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Jean Boese. Courtesy Wikipedia.
| Elsie Jean McGivney Boese | |
|---|---|
| Born |
January 19, 1925 New Orleans, Louisiana, United States |
| Died |
April 7, 2004 (aged 79) Alexandria, Rapides Parish, Louisiana |
| Alma mater | Tulane University |
| Occupation | Poet; political activist |
| Political party | Republican Party; former National Committeewoman from Louisiana |
| Spouse | Herman Lamar Boese, M.D. (married 1946-2004, his death) |
| Children | Robert Lamar Boese (born 1947) |
Elsie Jean McGivney Boese [pronounced BOW-SE] (January 19, 1925 - April 7, 2004) was an American poet. She was poet laureate of Louisiana, and also served as the Republican National Committeewoman from the state from 1968 to 1974.
Life[]
Boese was born Else Jean McGivney in New Orleans to John Roderick McGivney and the former Elsie Buist. She graduated from the Louise S. McGehee School (a female academy) in New Orleans in 1942. In 1945, at the age of 20, she graduated from the former H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, the women's division of Tulane University. On May 20, 1946, she married Herman Lamar Boese (June 28, 1924 - February 26, 2004). The couple moved to Alexandria, where Dr. Boese (a proctologist) established his medical practice.
Civic leader[]
Boese was a social worker for the American Red Cross in New Orleans in 1945-1946. She taught exceptional children for a time in New Orleans. She did script writing for the Tulane University educational television channel. After relocating to Alexandria, she was a member of the St. Frances Cabrini Hospital Auxiliary and the Rapides Parish Medical Society. She was a member of Our Lady of Prompt Succor Altar Society and served on the Human Rights Committee of St. Mary's Training School for Retarded Children in Alexandria.
In 1975, 3 Democratic city commissioners (Mayor John K. Snyder, Finance and Utilities Commissioner Arnold Jack Rosenthal, and Streets and Parks Commissioner Malcolm P. Hebert) named her to a vacancy on the Alexandria Civil Service Commission. This body hears grievances from city employees who wish to challenge dismissals, demotions, or changes in job duties and descriptions. She was the first woman to serve on the Civil Service Commission (1975–1979). She then served on the review board of the Alexandria Zoning Commission from 1979 to 1984.
On the state level, she was a member of the Commission on Indian Affairs, Commission on Salaries for State Judges, and the Election Code Commission.
Republican Party politics[]
Boese was the first woman appointed as vice-chairman of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee and served a full decade (1964-1974). She was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1964 and in 1968, which met in San Francisco and Miami Beach, respectively. Besides her six years as GOP National Committeewoman, she was a member of the site selection committee of the Republican National Committee in 1971. The committee initially chose San Diego for the convention, but when problems resulted over the financing of the convention, the site was once again Miami Beach.
In the 1976 campaign, Boese remained neutral in the fight between President Gerald R. Ford and former California Governor Ronald W. Reagan. The Louisiana caucuses in May had gone heavily for Reagan. She was quite optimistic that Ford, who emerged the nominee (with Senator Bob Dole of Kansas as his running-mate) from the convention that met in Kansas City, would yet defeat Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter: "The more I read those polls {with Carter far in front}, the more optimistic I am. I am expecting a Democratic Dewey, and I can hardly wait," she said, in reference to former New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, who lost the presidency in 1944 and 1948, though he had been favored in nearly all polls in the latter contest.
Death[]
Herman Boese preceded his wife in death by some 7 weeks. He died on February 16, 2004. He had been his wife's caregiver in her last years. They were Catholic. Herman shared his wife's political leanings. In 1966, he was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for the Rapides Parish School Board, along with future U.S. District Judge Nauman Scott and future Republican National Committeeman and Louisiana state GOP chairman John H. Cade, Jr. At time there were six at-large seats on the body, but by the 1970s the board had converted to single-member districts.
At the time of her death, Boese was survived by her son, Robert Lamar Boese (born 1947), daughter-in-law, Dierdre Digiglia Boese (born 1957), and granddaughters, Erin and Kelly Boese, all of Broussard in Lafayette Parish.
Boese was succeeded as poet laureate by Brenda Marie Osbey of New Orleans, who was appointed by Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco in 2005.
Recognition[]
Boese was the poet laureate of Louisiana from 1980 to 1988, and from 1996 until 2004.[1]
Boese's "Leadership" is the official state poem of the Louisiana State Senate:
Her best known poem, "Louisiana," was read at the dedication of the Louisiana Archives Building in 1987.
See also[]
| Preceded by Henry Thomas Voltz |
Poet Laureate of Louisiana 1980-1988 |
Succeeded by Pinky Gordon Lane |
| Preceded by Slyvia Davidson Lott Buckley |
Poet Laureate of Louisiana 1996-2004 |
Succeeded by Brenda Marie Osbey |
References[]
- Alexandria Daily Town Talk, July 27, 1976
- Who's Who in America, 1972-1973 edition
Notes[]
External links[]
- Poems
- "Leadership" at State Symbols
- "Louisiana" at Free Republic
- Etc.
- Louisiana Poets Laureate at the Library of Congress
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