Hoffman Lee Fuller (1899-1983)

Hoffman Lee Fuller, also known as Hop Fuller (January 5, 1899 – June 20, 1983), was from 1937 to 1953 the mayor of his native Bossier City, the sister city of Shreveport in northwestern Louisiana. A Democrat, Fuller was the sixth mayor of Bossier City since incorporation in 1907. Thus far, Fuller is tied for longevity in the office with the late George Dement, the mayor from 1989 until 2005.

Career
Hoffman succeeded Thomas Hickman, whose 12-year tenure as mayor began in 1925. Hoffman's successor, Burgess McCranie, was the first mayor under the former city commission government, which was used in Bossier City from 1953 to 1977. In 1941, Fuller, with 1,103 votes, handily won reelection to his second term over H. H. Allen, candidate of a self-proclaimed good government group, the Good Citizens League, who polled 333 votes. A third Democrat, J. C. Thompson, held another seventy-four votes.

In 1948, Fuller ran unsuccessfully for the Louisiana Public Service Commission for a seat formerly held by outgoing Governor Jimmie Davis. In 1949, he won the last of his four terms as mayor. He did not seek a fifth term in 1953 but waged an unsuccessful comeback bid in 1957 against Jake W. Cameron.

In August 1950, Fuller joined with Mayor Clyde Fant of Shreveport for a send-off ceremony for some 250 members of the United States Marine Corps Reserve of Charlie Company, 10th Special Infantry Battalion, who were sent into the beginning hostilities of the Korean War. The Marines had trained at the Louisiana State Fairgrounds and left downtown Shreveport from the former Texas and Pacific Railway station, which was demolished years later to make way for the Shreveport Convention Center. The event was recalled six decades later by The Shreveport Times.

Fuller was still mayor on August 9, 1951, when Governor Earl Kemp Long issued a proclamation changing the designation of Bossier City from town to city. He was in his last year in office on October 21, 1952, when voters adopted the city commission government. Fuller was a radio dispatcher with the Bossier Water Department. A veteran of the American Expeditionary Force during World War I, he was a member of the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Masonic lodge, the Shriners, and Lions International.

Personal life
Fuller and his wife, Modena P. Fuller (1900-1982), who preceded him in death by a year, had one son, Hoffman Franklin Fuller of St. Charles Parish, Louisiana. The junior Fuller was the 1950 valedictorian at Bossier High School and a 2009 inductee into the BHS Hall of Fame. He is a retired professor at Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans. The Hoffman F. Fuller Associate Professor of Tax Law at Tulane is named in his honor. The junior Hoffman is considered a national authority on tax law.

Fuller died in Bossier City in 1983 at the age of eighty-four. Services were held at the First Baptist Church of Bossier City, with then pastor Fred L. Lowery officiating. The Fullers are interred at Hill Crest Memorial Park in Haughton east of Bossier City.