Larry Sale

A native of Haynesville, Sale entered the United States Army in 1917 at the age of twenty-two and reached the rank of corporal[1] with service in France.[2]

From 1920 to 1928, Sale was a deputy under Claiborne Parish Sheriff John Coleman. During this time of national prohibition, Sale attempted to halt illegal whisky being sold in Claiborne Parish during a petroleum boom. He joined the Louisiana Bureau of Investigations under Governor Huey Pierce Long, Jr. On the night of Long's assassination on September 8, 1935, he transported the governor to the hospital in Baton Rouge, only to be told to return Long to the state capitol to find out who had shot him. Long died several days later from ramifications relating to the wound.[2]

A Democrat, Sale was elected sheriff of Claiborne Parish in 1936 and served until 1944. Oddly, another Long bodyguard, Elliot D. Coleman, was elected in 1936 as the sheriff of Tensas Parish in eastern Louisiana and remained in office until his defeat in 1960.[3]

On Sale's death, U.S. Representative Joe D. Waggonner of Louisiana's 4th congressional district penned a letter of condolences to Mrs. Eoline B. Sale (1905-1997), which is displayed at the Herbert S. Ford Memorial Museum in Homer. Waggonner wrote: "Without men of courage and willingness to take up arms to defend America overseas, future generations of Americans would not be able to enjoy the liberties we cherish."[4]

Sale, his wife, and son, Larry Gray Sale (1929-1982), are all interred at Arlington Cemetery in Homer.[1]