Biographies: Lessie Lea Long Boyd, 1992, Winn Parish, LA. Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** From: September 16, 1992 Winn Parish Enterprise News-American Last Remaining Descendant of Edward Long, Sr. Line Residing in Winn Parish Her daughter Beth says she was "born independent and had a relapse," and no words better describe the spirit of Lessie Lea Long Boyd who resides at Autumn Leaves, because she chose to. The daughter of Rufus and Alice Hand Long, Mrs. Boyd was born February 10, 1903. She thumbs through the book Winn Parish, Louisiana searching for stories of her ancestors and a letter from the White House falls out. "A birthday greeting from Mr. Bush in Washington," she says and goes on looking for the article without blinking an eye lash. "My grandfather was William Edward Long, one of four brothers who came to Winn Parish from Mississippi by way of Baltimore and Ohio," she said. The Longs settled in Corinth about 5 miles south of Winnfield. "My family has had two governors and six United States Congressmen," she said proudly. The congressmen in her family are Dr. George Long, Huey P. Long, Jr., Earl K., Russell, Speedy and Gillis Long. She is related distantly through marriage of a cousin on the Hand side to President William H. Harrison. Mrs. Boyd remembers well her school days. She attended school at the location of Winnfield Intermediate School. The building she attended in is of course demolished but the current one is in the same place. "I didn't walk. I could ride horseback and that was much quicker," she said. Their home place was forty acres purchased from Wade Long who got it through the Homestead Act. It was about ten minutes outside the city on what is now Mosley Drive. In winter, Mrs. Boyd would board with her great aunt Ellen Bevill, whose house sat where the Health Unit is now located. "I wasn't a spoiled child," states Mrs. Boyd with a twinkle in her eye. Then she tells the story of when she was once sick and needed a dose of castor oil, late at night. Her father slipped out to the poultry house and eased a baby chick from under a Rhode Island red hen so she could hold it while she took the medicine. Another fond memory is one of the many parties at her home during her teen years. Her friends called her parents Uncle Rufus and Aunt Alice and enjoyed gathering at the huge farmhouse. In the summer, she said they had watermelon parties and in the winter it was parched peanuts, popped corn, and "pull" candy. "Sometimes we'd build a bonfire in the yard and toast marshmallows. My father would cut cane in the fall and we'd peel and chew sugarcane," Mrs. Boyd recalls. Her father was a prosperous farmer and cattleman, and that meant fall roundup. Always along were Earl K. and Otho Long. The occasion turned into a regular rodeo, according to Mrs. Boyd. She will never forget having to put plugs in her ears to keep out the crying sounds of the little calves when the hot iron was pressed against their tender hide and they were branded as property of the Longs. On May 14, 1920, she graduated high school, the building was still there contrary to some reports, and went on to the Normal College at Natchitoches. "I started teaching when I completed college, but I wasn't satisfied," Mrs. Boyd recalls. True to her independent spirit, rather than give up, she went back to school in another field. "I attended Miss Nell Lynn's Private Secretarial School in Shreveport. After that, I worked with the conservation department, forestry division, part of the time in New Orleans," she said. She came home to Winnfield and was appointed head of the Winn Parish Health Unit. In June of 1937, she married John Morgan Cockerham. It was through this marriage that Beth, her only child was born. Beth married Carl Greer and resides in Baytown, Texas. In 1960, Mrs. Boyd married C. C. Boyd. For thirty-one years, Mrs. Boyd kept the books for Parker Thompson Wholesale, located on Front Street. "I retired in 1982 at the age of 79," Mrs. Boyd remarked. "I thought it was time to rest." Today, this last Winn Parish sprout of the Long family tree lives at the Autumn Leaves Nursing Home in a private room, with her own phone and an electric lift chair - it makes her more independent of course. Each morning the Alexandria Town Talk is delivered to her door. "I'm not ill nor am I senile," she admits. "Just in storage." As she would put it, Mrs. Boyd is dyed-in-the-wool Long. She is proud of the family from which she sprang and she is proud of their influence over the lives and people of the parish. Maybe more than a little of the Long glib political tongue passed on to her. She'd never tell.