Art Sour

Background

Sour was a son of Arthur W. Sour (1895–1972), a native of Gretna in Jefferson Parish, and the former Adele Elizabeth Diez (1897–1977), a native of Reserve in St. John the Baptist Parish. One of Sour's sisters, Louise Pasquier, the widow of Charles F. Pasquier, Sr., was among the founders of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Shreveport. Another sister, Adele Hoisington (1917-1945), named for her mother, was a former bank employee, who died with her husband, Earl L. Hoisington (1910-1945), in an automobile accident near Willard in Huron County in northern Ohio, while the couple was on their honeymoon. Adele and Earl Hoisington are interred at Forest Park East Cemetery in Shreveport.

Sour graduated c. 1941 from C.E. Byrd High School in Shreveport and thereafter served in the United States Army during World War II, in which he was wounded in action.

Running for the Louisiana legislature

Sour first ran for the legislature in 1964 on the Charlton Lyons gubernatorial ticket, but he was defeated by Democrats in a multi-district race. In that same election, two Republican legislative candidates, Taylor O'Hearn and Morley Hudson, were elected, but Sour and two other Republicans were defeated, Billy Guin, later the last Shreveport public utilities commissioner, and Edd Fielder Calhoun (1931–2012), an insurance agent and civic figure originally from Oklahoma City.

In 1968, Sour lost again in a race for the Louisiana House; all of the Caddo Parish Republican candidates were defeated that year except Owen Adams of Greenwood, a member of the parish police jury [county commission in other states]. Sour rebounded in 1972 to win a House seat, which he then held for twenty years.

Defeating Frank Fulco

When a single-member district plan took effect with the general election held on February 1, 1972, Sour, who was committed to the gubernatorial candidacy of fellow Republican Dave Treen of Jefferson Parish, upset Democrat Frank Fulco, a protégé of the Longs and a former member of the Share the Wealth Club, to win the first of his five terms in the legislature. Sour, in District 6, defeated Fulco, 5,564 (53.2 percent) to 4,886 (46.8 percent). Shreveport political observers said that Fulco had ignored his fellow Roman Catholic Sour, already a two-time loser for the legislature, and concentrated instead on lining up commitments to become the next Speaker of the House, a position which ultimately went to Fulco's fellow Democrat, E.L. "Bubba" Henry of Jonesboro in Jackson Parish. Other Republicans elected with Sour were B.F. O'Neal, Jr., of Shreveport, Clark Gaudin of Baton Rouge, and Charles D. Lancaster, Jr., of Metairie in Jefferson Parish.

In 1975, when Sour was reelected, he had only four Republican colleagues, and one of those, A.J. McNamara of Jefferson Parish, had been elected as a Democrat but switched affiliation in 1977.

In the October 24, 1987, nonpartisan blanket primary, Sour had a close call. He defeated Democrat Greg Barro, later a state senator, by only seventy-seven votes. Sour received 5,744 votes (50.3 percent) to Barro's 5,667 (49.7 percent). That election provided a warning to Sour, who was a leading conservative among Republicans in northwest Louisiana.

Like his Louisiana legislative colleague Louis E. "Woody" Jenkins, Sour was a member of the Council for National Policy, a conservative alternative to the Council on Foreign Relations. The CNP, which meets in Washington, was begun by either Texas billionaire Nelson Bunker Hunt or Virginia direct-mail operative Richard Viguerie as a potential balance to the CFR. CNP members included the late conservative spokespersons Phyllis Schlafly and Paul Weyrich.

Melissa Flournoy unseats Sour

In the October 19, 1991, nonpartisan blanket primary, when Edwin Washington Edwards was staging his fourth-term comeback as governor, Sour was upset by the Democrat Melissa Scott Flournoy (born 1961), 9,728 (58 percent) to 7,151 (42 percent). It was a high turnout election, and Sour got more raw votes that year than in any previous election. Yet he lost with a smaller percent of the ballots cast. Flournoy did not seek a second term in the Louisiana House but instead ran for the state senate in 1995 and was defeated by the Republican Max T. Malone of Shreveport.

Death

Services for Sour were held on January 12, 2000, at St. Joseph Catholic Church, of which he was a member, with Father Peter Mangum officiating. Sour's widow was the former Mary Margaret "Maggie" Hodge (April 11, 1928 – December 19, 2009), the daughter of Edwin and Nelle Hodge of Hodge in Jackson Parish. Mrs. Sour graduated from Ruston High School and Louisiana Tech University in Ruston in Lincoln Parish. She was a member of Noel Memorial United Methodist Church in Shreveport. Sour had two sons, Edwin William Sour (born 1950) and wife, Dora McMath Sour, and John Michael Sour (born 1953) and wife, Terri Brooks Sour; a daughter, Margaret Stacy Sour, all of Shreveport; four sisters, Ethel Lockard (1918-2000), Louise Pasquier (c. 1922-2017), Elizabeth Ann Harris McBride (1927-2013), and Delores Jaudon; a brother, John Robert Sour, and three grandchildren. Edwin Sour was formerly married to Margaret Mary Stagg, the younger daughter of the late Judge Tom Stagg of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, based in Shreveport.

Arthur and Mary Margaret Sour are interred along with other family members at Forest Park East Cemetery.