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 1996-2000. From 1964-1988, 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. He was succeeded as Registrar of Voters by Joanell Luke Wilson.

Early years and family

Dyess was born in Rapides Parish (Valentine Lake/Gardner area) to J.B. Dyess (served as 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 17 and has been on the program for over 1500 funerals in central Louisiana.

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, 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; and Louise Dyess Fontaine and husband Ron of Penn Valley, California.

After Ava’s death, the Reverend Dyess married Billie Whittington Dyess. His three older brothers were the Reverend Oscar Carl Dyess (1915-2006),Rev. Ted Dyess(deceased) and Elbert James Dyess (1911-2008). His other brothers, now deceased, were Lloyd Dyess, former superintendent of grounds and the Dairy at Central State Hospital; and Rufus Dyess of Oakland, California. His sister is Jodie Dyess Marler,100 years old. He has two deceased sisters, 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 Oscar Dyess. Also, his brother Rev. Ted Dyess, was a pentecostal minister pastoring mainly in the western states, primarily California. His brother Elbert Dyess, was a master craftsman and his extensive work can be seen at the Leesville Railroad Museum where a replica of the old Dyess homestead, a church replica and other buildings can be viewed. wed.web|url=http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/news/2006/mar/04/obituaries-for-jan-22-2006/|title=Obituary of O.C. Dyess|publisher=Natchez Democrat, Natchez, Mississippi, January 22, 2006|accessdate=September 18, 2009}}

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. He 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 1966-1976), 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 in Rapides Parish and the State. He, along with many anti-gambling constituents, were successful, in a special election, in keeping gambling out of Rapides. 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 every family in Rapides Parish.

At seventy-seven and facing his 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 (born 1951) of Pineville, who sought to move up to the state Senate.

In the Senate, Dyess served on the Agriculture, Health and Welfare, and Transportaton 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 L.S.U.A. a 4 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 L.S.U.A to a 4 year institution. Subsequently, the study was completed and in 2000, Senator Joe McPherson presented the bill that passed converting L.S.U.A. to a 4 year college. Sen. Dyess, Rep. Randy Wiggins, newly elected Senator Joe McPherson, Representative Charlie DeWitt, LSU Board Chair Charlie Weems, former Rep. Jock Scott and Mayor Ned Randolph all testified at the Education Committee Hearing on behalf of L.S.U.A.

While in the senate Senator Dyess and Gov. Mike Foster's relationship was strained when Dyess stated on the senate floor that the governor was not against gambling. (Times Picayune, Baton Rouge Advocate, The Town Talk - 1999) The governor responded with such anger toward Dyess that the governor's reaction caused the Senate, on motion by Senator Tommy Casanova, to write a resolution praising Dyess for his integrity in the Senate. This was the first such resolution given 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."

Dyess served on the Rapides Parish School Board,resigning early to pastor a church out of his district, and had Andrew (Andy) Johnson of Hineston appointed to finish out his term. He 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 former State Representative Jock Scott (1947-2009) to the United States House of Representatives. Scott lost to fellow Republican Rodney Alexander of Quitman in Jackson Parish. In his 80's 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 1944-1948 and 1960-1964. During his senatorial service, Dyess labored for the cause of homelessness through membership in the Louisiana Integral Action Council for the Homeless.