John K. Snyder

Who was John K. Snyder?

John Kenneth Snyder, Sr., sometimes known as Tillie Snyder, was a colorful, outspoken Democratic mayor of Alexandria, Louisiana, from 1973 to 1977 and again from 1982 to 1986.

Snyder was an admirer of the late Governor Earl Kemp Long, after whom he claimed to model his quixotic political practice. A tall, physically large man, "the good" Snyder smoked cigars, was soft-spoken and usually relaxed and accommodating. However, "the bad" Snyder had a temper that could snap quickly, at which point he might say or do practically anything. Even popular Louisiana Governor Edwin Washington Edwards, who was in office in Baton Rouge for seven of the eight years that Snyder was mayor in Alexandria, was said to have feared Snyder's unpredictability.