L.A. "Buddy" Henagan Memorial Parkway

L.A. Henagan, nicknamed Buddy, was a civic leader and mayor of DeQuincy from 1966 until 1982. He would also serve as mayor from 1990 until his death in 2004. Henagan was a veteran, community leader, and union worker who came from a humble home, was raised in the aftermath of the Great Depression, and came of age at the start of the Second World War. After serving in the Pacific Theater of World War II, Henagan would return home to DeQuincy, marry Marget Smith, and work as a locomotive engineer for the Missouri Pacific Railroad company. Buddy Henagan also worked with his brother, R.P. (Rip) Henagan, as joint owners of the Parkway Cafe in DeQuincy.

Before running for mayor, Henagan displayed skills as a leader as the Charter President of the DeQuincy Athletic Booster Club and exhibited his commitment to justice by acting as a member of the DeQuincy Sheriff’s Posse. In the years and months leading up to his election in 1966, Henagan served on the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce as Chairman of the Highway Committee. He also served as the Chamber’s chairman of the Finance Committee. He was a member of the local Industrial Board, which aimed to bring new jobs through industry to DeQuincy and the surrounding area. Buddy Henagan would win the mayoral election of 1966, kicking off his nearly 30-year-long career as the city’s top executive. As Mayor of DeQuincy, Henagan oversaw the development of the KCS Depot, the DeQuincy Railroad Museum, and the DeQuincy Industrial Park. He was also responsible for the building of a new city hall, fire department, hospital, and post office. Roads, sidewalks, new city paths, and sewage systems underwent renovations under Henagan’s leadership.

Henagan also secured millions of dollars to finance public projects such as the construction of a new sports complex, ballfields, a neighborhood center, and a public pool. These funds also contributed to the construction of more than eighty units of public housing. Henagan was not only skilled in building up infrastructure, but he also understood the importance of being a part of the community. This is best exemplified in his role as a member of the Volunteer Barbeque Crew, a local group that would barbecue for any organization in DeQuincy that needed help raising funds.

Despite the many public works and social outreach, Buddy Henagan's administration was not without controversy. After Henagan’s death in 2004, John D. Williams, a former Louisiana inmate, claimed that Buddy Henagan, amongst other city officials, forced him to work additional hours, sometimes for the personal gain of Henagan and other local officials. Williams asserted that he worked 20 hours a day during the city’s railroad festival, barbecued for over 26 hours at local fundraisers, and had to wax the floor of Henagan’s church. The district court found that while Henagan likely abused his authority over Williams, these abuses were not enough to support Williams’ claim that his rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act or Thirteenth Amendment were infringed.

While Henagan’s abuse of power over Williams does not undo his great services to his community, it should not simply be erased from public memory either. Henagan was a pillar of the community of DeQuincy who radically transformed the city in the latter half of the twentieth century. Yet despite these improvements to public infrastructure and commitment to the people of DeQuincy through community involvement in organizations such as the Volunteer Barbeque Crew, Mayor Henagan was not infallible. Sometimes these community outreach campaigns were even undercut by the exploitation of prison labor, as seen in John Williams’ experiences with Henagan’s barbeques or the railroad festival. This is not meant to be an attack on Henagan’s character, but rather a commitment to the true memory of Henagan. If our memorial highways only remember the good, we only set ourselves up for failure by painting an incomplete picture of the past. By remembering the whole truth, we can still admire the good, but learn from the mistakes of the past so that we might not repeat them.