Bob Reese

Bobby Lynn Reese, known as Bob Reese (April 29, 1929 - November 26, 2004), was a home builder, architectural designer, portrait painter, and businessman in Natchitoches, Louisiana, who was a co-chairman of the Natchitoches Parish Republican Party from 1968 to 2004, during an era in which Democrats dominated his region of the state, particularly at the state and local political levels.
Early years, education, military
Reese was born in Arcadia, the seat of Bienville Parish in north Louisiana, to Lester Reese (1910-1977) He attended Arcadia High School but graduated in 1946 from Simsboro High School in western Lincoln Parish. He attended Louisiana Tech University in Ruston but did not graduate. He served from 1948 to 1953 in the United States Air Force during the time of the Korean War, but he was not stationed in Korea. Instead, he was a clerk-typist in Japan and never even carried a gun.

After his military discharge, Reese in 1954 married the former Gwendolyn Thomas, the daughter of Neil Thomas (1892-1963) and the former Lilla Perry (1898-1995) of Jonesboro, the seat of Jackson Parish. Neil Thomas, a boyhood friend of Governor Jimmie Davis, was the Democratic sheriff of Jackson Parish from 1928 to 1948. In 1934, Sheriff Thomas arrived on the scene near Gibsland some ten minutes after the capture and death of the bandits Bonnie and Clyde. In the second Davis administration, Thomas served as state parole director. He died on the job of a heart attack in the front door of the state capitol in Baton Rouge. At Davis' request, Mrs. Thomas served the remaining ten months of her husband's term.
Shortly after that legislative campaign, the Reeses moved to Natchitoches, where he continued his home building career through Howard Lumber Company, which also employed his brother-in-law, Johnny B. Kelly (1925-1996)in Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in north Louisiana. Reese did not again seek office but decided to work within the party structure to advance his political views. He became immediately active in the attempt to revitalize the Republican Party in Natchitoches, the oldest city in the state.
When Treen finally became governor in 1980, he appointed Reese's former opponent, Bubba Henry, an original Edwards supporter, as his commissioner of administration. From 1968 to 1996, Reese was a member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee.
Later years and death
In his later years, Reese was a portrait painter and operated his own Bob Reese School of Gymnastics in Natchitoches. Mrs. Reese’s older sister, Nedra T. Kelly of Minden (born July 11, 1929), is a retired Realtor and a former member of the Webster Parish School Board.
won both the state House and state Senate seats embracing Reese's adopted city of Natchitoches.

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