Legendary Locals of Shreveport chronicles fascinating people who have
made a difference in the Shreveport-Bossier City area. Some are good,
some are bad, and more than a few are wicked. There are movie starlets,
entertainers, decorated war veterans, gangsters, preachers, madams,
politicians, giants of industry, and humble folk who rose to greatness
or infamy. Shreveport began as a rough and tumble frontier town that
came late to being civilized. A Baptist preacher shot one of Quantrill's
Raiders when he rode his horse into church during a Sunday service. The
most famous madam in the region was also a suffragette. The first
successful bankers in Shreveport were immigrants from Prussia who
developed a business model that extends into the modern era. Shreveport
lost one quarter of its population in less than a month due to a yellow
fever epidemic. And that is just the beginning.