Lantz Womack was a Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 member of the Louisiana House of Representatives

Louisiana House of Representatives

The Louisiana House of Representatives is the lower house in the Louisiana State Legislature, the state legislature of the US state of Louisiana. The House is composed of 105 Representatives, each of whom represents approximately 42,500 people . Members serve four-year terms with a term limit of...

 who served mostly Franklin Parish, from 1958, when he won a special election caused by the death of a freshman member, until his retirement in 1976. A banker and farmer from Winnsboro

Winnsboro, Louisiana

Winnsboro is a city in and the parish seat of Franklin Parish, Louisiana, United States. As of July 2009, the estimated city population was 4,377...

, south of Monroe

Monroe, Louisiana

Monroe is a city in and the parish seat of Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 53,107, making it the eighth largest city in Louisiana. A July 1, 2007, United States Census Bureau estimate placed the population at 51,208, but 51,636...

, he was also a delegate to the 1973 convention which wrote the Louisiana Constitution

Louisiana Constitution

The Constitution of the State of Louisiana is the cornerstone of Louisiana state law ensuring the rights of individuals, describing the distribution and power of state officials and local government, establishes the state and city civil service systems, creates and defines the operation of a state...

 of 1974. From 1968-1972, Womack and S. S. DeWitt

S. S. DeWitt

Sturgis Sprague DeWitt, known primarily as S.S. DeWitt was a farmer and businessman from Newellton and St. Joseph in Tensas Parish in northeastern Louisiana who served as a conservative Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1964–1972.In 1963, DeWitt unseated 20-year...

 of Tensas Parish were paired in a combined District 47 (Franklin, Tensas, and Madison parishes). For his last term, Womack was placed in single-member District 20, having defeated several intraparty rivals, including DeWitt and James H. "Jimbo" Colvin of Winnsboro.

Early years

Womack was born to Henry and Elma Womack in a family of five sons and three daughters. They lived in the small community of Goodwill in West Carroll Parish in northeastern Louisiana. In the middle 1930s, Womack played right field for the semi-professional Winnsboro Red Sox baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 team. Another future Louisiana state legislator, L.D. "Buddy" Napper

L.D. "Buddy" Napper

Laurice Dean Napper, known as L.D. "Buddy" Napper , is an attorney and civic figure in Ruston, Louisiana, who served as a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1952-1964....

, who had played for Louisiana Tech University

Louisiana Tech University

Louisiana Tech University, often referred to as Louisiana Tech, LA Tech, or Tech, is a coeducational public research university located in Ruston, Louisiana. Louisiana Tech is designated as a Tier 1 school in the national universities category by the 2012 U.S. News & World Report college rankings...

 (then Louisiana Polytechnic Institute) in Ruston

Ruston, Louisiana

Ruston is a city in and the parish seat of Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 20,546 at the 2000 census. Ruston is near the eastern border of the Ark-La-Tex and is the home of Louisiana Tech University. Its economy caters to its college population...

, also played for Winnsboro for a time. Napper, a Democrat, represented Lincoln Parish in the legislature from 1952-1964; for six years the terms of Womack and Napper overlapped. Still other semi-pro baseball players were former Lieutenant Governor

Lieutenant governor

A lieutenant governor or lieutenant-governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction, but is often the deputy or lieutenant to or ranking under a governor — a "second-in-command"...

 Bill Dodd and W.W. Dumas, the mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

-president of East Baton Rouge Parish from 1965-1981.

In 1938, Womack married the former Alice Black, who was born on April 14, 1917, in Union County, Illinois. Mrs. Womack was reared in Delhi

Delhi, Louisiana

Delhi, originally called Deerfield, is a town in Richland Parish, Louisiana, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 3,066.-History:...

 in Richland Parish north of Winnsboro. She died in Longview, Texas

Longview, Texas

Longview is a city in Gregg and Harrison Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 80,455. Most of the city is located in Gregg County, of which it is the county seat; only a small part extends into the western part of neighboring Harrison County. It is...

, on January 9, 2002, from complications of open-heart surgery, nearly four years after her husband's passing.

Womack was a member of the board of directors of Franklin Memorial Hospital and a co-founder and chairman of the board of Progressive State Bank, both in Winnsboro. He was a member of the First Baptist Church of Winnsboro.

