W. E. "Bill" Dykes

Who is W. E. "Bill" Dykes?

William E. “Bill” Dykes is a Democratic former state senator from Saint Helena Parish, Louisiana, who represented hi state's 11th District from 1976 to 1984.

The son Jesse and Willa Mae Dykes, he graduated in 1941 from the since defunct Pine Grove High School in Saint Helena Parish. The school was then under the principalship of John E. "Prof" Lisenby.

After service in World War II, Dykes in 1946 founded W. E. Dykes Feed & Dairy Supplies, later Dykes Feed & Fertilizer, in Amite in Tangipahoa Parish. He and his late wife, the former Ivyne Alessi, had two children. Bryan E. Dykes, Sr., who was married to the former Gloria Mack, was also a feed and fertilizer businessman and a ten-year mayor of Montpelier, Louisiana, where Bill Dykes still resides. The Dykes' daughter and son-in-law are Billie Claire Dykes Tycer and James Herndon Tycer.

After the 1980 United States census, Dykes was moved into District 12, the same constituency with Sixty Rayburn, a behemoth of the legislature, against whom Dykes stood little likelihood of winning. The redistricting was required to accommodate increased representation by African-Americans, and District 11 was reassigned to the corridor from Hammond to Slidell. The seat went to the Democrat, later Republican convert, Gerry E. Hinton. When state Senator Tommy Hudson of Baton Rouge, the chairman of the committee which had overseen the redistricting, became the Democratic candidate for Louisiana's 6th congressional district in 1986, Dykes worked for the successful election of GOP candidate Richard Hugh Baker, a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives. In 1986, Dykes’ residence was not in the 6th District, but delivery trucks from his farm-supply business could be seen throughout that district festooned with Richard Baker signs. Rayburn, meanwhile, remained in the legislature until his own defeat in 1995 by Republican Phil Short.