Charles C. Barham

Who was Charles C. Barham?

Charles Clem "Charlie" Barham was an attorney in private practice for thirty-nine years in Ruston, Louisiana, and a Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate from District 35, nonconsecutively, from 1964 to 1972 and 1976 to 1988.

He was the older son of Lieutenant Governor C.E. "Cap" Barham, who held the second highest statewide office from 1952 to 1956 and was like his son an attorney in Ruston, the seat of Lincoln Parish. Barham's mother was the former Carice Helen Hilburn. He had a brother, Robert Ewing Barham, an English professor at Louisiana Tech University, from which Charles Barham received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1958.

Barham was a maternal first cousin of Wiley W. Hilburn, the retired head of the Louisiana Tech journalism department, former editorial writer for the Shreveport Times, and an inductee of the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield. Hilburn said that Barham's approach to politics enabled him to broker agreements in the Senate: "Unlike most today, he was a conciliator, a consensus type of politician. I think he achieved a lot with that mantra." Other cousins are former Republican State Senators Edwards Barham and Robert J.