B. G. Dyess

Bernice G. Dyess, known as B. G. Dyess (born August 16, 1922), is a semi-retired Baptist minister from Alexandria, Louisiana, who served as a conservative Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1996 to 2000, in which capacity he was known for his opposition to gambling. From 1964 to 1988, Dyess was the Registrar of Voters for Rapides Parish, a position to which he was appointed by the Rapides Parish Police Jury (akin to county commission in other states). The registrar’s position brought Dyess membership on the Louisiana State Board of Election Supervisors. Joanell Luke Wilson succeeded Dyess as voter registrar.

Is prayer profitable? . . . We believe it is, or else we wouldn't be here today. My friends, prayer is profitable." -- B.G. Dyess

Early years and family

Dyess was born in the Valentine Lake/Gardner community of western Rapides Parish to J. B. Dyess (subsequently a Ward 5 constable) and the former Sarah Matilda Smith (1888–1978). His paternal grandparents were Edmond D. Dyess and the former Margaret Mathis. He graduated from Oak Hill High School in the Oak Hill community of western Rapides Parish and later attended Louisiana College, a Baptist-affiliated institution in Pineville. He was ordained to preach at the age of seventeen and has been on the program for more than 1,500 funerals in central Louisiana, including close family members.

On his nineteenth birthday, Dyess married his former Oak Hill classmate, Ava Brister (August 12, 1923–January 7, 2005), a native of Winn Parish, born near Sikes in the Brister community. Ava was the third child of Wiley E. Brister, a farmer, and the former Nancy Ada Hudson (died 1933). Ava Brister and B.G. Dyess married on August 16, 1941, four days after her eighteenth birthday. Because both parents had died by the time that Ava was only ten years of age, she was reared thereafter by other family members. B.G. and Ava Dyess had seven children: Madeline Faye Dyess (born and died May 6, 1943), two sons, Mac Dyess and wife Cheryl of Deville in Rapides Parish, and Marc C. Dyess and wife Sandra of Baton Rouge; four daughters: Loretta Dyess Cooley and husband Leonard, and Linda Dyess Stewart and husband Charles of Alexandria; Debbie Dyess Giles and husband Tony of Woodworth in Rapides Parish; and Louise Dyess Fontaine and husband Ron of Penn Valley, California.

Reverend Dyess subsequently married the former Billie Whittington. His three older brothers were the Reverend Oscar Carl Dyess (1915–2006), Reverend Ted Dyess (deceased) and Elbert James Dyess (1911–2008). His other brothers, all deceased, were Lloyd Dyess, former superintendent of grounds and the dairy at Central State Hospital in Pineville; and Rufus Dyess of Oakland, California. His sisters, all deceased, were Jodie Dyess Marler (ca. 1909-2011) of Hineston, Louisiana, Bertha Dyess Marler, and Jessie Dyess Dubois. While Dyess was called to the ministry through the Baptist denomination, his brother Oscar (O.C.) was a pastor in the Pentecostal Church in Louisiana, with wide-ranging assignments in the small towns of Ridgecrest, Montgomery, Kentwood, Rosepine, Merryville, Columbia (the seat of Caldwell Parish), Ferriday and Woodworth. B.G. Dyess was among the ministers officiating at the funeral of his brother Oscar Dyess. Another brother, Ted Dyess, was also a Pentecostal minister pastoring in the western United States, primarily California. His brother Elbert Dyess was a master craftsman whose extensive work can be seen at the Leesville Railroad Museum in Leesville in Vernon Parish, where a replica of the old Dyess homestead, a church, and other buildings can be viewed.

Election to Louisiana Senate

At seventy-three, Dyess was elected to the state Senate seat from Rapides Parish when the incumbent, Joe McPherson, then of Pineville and later of Woodworth, did not seek a fourth consecutive term in the Senate but instead challenged State Representative Dale Sittig of Eunice in a special election for an opening on the Louisiana Public Service Commission. Dyess led in the nonpartisan blanket primary by 313 votes over fellow Democrat Jack Bennett Dewitt (born 1940), the former Rapides Parish Police Jury highway superintendent from Boyce. The raw vote was 9,512 (30 percent) to 9,188 (29 percent). The third place candidate, Republican Lindsey H. Torbett (born 1954) of Alexandria, polled 7,975 ballots (25.2 percent). Three other Democratic candidates trailed, Larry M. Paige, 2,163 votes (6.8 percent), former Senator Cecil R. Blair of Lecompte in south Rapides Parish (who last served from 1966 to 1976), 2,113 (6.7 percent), and Jerry M. Guillory, 753 votes (2.4 percent). In the ensuing general election between two Democrats as permitted in Louisiana, Dyess defeated Dewitt, 18,777 (55.1 percent) to 15,294 (44.9 percent).

