Brenham C. Crothers

Brenham Calhoun Crothers (January 2, 1905 – April 27, 1984)^[1] was a Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate from Ferriday in Concordia Parish in eastern Louisiana, who served two nonconsecutive terms from 1948 to 1952 and 1956 to 1960, both corresponding with the administrations of Governor Earl Kemp Long.^[2][2]

Career

In addition to Concordia Parish, Crothers' senatorial district included the Mississippi River delta parishes of East Carroll, Madison, and Tensas. In both terms his district colleague was Andrew L. Sevier of Tallulah, a senator from 1932 until his death in office in 1962. Voters from the four parishes at the time elected two senators.^[2] That system changed by 1972, with implementation of the United States Supreme Court decision, Reynolds v. Sims, which mandates one man, one vote in state legislative districting.^[3]

Crothers served as president of the Louisiana Cattleman's Association and as a second vice-president of the American National Cattleman's Association. In 1967, long after he had left the state Senate, Crothers lobbied U.S. Senator Russell B. Long of Louisiana, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, in support of import restrictions on beef. In his statement before Long's committee, Crothers noted that Louisiana in 1966 had 45,000 herds of cattle and that beef was the number one agricultural product in the state. He questioned how domestic beef producers, with high costs, wages, and taxes, could be expected to compete with foreign imports of cattle grown with a cheap, inferior feed. Crothers also noted that the beef industry is the largest user of subsidized feed grain, but he warned that "the cattle industry is becoming a sick industry."^[4]

The Brenham C. Crothers Scholarship is awarded in his honor by the animal science division at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.^[5]

Extended family

Crothers was born in Calhoun near West Monroe in west Ouachita Parish to Albert Brenham Crothers (1881-1943) and the former Rill D Calhoun (1882-1969).^[6] Crothers' brother was Will Woffard "Billy" Crothers (1909-1969).^[7] His nephew, Albert Baucum "Bubba" Crothers (1942-2008), was in the insurance business in Ferriday for thirty-five years prior to his move to Georgetown, Texas.^[8]

Crothers was married to the former Berta Hammett (1908-1993), daughter of Berta Wells Hammett (1881-1952)^[9] and Albert Galloway Hammett, Sr. (1881-1974), a native of Campti in Natchitoches Parish, who was from 1933 to 1964 the tax assessor of Caddo Parish.^[10] She was a much older step-sister of her father's successor as tax assessor, Charles Russell Henington, Sr. (1936-1986). Henington was among six parish officials killed in a plane crash in Shreveport on May 8, 1986; he was piloting his plane and carrying five of his assistants for a meeting in Baton Rouge. The tragedy attracted national attention.^[11][12]

Brenham Crothers is interred with his parents, brother, and nephew at Calhoun Cemetery,^[1] and Berta Crothers is buried beside her parents at Forest Park East Cemetery in Shreveport.^[10]

References