Al Ater

Early life and family

A native of Decatur in Macon County in central Illinois, Ater was the youngest of five children of Donald Edward Ater (1923–1974) and the former Ruth Lavonne Chapman (December 16, 1920 – October 28, 2004), both Illinois natives. His four older siblings are Marcia Kay, Donald Willard, Lynette, and Edward William Ater.

Lavonne Chapman Ater attended Lindenwood College for Women in St. Charles, Missouri. The Aters married, farmed in the area about Cisco, Illinois, and owned International Harvester dealerships in Kankanee and Oreana, Illinois. In the middle 1950s, the Aters moved to Tallulah, where Ruth became involved in the American National Cattlewomen's Organization, formerly the CowBelles. She was both the Madison Parish and the statewide president of the organization. In 1975, as the national CowBelles president, she organized and chartered groups in thirteen states and spoke at state conventions in thirty-nine states. She headed the committee that wrote the history of the organization. Mrs. Ater was one of three women inducted into the Louisiana Spur Club for contributions to the cattle industry. In 1957, the Aters purchased the Coola Coosa Plantation on Lake St. John, an oxbow lake on the Mississippi River and moved to Ferriday, where they founded and operated Ater Warehouse, Inc., and the Don Ater Chevrolet dealership. After the death of her first husband Donald Ater, Ruth in 1979 married Fred Joseph Wedam (1916–1991) of Klamath Falls, Oregon, a veterinarian and a member of the Klamath County School District board of directors.Lavonne lived in Klamath Falls until after Wedam's death, when she returned to Ferriday for her final years.

Al Ater attended Ferriday High School for three years and graduated in 1971 from the private Huntington High School in Ferriday, which had been founded the previous year after the public schools were desegregated. He then attended Northwestern State University in Natchitoches.

Public office

First elected at the age of twenty-nine in the 1983 nonpartisan blanket primary, Ater filled the House seat vacated by William B. Atkins, a freshman Democrat from Jonesville in Catahoula Parish. Atkins had defeated Democratic State Senator Dan Richey of Ferriday. Ater was unopposed for a second term in 1987 but did not run in the primary held in October 1991. He was succeeded by fellow Democrat Bryant Hammett, an engineer, also from Ferriday in Concordia Parish.

In 2001, Ater became the first assistant in the office of Fox McKeithen, a Republican and friend since their legislative days, then serving as Louisiana Secretary of State. Ater was influential in merging the former elections department into the secretary of state’s office.

In 2004, Ater joined the Department of Insurance under commissioner J. Robert Wooley, a Democrat. In March 2005, he returned to McKeithen's office as first assistant. Four months later, upon McKeithen's untimely death from an accident earlier in the year, Ater was appointed as the interim secretary of state.

Effects of Hurricane Katrina

As secretary of state, Ater was called upon to monitor the municipal elections in New Orleans held some eight months after Hurricane Katrina, when the city was still struggling to recover and had many former residents living elsewhere. The primary election was to have been conducted on February 4, 2006. Newspaperman Sam Hanna, Jr., of the Ouachita Citizen said that Ater

"oversaw probably the cleanest mayor's election in modern times in New Orleans' long, fabled history. ... He mowed down the political establishment on both sides of the aisle, which tried in vain to manipulate the election process in the Crescent City for its own selfish reasons. Yes, Ater stood out as a leader with a backbone among a host of local and state officials, who, quite frankly, have appeared spineless throughout the catastrophe caused by Katrina."

Former Secretary of State James H. "Jim" Brown, also a Ferriday native, said he believed the elections could have been held on February 4 and that the delays sought by Ater were unnecessary. Brown said polling locations could be moved as needed and that voting machines can be located elsewhere as required. Out-of-town voters can still file for absentee ballots, Brown said.

As secretary of state, Ater questioned a provision of Louisiana law which had required a voter who registered by mail to cast his ballot in person at least once before he could file an absentee ballot. "I could see the headlines across America right now, They'll say it's another thing that Louisiana can't handle on its own," Ater said. The law had been intended to protect against voter fraud, but Ater said the hurricane had temporarily changed the dynamics of voting.

Ater's handling of the election was honored by the Louisiana chapter of Common Cause, which held a ceremony in his honor. Also feted was State Senator Walter Boasso of St. Bernard Parish, who consolidated the actions of the affected levee boards following the hurricane.

Ater served as secretary of state until November 2006, when he was succeeded by the Republican Jay Dardenne, now the state commissioner of administration. Dardenne won the special election to fill the vacancy left by McKeithen's death. Ater was not a candidate in that special election.

After leaving the office of secretary of state, Ater remained a contributor to Democratic candidates in 2008 for several campaigns: for then U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, in Louisiana's 4th congressional district for the unsuccessful candidate, Paul Carmouche of Shreveport, for the U.S. senatorial candidate Ronnie Musgrove of Mississippi, and for the defeated Don Cazayoux in the Baton Rouge-based 6th congressional district.

Farming

Al Ater farmed corn, cotton, and soybeans through his Lakeland Planting Company. He served on the board of the Concordia Parish Farm Bureau and Catalyst Energy in Vidalia, the Concordia Parish seat of government. He also farmed about Waterproof in southern Tensas Parish.

Personal life and death

Ater lived on Lake St. John near Ferriday with his second wife, the former Susie Beard (born 1958), a pharmacist originally from Vidalia. He has three children, Whitney Lauren Ater (born 1978) in California from his first marriage; and, with Susie, Thomas Alan (born 1987), and Elliott Andrew Ater (born 1989), both of Ferriday. Thomas manages the family farming operation, and Elliott attends Louisiana State University. Ater died in Houston Hospice in Houston, Texas on May 21, 2017 from brain cancer.

After services at the Jefferson Street United Methodist Church in Natchez, Mississippi, on May 26, 2017, Ater was interred at Natchez City Cemetery, also the resting place of his parents.

Ater's legacy

Sam Hanna, Jr., son of the late publisher Sam Hanna, Sr., commented on why Ater walked away from

a promising political career more than 20 years in the making [to] head home to Concordia Parish--to Ferriday--to farm some 6,000 acres of land and tend to his other business interests? Well, Ater's no fool, and he recognized a dead-end job when he saw it in serving as secretary of state, especially on the heels of his performance during one of Louisiana's darkest moments. It's always best to leave while you're on top.

In 2009, Ater was among inductees honored in the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.