James T. McCalman

James Thomas McCalman, Sr. (February 15, 1914 – June 18, 1977),^[1] was a Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate, who represented Claiborne and Bienville parishes in North Louisiana from 1960 to 1964.^[2]

McCalman was the older of two sons of Arkansas natives Herbert Carl McCalman, Sr., and the former Nobie Guice. A brother was Herbert McCalman, Jr. (1915-1961).^[1] McCalman previously lived in Athens, also in Claiborne Parish. He attended Homer High School, at which he played football on the 1929-1930 team.^[3]

A businessman^[4] who resided in Homer, McCalman won the seat vacated by segregationist William M. Rainach, who ran unsuccessfully for governor of Louisiana in the 1959 Democratic primary election, having placed third in the contest won in a runoff by Jimmie Davis. After a single term, McCalman was unseated by Danny Roy Moore, another Democrat then from Claiborne Parish,^[2] who resides in Arcadia in Bienville Parish.^[5]

Mrs. McCalman was the former Gladys Reavie Bennett (February 1, 1916 – April 12, 2015), the daughter of Ada and Barton Duvalle Bennett of rural Liddieville in Franklin Parish. She became a beautician after high school. She died at the age of ninety-nine in Madison, Mississippi.^[6][7]

Five McCalman children were born between 1940 and 1952:^[8] Herbert Duvalle McCalman, George Lawson McCalman, and Joan McCalman Miller, all deceased, and James Thomas McCalman, Jr., of Kenner in Jefferson Parish; Lynda Ann McCalman-Tabor of Madison Mississippi; Donald Gene McCalman of Homer, and David Allen McCalman of Omaha, Nebraska.^[6]

Like his Senate predecessor Rainach, McCalman is interred beside his wife at Arlington Cemetery in Homer. He was a Southern Baptist.^[1][6]

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