Carroll Smith of [[Germantown, Tennessee]]
\nKimberly Morrow of [[Opelousas, Louisiana|Opelousas]]
\nAnne McDaniel of Natchez
\nSon Wes W. Guice of Natchez"},"alma_mater":{"wt":"[[Tensas High School|Joseph Moore Davidson High School]]
\n[[University of Southern Mississippi]]"},"footnotes":{"wt":"(1) Guice's business interests included farms in five American states.\n\n(2) Though he ran for office three times as a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] in [[Louisiana]], Guice became a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] contributor in his later years in [[Natchez, Mississippi|Natchez]], Mississippi.\n\n(3) Guice was a former member of the Louisiana Levee Board."}},"i":0}}]}" id="mwBw">
Kimberly Morrow of Opelousas
Anne McDaniel of Natchez
(2) Though he ran for office three times as a Democrat in Louisiana, Guice became a Republican contributor in his later years in Natchez, Mississippi.
(3) Guice was a former member of the Louisiana Levee Board.Troyce Eual Guice (November 1, 1932 – March 29, 2008) was a businessman in northeastern Louisiana who twice ran for the United States Senate in campaigns thirty years apart, 1966 and 1996. A conservative Democrat, Guice later moved to nearby Natchez, Mississippi. There he joined the Republican Party and became a donor. [1]
He was involved in three major business ventures – automobile dealerships, restaurants, and Guice Farms, which he purchased in 1961. He expanded operations into five states. [2]
Guice was born in St. Joseph in Tensas Parish, to Ivy Eual Guice (1910–1994) and the former Tressie Westbrook (1911–1999), later of Vidalia. [3] Tensas Parish, the smallest of Louisiana's sixty-four parishes, is located along the west side of the Mississippi River north of Natchez, Mississippi, where Guice spent his later years.
Guice graduated from the former Joseph Moore Davidson High School, which was then segregated. He attended the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. He served in the United States National Guard. [4]
In 1954, Guice opened his Buick dealership in Ferriday in Concordia Parish. He relocated to Wisner in 1958 with his Guice Chevrolet, but moved the dealership to Ferriday in 1959. He launched his farming operation at that time. Three decades later, he opened another Chevrolet dealership in Winnsboro in Franklin Parish, also in northeast Louisiana.
Thereafter, Guice went into the restaurant business, opening T. G. Ribs and The Natchez Landing in both Natchez and Baton Rouge. [4] He also operated a bed and breakfast in Natchez.
The Natchez restaurant closed after a casino opened nearby, as the business became noncompetitive. "The bottom line is that money they're spending at the casino is money they're not spending at other businesses," Guice said in an interview with Casino City Times on March 17, 2003. [5] Guice also traded stock on the Internet. In an interview with the Natchez Democrat newspaper, he described his investment strategy after September 11, 2001, as one of "watching and waiting" though he remained optimistic about long-term investor prospects. [6]
He was a former member of the Louisiana Cattleman's Association, the Louisiana Levee Board, and the Mississippi River Bridge Commission. He was affiliated with the First Baptist Church of Natchez. [4]
In 1966, Guice challenged entrenched U.S. Senator Allen J. Ellender of Houma in Terrebonne Parish in south Louisiana. A liberal candidate who supported the civil rights agenda also entered the race, then State Senator J.D. DeBlieux, a Caldwell Parish native who represented a Baton Rouge-area district. Ellender swept to his sixth and, as it turned out, last term. Guice, unable to gain sufficient name recognition, finished last in the race with some 74,000 votes (11 percent). [7]
In 1975, Guice entered the first-ever jungle primary in Louisiana for the District 21 seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives. He sought to succeed Representative (and former state senator) J.C. "Sonny" Gilbert of Catahoula Parish. However, Guice, despite backing from the Concordia Parish sheriff, did not make the second round of balloting, called the general election in Louisiana. Dan Richey, then of Ferriday, a former neighbor of Guice, defeated former state Representative David I. Patten for the seat. [8]
Guice re-entered politics in the 1996 race, after Democratic U.S. Senator J. Bennett Johnston, Jr., Ellender's long-term successor, first elected in 1972, retired after four terms. Guice was a minor candidate in the race, finishing with 15,277 votes (1.24 percent). [9] At some point thereafter, Guice began donating to Republican candidates.
Guice died in a Natchez hospital after a lengthy illness. Survivors included his wife, the former Lynda McLaurin of Natchez; three daughters, Carroll Smith of Germantown, Tennessee; Kimberly Morrow of Opelousas, Louisiana; and Anne McDaniel of Natchez; a son, Westbrook Guice of Natchez; seven grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; three sisters, Faye Gordin of Crystal Springs, Mississippi; Elaine Andrews of Longview, Texas, and Linda Rachalof Patterson in south Louisiana. [4]
Services were held in Natchez on April 1, 2008. He is interred at Natchez City Cemetery. [4]
Tensas Parish is a parish located in the northeastern section of the State of Louisiana; its eastern border is the Mississippi River. As of the 2010 census, the population was 5,252. It is the least populated parish in Louisiana. The parish seat is St. Joseph. The name Tensas is derived from the historic indigenous Taensa people. The parish was founded in 1843 following Indian Removal.
Concordia Parish borders the Mississippi River in eastern central Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 20,822. The parish seat is Vidalia. The parish was formed in 1807.
