George W. D'Artois
| George Wendell D'Artois, Sr. | |
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| Public Safety Commissioner in Shreveport, Louisiana |
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In office November 1962 – August 6, 1976 |
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| Preceded by | J. Earl Downs |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
December 25, 1925 Shreveport, Caddo Parish Louisiana, USA |
| Died | June 11, 1977 (aged 51) San Antonio, Texas |
| Cause of death | Complications from heart surgery |
| Resting place | Forest Park Cemetery East in Shreveport |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Billie Claire Best D'Artois |
| Children |
George Wendell D'Artois, Jr. |
| Parents |
William Francis D'Artois, Sr. |
| Residence | Shreveport, Louisiana |
| Alma mater |
C. E. Byrd High School |
| Occupation | Law-enforcement officer |
| Religion | Southern Baptist |
| Military service | |
| Service/branch | United States Marine Corps |
| Rank | Sergeant |
| Battles/wars | Bougainville in Pacific Theater of Operations of World War II |
George Wendell D'Artois, Jr.
Mary Cecile D'Artois Murray Elaine Claire D'Artois
Grandchildren: Laura-Anne Claire D'Artois
William Francis D'Artois, Sr.
C. E. Byrd High School
Centenary College
George Wendell D'Artois, Sr. (December 25, 1925 – June 11, 1977), was a law-enforcement officer who served from 1962 to 1976 as public safety commissioner, a citywide elected position in his native Shreveport, Louisiana. By the end of his tenure, questions arouse about his integrity and commitment to his office, issues never resolved because of his death from surgical complications at the age of fifty-one.
D'Artois was one of two sons of William Francis D'Artois, Sr., and the former Mary Holmes. He graduated from C. E. Byrd High School, the original public high school for white students in Shreveport. He served for three years in the United States Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater of Operations, with action beginning in November 1943 in the Battle of Bougainville and other locations thereafter as well. He attained the rank of sergeant. After the war, he studied Business Administration at Centenary College in Shreveport and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He married the former Billie Claire Best, and the couple had a son, George, Jr., known as Wendell (born c. 1955), and two daughters, Mary Cecile and Elaine Claire.
For a time, D'Artois served as director of the Shreveport junior athletics program. In 1952, he became a deputy for the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Department under J. Howell Flournoy. After nine years, he resigned as a deputy to run for public safety commissioner under the city commission form of government, a five-member body that exercised combined executive and legislative functions. Then Governor Jimmie Davis had been the Shreveport public service commissioner early in his political career from 1938 to 1942. The other commissioners presided over the public works, utilities, and finance departments. The mayor was technically the "commissioner of administration." A Democrat, D'Artois was first elected commissioner in 1962, when he upset the two-term incumbent J. Earl Downs, whose brother C. H. "Sammy" Downs, an attorney in Alexandria, was a close associate of Governors Earl Kemp Long and John McKeithen. D'Artois won again in 1966, 1970, and 1974. He served with Mayors Clyde Fant and Calhoun Allen, who like D'Artois commanded one vote on the city council as a whole. Other colleagues included H. Lane Mitchell and later Don Hathaway as the commissioner of public works, and John McWilliams Ford, Dwight Saur, and George A. Burton as finance commissioner. Each commissioner exerted far more political power than would their successors under the mayor-council form of government, which beginning with the elections of 1978 established single-member legislative city council districts and an executive mayor elected citywide.
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