Bryan A. Poston

Who was Bryan A. Poston?

Bryan Anthony Poston, Sr. was a businessman in Hornbeck, Louisiana, who served as a Democrat in the Louisiana State Senate from 1964 to 1992. He succeeded his father, Charles M. Poston, Sr., a one-term senator from 1960 to 1964.

Poston was born in rural Benson in southern De Soto Parish to Charles M. Poston, Sr. and Marjorie A. Poston, both railroad employees. Poston was reared in Hornbeck in Vernon Parish, a small town midway between Leesville, the seat of Vernon Parish, and Many, the seat of Sabine Parish. He attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge before he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, forerunner of the Air Force, during World War II. Poston was an aerial engineer gunner sergeant on a B-17 bomber.

Just shy of his fortieth birthday, Poston was elected to the now District 30 Senate seat, which encompasses part of Calcasieu and Beauregard, Sabine, and Vernon parishes. During his tenure, he served for sixteen years as chairman of the Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee and for eight years on the Senate Retirement Committee. Poston did not seek an eighth term in the Senate in the nonpartisan blanket primary, or jungle primary, held on October 19, 1991. Instead, two Democratic state representatives, Allen Bradley and James David Cain of Dry Creek in Beauregard Parish, competed for the post. Cain defeated Bradley and later switched to Republican affiliation. Cain lost a special election in 2006 for Louisiana insurance commissioner. He was term-limited in the 2007 primary.