Danny Roy Moore

Lake Claiborne, shown here east of Homer, Louisiana, was a principal project of former State Senator Danny Roy Moore.

Danny Roy Moore (born August 9, 1925) is a civil engineer and land surveyor in Arcadia, Louisiana, who served as a conservative Democrat in the Louisiana State Senate from 1964 until 1968. He represented a north Louisiana district, then unnumbered, encompassing Claiborne and Bienville parishes.^[1]

Background

Moore was born in Haynesville in northern Claiborne Parish just south of the Arkansas state line to Arthur Roy Moore (1904–1984), a Mississippi native known as Roy Moore, and the former Capitola Touchstone (1903–2002).^[2][3] Roy Moore managed the Jitney Jungle grocery outlet in Homer, a since defunct chain store that originated in 1919 in Jackson, Mississippi. Moore began school in Haynesville, but his family relocated to Homer, where in 1942 he graduated from Homer High School. Capitola Moore was a sister of Sam F. Touchstone (1904–2002), who owned a taxidermy and wildlife museum in Haughton in southern Bossier Parish. Moore was hence a first cousin of Ned Touchstone (1926–1988), an advocacy newspaper publisher and a visible figure among what was called the Radical Right in Louisiana during the 1960s. In 1967, Touchstone unsuccessfully challenged the reelection of Louisiana Education Superintendent Bill Dodd. Roy and Capitola Moore are interred at Arlington Cemetery in Homer, the parish seat of Claiborne Parish.^[4]

During World War II, Moore served in the United States Army Air Corps, forerunner of the Air Force.^[5] He flew missions over Germany.^[4] Moore is a Baptist and a still active 50-year member of the Masonic lodge.^[6]

Moore first attended Louisiana Tech University in Ruston before he transferred to Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where in 1949, he received the Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering, with emphasis also in land surveying. At the age of eighty-five, he is still heavily engaged in surveying.^[4]

Moore has been twice married. He and the former Patricia Camp (born 1930) have two children, Danette Moore (born 1954) of Shreveport and Daniel Judson Moore (born 1956), a dentist in Minden, the seat of Webster Parish. The couple married in 1952 and divorced in 1976. Thereafter, Moore wed the former Susan Elizabeth Butler (1945–2006),^[3] whose father ran the Jitney Jungle store in Arcadia.^[4]

Senate service

At the time of his Senate election and service, Moore still resided in Homer. In the 1963-1964 primary election cycle, Moore unseated his fellow Democrat, James T. McCalman, also of Homer. He served a single term until 1968. He neither sought reelection nor ran for any other public office before or since his Senate term. Moore's principal emphasis as a senator was to promote the construction of Lake Claiborne, a 6,400-acre (26 km²) man-made body of water near Homer established by the damming of Bayou D'Arbonne. The lake is deeper than others of its kind and has a short spillway, which was first filled with water on May 17, 1968. It is subject to less pollution than many other waterways. To obtain the needed state funding for the project, Moore had to overcome the initial opposition of newly-elected Governor John J. McKeithen, who disbelieved that man-made lakes contribute to business growth. The lake was created as Moore left the Senate.^[4] In 1974, Lake Claiborne State Park, known in the region for its swimming, fishing, birding, boating, waterskiing, camping, and hiking, opened at the site of the lake.^[7][8]

From 1948 to 1960, Moore's seat was held by William M. Rainach of Summerfield in Claiborne Parish, who was an unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate in the 1959 Democratic primary. Rainach was defeated by Jimmie Davis, originally from Jackson Parish, who secured his second nonconsecutive term as governor in that election cycle. After legislative boundaries were altered in 1967 by the federal judiciary, Moore was succeeded in the Senate by Charles Clem Barham, an attorney from Ruston in Lincoln Parish and the son of former Lieutenant Governor C. E. "Cap" Barham. Charles Barham was first elected in the adjoining district to the east in 1964, and he and Moore were colleagues and friends though they often cast opposite votes in Senate roll calls.^[1][4]

In the Senate, Moore's desk was coincidentally located at the extreme right side of the chamber in line, he said, with his strongly held conservative political views. His colleague and seat mate was neighboring Senator Harold Montgomery of Doyline in Webster Parish. The two became friendly with freshman Senator Edwin Washington Edwards of Crowley in Acadia Parish in south Louisiana, but within two years, Edwards had left the state Senate to take a seat in the United States House of Representatives. Despite their friendship, Moore and Montgomery often cast their votes opposite that of Edwards, who was thereafter elected in 1972 to the first of his four nonconsecutive terms as governor.^[4]

References