Acadia-Caddo County Louisiana Archives Biographies.....Fontenot, Rufus W 1888 - 

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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Mike Miller http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00004.html#0000912
September 24, 2006, 10:51 am

Author: Henry E Chambers

Rufus W. Fontenot is by profession a public accountant, and his long experience 
in public affairs has made him ideally equipped for special service in that 
field.  His home for some years has been at Shreveport.

He was born at Crowley, in Acadia Parish, Louisiana, in 1888. son of Gus E. and 
Rosa (Burton) Fontenot.  The Fontenot family is representative of some of the 
best French Creole ancestry in Louisiana.  Mr. Fontenot's mother was a member 
of the Duson family, who established the great rice industry in Southwest 
Louisiana, and in that way contributed to the remarkable development of that 
section of the state.  Gus E. Fontenot has for twenty-four years held the 
office of clerk of the court of Acadia Parish.

Rufus W. Fontenot attended public schools at Crowley, the Louisiana State 
University at Baton Rouge, and on leaving the university in 1908, returned to 
Crowley and spent two years in business employment.  From there he accepted the 
opportunity to go to Washington as clerk of the Banking and Currency Committee 
of the House of Representatives.  He had an invaluable experience in Washington 
as clerk to the famous "money trust" investigation conducted by the committee, 
whose chairman was Congressman A. P. Pujo of Louisiana.  He also served as 
clerk to that committee under Hon. Carter Glass, former Secretary of the 
Treasury.  Following that came an appointment as private secretary to United 
States Senator Jos. E. Ransdell, and in that capacity he remained at Washington 
five years.

Under appointment from President Wilson he returned to Louisiana as collector 
of internal revenue for the District of Louisiana, with offices at Yew Orleans 
and other principal cities of Louisiana.  Mr. Fontenot held that office three 
years, and when his term expired, in 1921, he came to Shreveport and has since 
been practicing as a consulting accountant.  He has offices in the Giddens-Lane 
Building, Shreveport, Louisiana, and the Southern Building, Washington, 
District of Columbia.  He is a member of the firm of Fontenot & Price.

Mr. Fontenot continued an active part in state politics.  He handled Senator 
Ransdell's campaign in North Louisiana for renomination in the primaries of 
1924.  He is a member of the Rotary Club of Shreveport.  Mr. Fontenot married 
Miss Viola Warner, of New Orleans.  Their two children are Christine and 
Dorothy.

Additional Comments:
NOTE:  The referenced source contains a black and white photograph of the 
subject with his/her autograph.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 249-250, by Henry E. Chambers.  Published 
by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.