CenLamar | Est. 2006

  • Bill Robinson to Announce Candidacy for Rapides Sheriff

    According to the Town Talk, Bill Robinson, a retired chief deputy, will be formally announcing his candidacy for sheriff of Rapides Parish on January 9th at the Holiday Inn Convention Center. From the Town Talk’s report: Robinson, 59, of Elmer worked in the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office for 29 years. He retired as chief deputy in 2004. Sheriff William Earl Hilton has said he will not seek re-election. The primary for the sheriff’s race will be in October of this year. The next sheriff will take office in July 2008. (Photo courtesy: The Town Talk)

  • Vinita Johnson Martin Dies At Age 88

    Prominent civic leader and philanthropist Vinita Johnson Martin, wife of Roy O. Martin, Jr. (one of Central Louisiana’s largest private employers), passed away yesterday at the age of 88. Mrs. Martin was formerly a resident of Garden City, Kansas. Ten years ago, Mrs. Martin, a board member of LSUA, established the J.H. Johnson Endowed Professorship at Louisiana State University in Alexandria in honor of her first husband, John Herbert Johnson. Mr. Johnson arrived into Alexandria many years ago, took over a struggling poultry packing company, and turned it into a multi-million dollar business. Seven years after establishing the Johnson Endowed…

  • CenLamar Endorses: An Online History of Rapides Parish

    Sue Eakin, a Louisiana historian, writer, and editor of Solomon Northup’s classic autobiography Twelve Years a Slave,  has published an excellent online resource for those interested in the history of Rapides Parish– a truncated version of a 1976 publication. The website, located here, offers extensive information on the colonial period, the birth of the lumber industry, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Bourbon Period. Eakin and her sister Manie Culbertson authored the textbook Louisiana: The Land and Its People, which has been used as a teaching tool throughout the state for decades.