Ned Touchstone

Who was Ned Touchstone?

Ned O'Neal Touchstone was a newspaper publisher who was a figure in the "Radical Right" in Louisiana politics during the 1960s. He was born in the village of Florien in Sabine Parish but resided in the Shreveport-Bossier City metropolitan area for most of his life.

Touchstone was descended from Richard Touchstone, a settler of Maryland prior to 1650, and Benjamin Merrell, who was hanged, drawn, and quartered in North Carolina in 1771 in an early attack on the British crown. His family members were pioneers in 1798 in the settlement of Mississippi.

Touchstone fought in the Battle of Okinawa near the end of World War II. He was the personal driver/bodyguard of the Vice President of South Korea. He was involved in reconnaissance and was often assigned the task of going into jungles to locate the enemy. On one such mission he was captured by the communists, placed in a boxcar with other prisoners and shipped to a prison camp. After a short time he was sent back to Seoul. On one mission Touchstone accompanied three military police officers to arrest several communists.