Tennessee Chesmond Brister (1896-1976)

Portrait from the Alexandria Weekly Town Talk, January 8, 1944.

    A leading figure in the political and business life of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, Tennessee Chesmond "T.C." Brister was a veteran of WWI who, following his service in France, relocated to Pineville, where he was affiliated with a hardware business for nearly forty years. He entered politics in 1940 with his election to the Louisiana House of Representatives, serving three nonconsecutive terms. In addition to his legislative service, Brister was an aspirant for a state senate seat in 1944 but was defeated. A resident of Louisiana for a good majority of his life, "T.C." Brister was born on May 28, 1896, in Winn Parish, the son of Allen Cicero (1872-1956) and Mary Adams Brister (1869-1944). 

  Recorded by most sources under the initials "T.C.", Brister's full name was discovered via the archives of the United States Veterans Administration's master index, which lists his full name as Tennessee Chesmond Brister. Removing with his family to Mount Lebanon, Louisiana during infancy, Brister resided there until 1906, whereafter he resided and attended school in Grant Parish. A graduate of the parish high school in 1915, Brister moved with his family to Pineville, Rapides parish sometime later and during the First World War was stationed in France with the U.S. Army Signal Corps.

  Honorably discharged in May 1919, Brister returned to Louisiana where he was employed with the Gulf Refining Co. as an agent. His work took him to Brookhaven, Mississippi, and during the 1920s was affiliated with a wholesale oil business at Westpoint. He also worked as a traveling salesman. He married in Mississippi in April 1934 to Mary Louise Blum (1906-1990), to whom he was wed for over forty years. The couple's union produced three daughters, Kathleen (1939-2020), Marleen Marie, and Margaret Louise. 

  Residing in Pineville in the late 1920s, T.C. Brister would join his brother Commodore Webster Brister in the Pineville Hardware Co., serving as its secretary and treasurer. By 1938 the business had grown to such an extent it necessitated removal to a larger building, located in Alexandria. Now serving as company manager, Brister and the store were profiled in the February 2, 1938 edition of the Alexandria Weekly Town Talk, which detailed the store's inventory. In addition to nails, barbed wire fencing, tools, and agricultural implements, the store also carried paints, stoves, and "harness and saddlery." 

  With his name firmly established in Alexandria's business community, Brister entered politics in 1939 when he announced his candidacy for the Louisiana House of Representatives. Running free of political influence, Brister decried the "crookedness, graft, and waste of public funds" in his state, and in a lengthy announcement laid out the principles of his campaign, including:

• Favoring 12 months pay for school teachers and a school teacher's tenure law.
• Favoring repeal of the state sales tax and favoring a tax on Carbon Black and other state minerals.
• The return of power to local sheriffs, mayors, and assessors
• Favoring an old age pension of $30.00 a month to every man or woman over age 60.
• Favoring organized labor, a decent wage, and an eight-hour workday
• Favoring a $3.00 car license
• Coming out against a state and parish-wide No Fence law.

A Brister campaign notice from 1939.

  Running in a field of twenty legislative candidates, Brister faced an uphill battle. On primary election day in January 1940, he emerged victorious. He went on to win the April general election, and after taking his seat was named as vice chairman of the committee on public buildings and sat on the committee on registration and election laws. 

  Towards the end of his first term, Brister announced his candidacy for the state senate, and in a write-up on his candidacy noted his successes during the previous house term, remarking:

"I was one of the co-authors of the bill that would have given eight hour working days and an increase in pay to the unpaid at our state institutions."

  On primary election day in January 1944, T.C. Brister polled second to incumbent senator Grove Stafford, who led by over 1,200 votes. Though he lost that election, Brister went on to win a second term in the state house in February 1948, polling 12,876 votes. During the 1948-52 session, he served on the committees on Appropriations, Contingent Expenses, the Penitentiary, and Printing, and wasn't a candidate for reelection. 

  Following his term Brister was a candidate for the Pineville school board in May 1952 and for the next fourteen years devoted "his time to his Pineville hardware and sporting goods business." He would sell his business in 1966 and in the following year reemerged on the political scene, announcing his candidacy for a third term in the house of representatives. In a June 1967 campaign notice, Brister highlighted his previous terms, remarking:

"The office of representative is becoming more and more important and time demanding...If you see fit to select me as one of your four representatives I will give that office full time. I will not engage in any other employment during my term of office. I will be at your service seven days a week for the next four years. Having previous service in the legislature, I will have the know-how to get things done for our district."

From the Weekly Town Talk, December 6, 1967.

   Brister won his third house term in February 1968, polling 11,850 votes, and in April 1968 was profiled in an extensive write-up in the Alexandria Town Talk. Noting that "education and highways are the biggest problems facing the legislature on a statewide level", Brister made further note of the state needing four-lane highways, and his hopes the Louisiana State University at Alexandria would someday become a four-year college "complete with dormitories." On politics, Brister announced himself as a firm backer of Alabama Governor George Wallace (then running for president) but noted that Hubert Humphrey would be the likely Democratic presidential nominee.

  T.C. Brister's third term concluded in 1972 and for the remainder of his life resided in Pineville. A member of the Fist Baptist Church of Pineville, Brister held memberships in the Solomon Lodge No. 221 and Keystone Chapter No. 44 of Free and Accepted Masons, the Trinity Commandry No.8, Knights Templer, as well as the VFW and American Legion. T.C. Brister died on November 26, 1976, at the Rapides General Hospital, aged 80. He was survived by his wife and children and was interred at the Greenwood Cemetery in Alexandria.

From the Alexandria Town Talk, April 7, 1968.