Dyess ran on the platform of honesty and integrity with emphasis on fighting gambling both statewide and within Rapides Parish. Dyess and his anti-gambling constituents succeeded in a special election in keeping gambling out of Rapides Parish. It is often said by both his friends and political foes that he was hard to campaign against because he had married or buried someone in practically every family in Rapides Parish.

At seventy-seven and facing his first wife’s declining health, Dyess did not seek a second term in the 1999 primary, and McPherson waged a successful comeback by defeating Republican State Representative Randy Wiggins of Pineville, who sought to move up to the state Senate.

In the Senate, Dyess served on the Agriculture, Health and Welfare, and Transportation committees. He was vice chairman of the Senate Judiciary B Committee. Senate President Randy Ewing of Jackson Parish, who named Dyess to the agriculture committee, said that the minister "grew up on a small farm in Rapides Parish [and] has a special understanding of the issues facing farmers across the state and in Central Louisiana."

In 1999, Dyess authored SB73 to make Louisiana State University at Alexandria a four-year institution. The bill was tabled when the local legislative delegation agreed that first a Senate Concurrent Resolution had to be passed wherein the Board of Regents would study the need to convert LSUA to four-year status. Subsequently, the study was completed and in 2000, Senator Joe McPherson presented the bill that passed to make LSUA four years. Senator Dyess, Representative Randy Wiggins, newly returned Senator Joe McPherson, Representative Charles W. DeWitt, LSU Board Chair Charlie Weems, former Representative Jock Scott and Alexandria Mayor Ned Randolph all testified at the Education Committee hearing on behalf of LSUA.

While in the Senate, Dyess' relationship with Governor Mike Foster was strained when Dyess claimed on the Senate floor that Foster was not opposed to gambling. Foster replied with such anger toward Dyess that the Senate, on a motion by Republican Tommy Casanova of Acadia Parish, passed a resolution praising Dyess for his integrity. This was the first such resolution issued in this manner to a fellow senator.

Spokesman for moral causes

As a state senator, Dyess was a spokesman for traditional moral values. On January 9, 1999, Senator Dyess led a prayer rally attended by hundreds in the auditorium of DeRidder High School in DeRidder, the seat of Beauregard Parish, not included in Dyess's district. Joining Dyess at the rally was Joe M. Aguillard, the incoming parish superintendent who thereafter became the president of Dyess's alma mater, Louisiana College. The rally featured such hymns as "Give Me That Old Time Religion'" and "On My Knees". Kari McCarty, a flutist, performed a patriotic medley. Organized by the Reverend Jon E. Tellifero (born 1959) of the First United Methodist Church in DeRidder, the event was patterned after a similar call for prayer in 1863 for the future of the nation by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Dyess said that the public school system was "at, perhaps, its lowest ebb, even in my lifetime. But, that can change through prayer. Is prayer profitable? Is what we're doing here today profitable? [standing ovation] We believe it is, or else we wouldn't be here today. My friends, prayer is profitable."

Years earlier Dyess had served on the Rapides Parish School Board but resigned to pastor a church out of his district. He successfully proposed the appointment of Andrew (Andy) Johnson of Hineston to complete his term on the school board. Dyess has been a longtime member of the Alexandria Civitans, the Central Louisiana Boys and Girls Clubs, the Masonic lodge, the Special Olympics, the Rapides Senior Volunteer Program, and the Louisiana College Wildcat Athletic Association.

Though a Democrat, Dyess crossed party lines in 2004 to contribute $500 to the unsuccessful campaign of Jock Scott to the United States House of Representatives. Scott lost to fellow Republican Rodney Alexander of Quitman in Jackson Parish. In his eighties, Dyess changed his party from Democrat to Republican.

In 2006, Dyess received the "Friends of Jimmie Davis Award" from the Louisiana Political Hall of Fame, named for the gospel singer and Louisiana governor from 1944 to 1948 and 1960 to 1964. During his senatorial service, Dyess labored for the cause of homelessness through membership in the Louisiana Integral Action Council for the Homeless.

In 2011, Dyess's daughter Linda Dyess "Lin" Stewart announced her candidacy for Rapides Parish Clerk of Court, a position that Dyess himself had sought unsuccessfully in the 1970s. Lin Stewart is married to former Rapides Parish Police Juror Charles Stewart. She is seeking to succeed the retiring clerk, Carolyn Ryland.