Sibley, Louisiana

Community highlights

The former Sibley High School, now known as Lakeside Junior and Senior High School, is located south of town off Louisiana Highway 7. The Sibley Town Hall was relocated to a portion of the former Sibley High School campus.

Calloway Corners

North of Sibley is Calloway Corners Bed and Breakfast, refurbished in 1991 by Jeanne Woods, formerly of San Diego, California. Woods turned her business into a vacation destination through Harlequin Enterprises, which produces popular romance novels. Woods said that she chose the white house that had been abandoned in Sibley because "I love this part of the country. The people have great charm. They are so friendly and easy to know. It's so different. People care about people here; they're not caught up in the rush of life." Calloway Corners is featured on the front of several books penned by romance novelists Katherine Burton, Sandra Canfield, Tracy Hughes, and Penny Richards. Woods even got the state of Louisiana and the Webster Parish Police Jury to designate Calloway Corners as a "town" on signs on Highway 7.

Yellow Pine

The Yellow Pine community south of Sibley began as a sawmill of the Long Bell Company. Yellow Pine was the home of a comissary of the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Pacific Railroad. The mill employed both white and African American laborers. There were private residences and hotels in Yellow Pine, which was consolidated in 1921 with Sibley.

The American artist Ben Earl Looney was born and reared in Yellow Pine but graduated from Minden High School before launching a career which took him to many parts of the United States.

In a predominantly African American section of Yellow Pine is a community formerly known as "King Solomon Hill," centered on an actual hill on which stood King Solomon Hill Baptist Church. (The community is now known as "Salt Works.") The blues historian Gayle Dean Wardlow concluded that it was from this address that Paramount Records chose to give the blues musician Joe Holmes, a resident of Sibley, the recording name of King Solomon Hill.

Churches

Sibley is the home of several churches, including First Baptist, First United Methodist, Missionary Baptist, and the Independent Baptist congregation, Baptist Tabernacle, founded by the late evangelist Jimmy G. Tharpe. In 2010, Baptist Tabernacle began constructing a new sanctuary adjacent to the existing one.

Lane Memorial Cemetery is adjacent to the Methodist Church.

Geography

Sibley is located at 32°32′27″N 93°17′36″W (32.540704, -93.293208).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 4.0 square miles (10.4 km²), of which 3.9 square miles (10.0 km²) is land and 0.1 square mile (0.4 km²) (3.49%) is water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 1,098 people, 412 households, and 315 families residing in the town. The population density was 284.0 people per square mile (109.5/km²). There were 457 housing units at an average density of 118.2 per square mile (45.6/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 74.95% White, 23.59% African American, 0.46% Native American, 0.18% from other races, and 0.82% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.55% of the population.

There were 412 households out of which 35.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.1% were married couples living together, 18.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.5% were non-families. 20.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.66 and the average family size was 3.06.

In the town, the population was spread out with 27.9% under the age of 18, 8.7% from 18 to 24, 26.1% from 25 to 44, 24.0% from 45 to 64, and 13.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 91.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.9 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $28,816, and the median income for a family was $34,479. Males had a median income of $34,750 versus $17,750 for females. The per capita income for the town was $13,749. About 14.4% of families and 21.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 29.3% of those under age 18 and 22.1% of those age 65 or over.

Notable people