Wilbur Dyer

Wilbur Dyer (April 6, 1907 – January 22, 1985),^[1] was a Democrat from Cheneyville, Louisiana, who served from 1974 to 1980 in the Louisiana House of Representatives during the administration of Governor Edwin Edwards.^[2]

Dyer won a special election to succeed Robert J. Munson, another Democrat from Cheneyville. Munson was at the peak of his political power as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee early in the John McKeithen administration.^[3]

Munson suddenly resigned from office in September 1973. Through a special election, Dyer held 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]

Dyer and his wife, the former Burma Harris (1909-2003), had three children, including daughter, Burma Lee Dyer Downs (born March 1939, the widow of Clarence Herbert "Sonny" Downs (1933-2015), a graduate of the New York School of Interior Design in New York City who was formerly in the furniture business with a brother in Alexandria until their store closed in 1990.^[4] The Dyer sons included Wilbur Ronald "Pete" Dyer (born September 1942) of Baton Rouge, and Walter Frederick "Fred" Dyer (1937-2016), formerly a banker in Alexandria and charter member and past president of the Cenla Cosmopolitan Club.^[5] Dyer died at the age of seventy-seven, five years after his legislative tenure had ended. He is interred along with his wife and son at Alexandria Memorial Gardens in Alexandria.^[1]

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