Allen Joseph Ellender was a U.S. senator from Houma in Terrebonne Parish in south Louisiana, who served from 1937 until 1972 when he died in office in Maryland at the age of eighty-one. He was a Democrat who was originally allied with Huey Long. As senator, he compiled a generally conservative record, voting 77 percent of the time with the Conservative Coalition on domestic issues. A staunch segregationist, he signed the Southern Manifesto in 1956, voted against the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and opposed anti-lynching legislation in 1938. Unlike many conservatives, he was not a "hawk" in foreign policy and opposed the Vietnam War.
Walter Fox McKeithen served five terms as Secretary of State of Louisiana between 1988 and 2005. He is best known for merging the state's election divisions into one department and for the promotion of historical preservation.
Erle Edwards Barham was an American businessman, farmer, and conservationist in Oak Ridge, a village in Morehouse Parish in North Louisiana. He was the first Republican elected — by a 29-vote margin — to the Louisiana State Senate since the era of Reconstruction. Barham represented the agricultural District 33 from 1976 to 1980. Barham was narrowly unseated in the 1979 nonpartisan blanket primary by a Democrat, David 'Bo' Ginn of Bastrop, who held the seat until 1988.
David Ivy Patten was a building contractor who served two terms from 1964 to 1972 as a Democrat in the Louisiana House of Representatives for Catahoula Parish in the northeastern portion of his state.
Sturgis Sprague DeWitt, known primarily as S. S. DeWitt, was a farmer and businessman from Newellton and St. Joseph in Tensas Parish in northeastern Louisiana, who served as a conservative Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1964 to 1972.
Noah Webster Cross was a controversial Democratic sheriff from Ferriday in Concordia Parish in eastern Louisiana, who served from July 1, 1944 until July 1948 and again from July 1952 until April 4, 1973, when a conviction for perjury and a failed appeal forced him into federal prison. Cross was succeeded by Fred L. Schiele, a former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, who was appointed by Governor Edwin Washington Edwards, pending a special election, to fill the remainder of Cross' term. Schiele had run unsuccessfully in the 1967 primary against Cross. At the time of his resignation, Cross was the senior sheriff in Louisiana in terms of service.
The 1996 Louisiana United States Senate election was held on November 5, 1996 to select a new U.S. Senator from the state of Louisiana to replace retiring John Bennett Johnston, Jr. of Shreveport. After the jungle primary election, state treasurer Mary Landrieu went into a runoff election with State Representative Woody Jenkins of Baton Rouge, a former Democrat who had turned Republican two years earlier. She prevailed by 5,788 votes out of 1.7 million cast, the narrowest national result of the thirty-three races for the U.S. Senate that year and one of the closest election margins in Louisiana history. At the same time, Democrat Bill Clinton carried Louisiana by a considerable margin of 927,837 votes to 712,586 cast for Republican Bob Dole.
Joseph Carryl Seaman Sr., known as J.C. Seaman, was a five-term member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Waterproof in Tensas Parish in northeast Louisiana, having served from 1944 to 1964.
Elliot D’Evereux Coleman I, was a cotton planter and law-enforcement officer who served from 1936 to 1960 as the sheriff of Tensas Parish in northeastern Louisiana. Earlier, he had been a state police bodyguard of U.S. Senator Huey P. Long, Jr., on September 8, 1935, the night of Long's assassination.
John Felix Anders, known as Andy Anders, is a farmer and agricultural equipment salesman from Clayton in eastern Louisiana, who is a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for District 21, which encompasses Concordia and parts of Tensas, Madison, and East Carroll parishes. Since his service dates back to 2006, he is in 2019 the dean, or senior member, of the state House.
Joseph Tullis Curry was a cotton planter from St. Joseph in Tensas Parish in northeastern Louisiana, who served from 1930 to 1944 as a Democrat in the Louisiana House of Representatives.
Daniel Fowler Ashford was a cotton planter from St. Joseph in Tensas Parish in northeastern Louisiana, who served from 1916 until his death in office as a Democrat in the Louisiana House of Representatives.
Jefferson B. Snyder, known as Jeff Snyder, was a lawyer and politician from the Mississippi River delta country of northeastern Louisiana. Snyder became a virtual political boss of Madison, Tensas, and East Carroll parishes; his leadership was rarely challenged, and politicians courted his endorsements.
Clyde Vernon Ratcliff, Sr., was a cotton planter from Newellton, Louisiana, who served as a Democrat from 1944 to 1948 in the Louisiana State Senate. He represented the delta parishes: Tensas, Madison, East Carroll, and Concordia, a rich farming region along the Mississippi River in eastern Louisiana ranging from Vidalia to Lake Providence. The four parishes elected two senators at the time, and Ratcliff's seat-mate was Andrew L. Sevier of Tallulah in Madison Parish.
Hyram Barney Copeland, Jr., is the former mayor of Vidalia, the seat of government of Concordia Parish in eastern Louisiana, opposite the Mississippi River from Natchez, Mississippi. First elected in 1992, Copeland was unseated in the primary election held on March 5, 2016, by his fellow Democrat, businessman Edwy Gene "Buz" Craft, 1,025 votes to 885.
Steve D. Thompson is a real estate agent in Winnsboro, Louisiana, who served from 1988 to 1996 in the Louisiana State Senate for District 32, which encompasses all or parts of the seven parishes of Caldwell, Catahoula, Concordia, Franklin, LaSalle, Rapides, and Tensas.
William B. Atkins, Sr. is a businessman from Jonesville in Catahoula Parish in northeastern Louisiana, who served for single terms, consecutively, in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1980 to 1984 and the Louisiana State Senate from 1984 to 1988.