Obit: W. L. "Ikey" Sanderson, Lincoln Parish, LA Submitted by: Dorothy Rinehart Taylor, 111 Racove Drive, West Monroe, LA 71291 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** ************************************************ The Ruston Daily Leader Wednesday, June 26, 1991 "W. L. "Ikey" Sanderson, 1918-1991" Services set Thursday for Choudrant's mayor Old friends recall times with "Ikey" Leader Staff Report Choudrant Mayor William Lynn "Ikey" Sanderson died Tuesday at Lincoln General Hospital following a heart attack earlier this week. He was 72. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at the First Baptist Church of Choudrant with Rev. C. W. Aswell officiating. Burial will be in the Choudrant cemetery under the direction of Kilpatrick Funeral Home of Ruston. Visitation will be from 5 to 9 p.m. today at the funeral home. Mr. Sanderson was born August 25, 1918, in Choudrant. He served as mayor of the village of Choudrant for 42 years first being appointed to the position by Gov. Earl Long in 1949. During his years as mayor, Mr. Sanderson also held a position at Louisiana Tech University, served as fire chief of the Choudrant Volunteer Fire Department and ran his own business, Ikey's Electric. Mr. Sanderson began his 33 year employment with Louisiana Tech in August 1947. Prior to that he worked for Western Electric and spent four years in the U. S. Army during World War II where he earned such awards as the Italian Cross of Military Valor, the Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. Although he was first hired at Tech as an electrician, Mr. Sanderson later assumed the position of sound technician. "He was a jack of all trades," Ron White of the Tech Journalism Department said. "There wasn't a concert or anything at Tech that needed a sound system that Ikey wasn't there." When I first came to Tech in 1953, Ikey was already a mainstay in the Tech institution," said Pat Patterson, associate athletic director and coach of the Tech baseball team for 23 years. "One thing foremost in my mind was how he was always willing to help anyone do anything. He helped people more than they ever helped him." "Patterson added, You can't say enough good things about Ikey Sanderson." In addition to being Tech's sound man, Mr. Sanderson was also well-known for his job driving the "Blue Goose," Tech's athletic bus. "There's no telling how many miles he put on (that bus)," Mr. Sanderson's daughter Susan Odom said Tuesday. "He used to park it in our front yard when he came home from a trip. I'd clean it out and he'd be gone again in a couple of days." Patterson remembered a trip with the baseball team to New Orleans once when the "Blue Goose" broke down. I remember we went on trip to New Orleans back in the swampy area and broke down. We left the team on the bus and Ikey and I walked about three miles to a garage," Patterson aid. "The garage attendant was drunk when we got there, but Ikey found the piece he needed to fix a wire to the battery that had burned into." As was his fix-it-all nature, Mr. Sanderson was able to get the bus back on the road. Also during his tenure at Tech, then President F. Jay Taylor honored Mr. Sanderson with Ikey Sanderson appreciation Day" May 16, 1972. According to an article in the May 18, 1972, edition of Tech's Campus newspaper The Tech Talk, "The purpose of the program ..was to honor a dedicated man who has faithfully served everyone on this campus in every phase of campus activities according to Mike Rainwater, chairman of the event." Mr. Sanderson retired from Tech in March 1978 and assumed the position of Choudrant fire chief in 1981. I took that (position) because I was retired (from Louisiana Tech)," he told the Leader in October 1989. Although the department was run in 1967, since it geared up in 1981, Choudrant's fire insurance rating went from a 10 the highest insurance risk) to an (?) The department now has 15 volunteers and three fire trucks, including one tanker. They are now in the process of installing an expanded communications system to reduce the response time of a fire. And the town still has the very first fire truck it ever purchases, a 1937 Seagrave acquired in 1967. "Just like in everything he did, he was a dedicated fireman," Ruston Fire Chief Van McDonald said. "He hand-built their department and utilized it as a Parish department. He had tanker trucks and when we needed water, he would bring them. There was a mutual aid agreement with them. He believed in the fire department." As a youngster who grew up in Choudrant, Jimmy Ball distinctly remembers Ikey Sanderson. "On my end of it, Ikey Sanderson was the finest man I ever knew in my life," Ball said. "He was a legend in this parish. He did so many things that people didn't know about." Ball said one of the most interesting stories he ever heard about Mr. Sanderson was the story of Ikey and Sally. The setting was 1944 in Italy in the midst of World War II. Mr. Sanderson acquired a puppy in Italy which became his company's mascot. Sally stayed with Mr. Sanderson and his company through the invasion of southern France and even through the journey into Germany. Although Mr. Sanderson was told Sally could not return to the United States with him, some of the fellow company members hid the dog and smuggled her onto the ship carrying the men home from the war. Sally lived with the Sandersons for 10 0r 11 years after the war and had several litters of puppies. Ball summed up his fond words of Ikey Sanderson by saying, "I hope when I meet my maker, I can be half the man that Ikey Sanderson was." Mr. Sanderson is survived by his wife, Clarice Sanderson of Choudrant; one son, Bill Sanderson of Choudrant; one daughter, Susan Odom of Choudrant; two brothers, Jack Sanderson and Gerald Sanderson, both of Choudrant; and four grandchildren, Josh Sanderson, Katie Sanderson, Lane Odom and Keeley Odom, all of Choudrant. Pallbearers will be A. L. Williams, Wayne Brooks, Perry Culver, Reagan Aswell, Tom Sisemore, Morton Parnell, Pat Duggan and Bob Hogan. Honorary pallbearers will be the Choudrant Volunteer Fire Department and the Ruston Fire Department. Memorials may be made to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.