddy" Napper, who had played for Louisiana Tech University (then Louisiana Polytechnic Institute) in Ruston, also played for Winnsboro for a time. Napper, a Democrat, represented Lincoln Parish in the legislature from 1952-1964; for six years the terms of Womack and Napper overlapped.

In 1938, Womack married the former Alice Black, who was born on April 14, 1917, in Union County, Illinois. Mrs. Womack was reared in Delhi (pronounced DELL HIGH) in Richland Parish north of Winnsboro. She died in Longview, Texas, on January 9, 2002, from complications of open-heart surgery, nearly four years after her husband's passing.

Womack was a member of the board of directors of Franklin Memorial Hospital and a co-founder and chairman of the board of Progressive State Bank, both in Winnsboro. He was a member of the First Baptist Church of Winnsboro.

[edit] The twin elections of 1972

In the 1972 general election, Womack faced his first ever Republican opponent, Terry Clingan (born 1918), a barber from tiny Mangham in Richland Parish. Womack won the race by a 67-33 percent margin, even though Republican gubernatorial candidate David C. Treen ran particularly well in northeast Louisiana. Clingan was the stepfather of Robert Max Ross (born 1933), Treen's opponent in Louisiana's first and only Republican primary for governor, which was held in December 1971. Prior to the general election, Womack had easily won the Democratic nomination for the legislature by defeating a fellow Winnsboro businessman, James H. "Jimbo" Colvin.

In the summer of 1972, Womack was elected on a nonpartisan ballot to the state constitutional convention that met in 1973. The convention wrote the new Louisiana Constitution, which voters adopted in the spring of 1974. Womack defeated John Henry Baker, a Republican leader in Franklin Parish, for the delegate position. Ironically, in his early years, Womack had worked for Baker's father, John Henry Baker, II. These turned out to have been the last elections in which Womack emerged as a winner.

A popular legislator, Womack stressed constituent service during his legislative years. Mrs. Womack was active in a volunteer service group of legislative wives. A well-known hostess and cook, she entertained friends, family, and her husband's constituents. In his first term as governor, John Julian McKeithen appointed his fellow Democrat Womack to the Louisiana Financial Assistance Commission.

Womack was succeeded in the legislature by fellow Democrat Neal L. "Lanny" Johnson of Tensas Parish, who, decades, later would served as the Franklin Parish school superintendent, amid a time of school finance crises.

The Womacks had a daughter, Freida Louise Womack, who resided in Longview as of 2006.

Preceded by Walter A. Chachere (D)	Louisiana State Representative from District 20 (including Franklin Parish) Lantz Womack (D) 1958–1976	Succeeded by Neal L. "Lanny" Johnson (D)