Background
Cann was born on the Esperance Plantation near Monroe, one of five children of William Cann, Senior, and the former Lodi DeSeay.
Cann was born on the Esperance Plantation near Monroe, one of five children of William Cann, Senior, and the former Lodi DeSeay.
He attended Ouachita Parish High School from 1933 to 1937. Thereafter he studied from 1937 to 1938 at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, then known as Ouachita Parish Junior College.
In 1938, he enrolled at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, from which he received his bachelor"s degree in 1942. At the age of seventeen, Cann joined the Louisiana Army National Guard, in which he became cadet captain. Cann was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Army through the Reserve Officer Training Corps at Louisiana State University. From 1943 until 1945, he was a paratrooper, unit commander, and staff officer with the 101st Airborne Division in the European Theater of Operations, with participation at Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, and other locations.
In 1946, he became an aide de camp with the 82nd Airborne Division to Major General James M. Gavin, who was known for his unleashing of paratroopers during World World War World War II After the war, Cann served in many military capacities including the training of Turkish troops headed to the Korean War.
He retired from the Army in 1956. After his active military service, Cann was an officer in the United States. Army Reserve.
From 1954 to 1956, he was chairman of the Military Department at ULM, by then known as Northeast Louisiana State College. He was also an executive of Bancroft Bag, Incorporated., in West Monroe.
At the time of his death, he was still a senior vice president, director, and shareholder of the company.
From 1964 to 1972, Cann served on the Louisiana Board of Commerce and Industry under appointment from Governor John McKeithen. He served on the elected Monroe City School Board from 1968 to 1972. Cann was active in the Chamber of Commerce, the Public Affairs Research Council, Bayou DeSiard Country Club, March of Dimes, Young Men’s Christian Association, American Red Cross, the United Way, and the Boy Scouts of America.
In 1992, he served on the newspaper editorial board of the Monroe NewsStar.
In 1993, Cann was a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International. Cann died at the age of ninety at Saint Francis Regional Medical Center in Monroe.
After services at Grace Church on July 15, 2010, he was interred at Mulhearn Memorial Park Cemetery in Monroe. One of Cann"s sisters, Lodi Cann Kysor (1922-2013), was from 1966 to 1973 a school board member in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
She was elected board president in November 1970, the first woman in that role.