Mary Smith Gleason

Who was Mary Smith Gleason?

Mary Smith Gleason was an interim Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Webster Parish, who served from 1959–1960, after the death in office of her husband, E.D. Gleason.

Mrs. Gleason was named to complete the remaining eight months of her husband's second term by then Governor Earl Kemp Long because insufficient time existed to call a special election for the position.

The Gleasons resided in the Evergreen Community south of Shongaloo in central Webster Parish. They had three sons, Thomas D. Gleason, educator William E. Gleason of Minden and later Plaquemine, and Charles E. Gleason, later of Shreveport.

Mrs. Gleason did not seek a full term in the 1959-1960 primaries. Instead, her son, William, ran for the seat. However, William Gleason finished in fourth place. In a runoff election, Parey P. Branton, a businessman from Shongaloo, defeated the Minden attorney Henry Grady Hobbs, a native of Sarepta, by sixteen votes. Branton held the seat until 1972; he ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in the 1971 Democratic primary.

Mrs. Gleason died in Plaquemine shortly before what would have been her 68th birthday.