Benny Rayburn

Background

He was the only son of legendary Louisiana State Senator B.B. "Sixty" Rayburn, Senior (1916–2008).

Career

Rayburn filled out the term of Lyons and was subsequently elected to a full term in 1983. Rayburn led with 7,425 votes (435 percent) to Blair"s 5,093 (298 percent). Republican Johnnie M. Holcomb (born ca 1932) of Bogalusa, who polled 3,132 votes (184 percent), was among three other primary candidates eliminated in the October 19 jungle primary.

In the November 16 general election, Blair upset Rayburn, 9,884 votes (514 percent) to 9,332 (486 percent).

In 2003, Rayburn unsuccessfully sought election to the District 75 seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives, a position held by his father from 1948-1951. He finished third in the all-Democratic jungle primary with 1,959 votes (152 percent).

The seat went to Harold L. Ritchie, who was reelected in 2007. Rayburn graduated in 1962 from Bogalusa High School.

He attended Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond but did not graduate.

When he was not sheriff, Rayburn was state steward for the Louisiana Racing Commission. He also was a horse trainer and worked for a time for the Office of Rural Development and the B.B. "Sixty" Rayburn Correctional Institute in Washington Parish. Rayburn died of a heart attack near Franklinton, the seat of Washington Parish.

He had two grandchildren.

Achievements

• Rayburn, who resided in Bogalusa, the largest city in Washington Parish, won a special election in 1981 to complete the term of Sheriff Robert Lyons, a former Bogalusa municipal juvenile officer, elected in December 1979. In the 1987 contest for a second four-year term, Rayburn defeated three intraparty rivals to win the position outright with 10,366 votes (583 percent).

Connections

opponent:

Democrat, Duane Blair