Monnie T. Cheves

Monnie Tom Cheves (February 14, 1902 – August 14, 1988) was a college professor from, among other residences, Natchitoches, Louisiana, who served from 1952 to 1960 as a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Natchitoches Parish.^[1]

Background

Cheves was the son of Thomas Taylor Cheves (1862-1941), a native of Bibb County, near Macon in central Georgia, and the former Miranda Hall (1868-1953). It is unclear where he was born. He had an older brother Joseph Bruce Cheves (1894-1965) of Natchitoches, and three sisters, Stella M. Cheves (1898-1986) of Natchitoches, Gem Vera Nash (1906-1988) of Many in Sabine Parish, and Billie Cloyce Cheves Cappel (1923-1978), the wife of the late Malcolm Nugent Cappel, Sr.; the Cappels are interred in Lafayette, Louisiana.^[2][3]

Cheves graduated c. 1919 from Natchitoches High School, known since desegregation as Natchitoches Central High School. He obtained his bachelor's and master's degrees from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches^[4] and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, respectively. For his master's thesis he wrote in 1936 a biography of James Benjamin Aswell, entitled The educational and political career of James Benjamin Aswell. James Aswell represented Louisiana's 8th congressional district, since disbanded, from 1913 to 1931, was Louisiana superintendent of education from 1904 to 1908, and was also a president of both NSU and Louisiana Tech University in Ruston.^[5]

Cheves was a basketball and football coach at Natchitoches High School and a professor at NSU. He was an assistant to the president at then Chiopla Junior College, now Chipola College, in Marianna, Florida. He was an education professor at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana. His last position was as a professor at Samford University in Homewood, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama. His obituary lists no dates for his professional education positions.^[4]

Political life

Cheves was elected to the state House as outgoing Representative Sylvan Friedman of Natchitoches entered the Louisiana State Senate. Serving with Friedman in the two-member district was Roy Sanders, the principal of Readhimer High School in northern Natchitoches Parish and a leader in adult education in the state legislature.^[6] In 1960, Cheves and E. H. Hayes, with whom he served alongside, were unseated in the district by fellow Democrats Paul L. Foshee and Curtis Boozman, a former representative with whom Cheves had served in their first House term together from 1952 to 1956.^[1]

In 1954, Cheves, Boozman, and Friedman pushed for passage of legislation to permit Northwestern State University to confer the master of education degree. The measure, known as House Bill 343, was signed into law by Governor Robert F. Kennon. Originally known as "Normal", Northwestern was for many years the only state-supported teacher education institution in the state.^[7] The 1954 legislative session approved what developed as a temporary right to work measure, floor-managed in the state senate by William M. Rainach of Claiborne Parish. Cheves said that despite criticism from other members, the 1954 session "accomplished more for education than any [other] in history, to my knowledge."^[8]

Death

Cheves died in Birmingham, Alabama, at the age of eighty-six, where he resided after his retirement from Samford University. He is interred along with his parents and brother at Fern Park Cemetery in Natchitoches.^[2] At the time of his death, he was married to Kathryne J. Cheves (born c. 1924) and had a stepson, John M. Dozier, Jr. (born c. 1951).^[4]

References