The twin elections of 1972

Womack's closest election was in 1964, when fellow Democrat L.D. Knox, a Winnsboro farmer and timber owner, came within 18 votes of unseating the incumbent, 3,544 to 3,526. Knox later legally changed his name to "None of the Above" Knox so that as a perennial candidate he could argue for the "None of the Above" option on ballots for those who reject all the declared candidates.

In the general election

General election

In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...

 held on February 1, 1972, Womack faced his first ever Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 opponent, Terry Clingan (1918-2007), a barber

Barber

A barber is someone whose occupation is to cut any type of hair, and to shave or trim the beards of men. The place of work of a barber is generally called a barbershop....

 from Mangham

Mangham, Louisiana

Mangham is a village in Richland Parish in northeastern Louisiana, United States. The population was 595 at the 2000 census. Mangham was established in 1890. It is named for Wyley P...

 in Richland Parish, later from Baskin

Baskin, Louisiana

Baskin is a village in Franklin Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 188 at the 2000 census. Baskin is located north of the parish seat of Winnsboro.-History:...

 in Franklin Parish. Womack won the race by a 67-33 percent margin, even though Republican gubernatorial candidate David C. Treen

David C. Treen

David Conner "Dave" Treen, Sr. , was an American attorney and politician from Mandeville, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana – the first Republican Governor of the U.S. state of Louisiana since Reconstruction. He was the first Republican in modern times to have served in the U.S...

 ran particularly well in northeast Louisiana. Clingan was the stepfather of Robert Max Ross (1933-2009), a businessman from Mangham, who had been Treen's only opponent in Louisiana's first and only Republican closed primary

Primary election

A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....

 for governor, held in December 1971.

In the summer of 1972, Womack was elected on a nonpartisan

Nonpartisan

In political science, nonpartisan denotes an election, event, organization or person in which there is no formally declared association with a political party affiliation....

 ballot to the state constitutional convention that met in 1973. The convention wrote the new Louisiana Constitution, which voters adopted in the spring of 1974. Womack defeated John Henry Baker

John Henry Baker

John Henry Baker, III , is a semiretired farmer and landowner from Franklin Parish in northeastern Louisiana who was active in the rebirth of the Republican Party in his state during the 1970s and 1980s. Baker was his party's nominee for the District 22 seat in the Louisiana State Senate in 1972...

, a Republican leader in Franklin Parish, for the delegate position. Ironically, in his early years, Womack had worked for Baker's father, John Henry Baker, II. These turned out to have been the last elections in which Womack emerged as a winner.

A popular legislator, Womack stressed constituent service during his legislative years. Mrs. Womack was active in a volunteer service group of legislative wives. A well-known hostess and cook, she entertained friends, family, and her husband's constituents. In his first term as governor, John Julian McKeithen

John McKeithen

John Julian McKeithen was the 49th Governor of Louisiana, serving from 1964 to 1972. A Democrat from the town of Columbia, he was the first governor of his state in the twentieth century to serve two consecutive terms...

 appointed his fellow Democrat Womack to the Louisiana Financial Assistance Commission.

Womack did not seek legislative reelection in the 1975 jungle primary

Jungle primary

A nonpartisan blanket primary is a primary election in which all candidates for elected office run in the same primary regardless of political party. Under this system, the top two candidates who receive the most votes advance to the next round, as in a runoff election...

. Instead, he ran unsuccessfully in the primary for Louisiana agriculture commissioner, having polled 133,270 votes statewide. The winner of the race was Gilbert L. Dozier. Incumbent Dave L. Pearce

Dave L. Pearce

David L. "Dave" Pearce was a Democrat who served as the Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry from 1952–1956 and again from 1960-1976...

, like Womack originally from West Carroll Parish, was accused of wrongdoing in office and withdrew from the balloting and left Dozier unopposed for the general election. In the legislature, Womack was succeeded by fellow Democrat Neal Lane "Lanny" Johnson, who, in 2004 became the Franklin Parish school superintendent, amid a time of school financial crises, while he still resides in St. Joseph

St. Joseph, Louisiana

St. Joseph is a town in and the parish seat of Tensas Parish in northeastern Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,340 at the 2000 census. The town is 69 percent African American. St. Joseph is the entry community to Lake Bruin State Park located on Lake Bruin, a relatively clear oxbow...

, the seat of Tensas Parish.

The Womacks had a daughter, Freida Louise Womack, who resided in Longview as of 2006.