Plain Dealing, Louisiana

Plain Dealing is a town in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,015 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Shreveport–Bossier City Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History

Prior to 1839, the United States government forcibly removed the Caddo Nation of Native Americans -- longtime local inhabitants who had first settled the area over 1,000 years before Europeans' 16th-century arrival in mainland North America -- from the area of Northern Louisiana that included the parcel that would later become the town of Plain Dealing.

In 1839, George Oglethorpe Gilmer and his son, James Blair Gilmer, bought 5,000 acres of this land -- now described as a "vast, unsettled wilderness" -- from the United States government, calling a portion of this acreage "Plain Dealing" after the family's Virginia plantation. The "Plain Dealing" name became official when the town was formally chartered on April 24, 1890.

Notable points of more recent history include the following:

• Plain Dealing recorded the state's hottest temperature ever, 114 °F (46 °C), on August 10, 1936.
• The Plain Dealing Post newspaper was established in the 1980s by publisher Danny D. Scott of nearby Springhill.
• The Bossier Parish minimum security prison is located in Plain Dealing.

Geography

Plain Dealing is located in northern Bossier Parish at 32°54′21″N 93°42′0″W (32.905898, -93.699896). It is 8 miles (13 km) south of the Arkansas border and 31 miles (50 km) north of Shreveport.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.6 square miles (4.1 km²), of which 0.004 square miles (0.01 km²), or 0.26%, is water.

Demographics

Historical population

Census	Pop.	Note	%±
1900	258		—
1910	474		83.7%
1920	655		38.2%
1930	1,412		115.6%
1940	1,085		−23.2%
1950	1,321		21.8%
1960	1,357		2.7%
1970	1,300		−4.2%
1980	1,213		−6.7%
1990	1,074		−11.5%
2000	1,071		−0.3%
2010	1,015		−5.2%
2014 (est.)	988		−2.7%
U.S. Decennial Census

As of the census of 2000, there were 1,071 people, 418 households, and 280 families residing in the town. The population density was 673.0 people per square mile (260.1/km²). There were 481 housing units at an average density of 302.2 per square mile (116.8/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 55.28% White, 42.67% African American, 0.65% Native American, 0.09% Asian, and 1.31% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.47% of the population.

There were 418 households out of which 32.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.1% were married couples living together, 20.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.8% were non-families. 29.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 2.95.

In the town the population was spread out with 25.7% under the age of 18, 7.4% from 18 to 24, 22.8% from 25 to 44, 22.3% from 45 to 64, and 21.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 81.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 76.9 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $24,706, and the median income for a family was $32,361. Males had a median income of $32,132 versus $25,455 for females. The per capita income for the town was $14,906. About 23.6% of families and 26.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 34.9% of those under age 18 and 20.4% of those age 65 or over.

In the years since the Louisiana State Legislature legalized riverboat casino gambling in 1991, the casino industry of nearby Shreveport has become a major source of employment for Plain Dealing residents, as Chris Redford, then a crime reporter with KTBS News in Shreveport, explained in a 2009 television documentary.

Notable people

• William Benton Boggs (1854-1922), first mayor of Plain Dealing in 1890; member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1892 to 1900, and the Louisiana State Senate from 1908 to 1916
• Mollie Burdett Banks Curry Gray (1862-1958), a native of Dallas County, Arkansas, and later a Plain Dealing resident, was a great-great-grand-niece of George Washington. When she died in 1958 in Shreveport, she was listed as the oldest descendant of President Washington. Mollie's first husband, Robert Houston Curry, was from 1888 to 1892 a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for Bossier Parish. He was wounded in the Second Battle of Manassas in 1862 in the American Civil War.
• John J. Doles (1895–1970), member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1952 to 1956 and president of the Louisiana Bankers Association from 1956 to 1957
• John J. Doles, Jr. (1923–2004), Plain Dealing banker and civic leader
• Jocelyn Dooley, local casino blackjack dealer and mother of two who gained national notoriety when she was sentenced to life in prison in August 2003 for the 2001 murder of her estranged husband, Vol "Bubba" Dooley -- local casino craps dealer, casino pit boss, and son of former Bossier Parish Sheriff Vol Dooley, Jr. -- in the couple's Plain Dealing, LA home.
• Forrest Dunn, former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Shreveport and director of the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum at the state fairgrounds
• Burgess McCranie (1905-1977), mayor of Bossier City from 1953 to 1957; native of Plain Dealing
• Ryan Gatti (born 1974), state senator from Bossier City since 2016; owns a tree farm near Plain Dealing
• Rupert Peyton (1899–1982), former state representative from Caddo Parish; Bossier Parish native who attended Plain Dealing High School
• Leon Sanders, Jr. (1913–2004), mayor of Plain Dealing from September 16, 1958 — December 31, 1998. He worked for the completion of dams and lakes and the new city hall, constructed without additional taxation. Sanders owned and operated Sanders Department Store, which burned in 1999, causing the loss of valuable papers and irreplaceable items. Sanders' sister, Eloise S. Watkins (1910–1985), was a home economics teacher at Minden High School in neighboring Webster Parish.
• Wilburn Snyder (1923–2008), a Baptist minister in the Houston area and a survivor of the Bataan Death March in the Philippines, was born in Plain Dealing.
• A. P. Tugwell (1889–1976), born in Plain Dealing; the longest-serving Louisiana state treasurer
• Joseph David "Joe" Waggonner, Jr. (1918–2007), a former congressman; born in Plain Dealing and interred at Plain Dealing Cemetery.
• W. E. "Willie" Waggonner (1905-1976), sheriff of Bossier Parish from 1948 until his death in office; brother of Joe Waggonner
• Monty M. Wyche (1926-2014), state district court judge, 1969 to 1988, born in Plain Dealing, resided thereafter in Benton and Bossier City

Gallery

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  Caddoan Mississippian culture circa 16th century (Map by HRoe 2010)
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  Plain Dealing corporate limits sign
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  Downtown Plain Dealing
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  Gazebo in downtown Plain Dealing
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  Plain Dealing Baptist Church of Plain Dealing
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  First United Methodist Church of Plain Dealing
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  The Plain Dealing Cemetery contains the graves of former U.S. Representative Joe D. Waggonner and Waggonner's older brother, former Bossier Parish Sheriff Willie E. Waggonner.