Robert J. Munson

Robert Jackson Munson, Sr. (December 9, 1912 – June 6, 1996),^[1] was a Democrat from Cheneyville, Louisiana, who served from 1956 to 1973 in the Louisiana House of Representatives during the administrations of Governors Earl Kemp Long, Jimmie Davis, John McKeithen, and Edwin Edwards.^[2]

Munson was at the peak of his political power as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee early in the McKeithen administration.^[3] In 1972, Munson was named "Conservationist of the Year" among the elected official category by the Louisiana Wildlife Federation.^[4]

Munson suddenly resigned from office in September 1973. Through a special election, Wilbur Dyer, another Cheneyville Democrat, won the right in 1974 to succeed Munson. Dyer filled the seat until 1980, when Charles W. DeWitt, Jr. of south Rapides Parish was elected to the post. DeWitt was years later the House Speaker.^[2]

Munson and his wife, the former Kathryn Fluke, later Kathrym Dammon (born 1922), had three children, Pamela M. English (born 1943) and Robert Munson, Jr. (March 12, 1950 – December 16, 2015), both of Baton Rouge, and Thomas Eugene "Tom" Munson (born 1951) of Cheneyville. The junior Munson was born in Cheneyville and reared there on the family's Witchwood Plantation. He was a state and national political consultant, often called "the nicest man in politics." He was a member of First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge, an affiliate of the Evangelical Presbyterian denomination founded in 1981, and a board member of Trinity Episcopal Day School.^[5] At the time of his death, Munson, Jr., was a registered Republican.^[6][7]

Munson, Sr., died in Alexandria at the age of eighty-three. He is interred at Trinity Episcopal Cemetery in Cheneyville.^[1]

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