B. R. Patton

Bennie Robert Patton, known as B. R. Patton (September 15, 1920 – December 8, 1999), was a Democrat from Farmerville, Louisiana, who served for two terms from 1956 to 1964 in the Louisiana State Senate from Lincoln and Union parishes. His tenure corresponded with the last terms of Governors Earl Kemp Long and Jimmie Davis.

In the primary election held in January 1956, Patton was placed into a runoff a month later with the one-term incumbent senator, James P. Hinton. whom he then subsequently unseated. Democrat Earl Long won his third nonconsecutive term as governor outright in the primary over a field of candidates, including Mayor deLesseps Story Morrison of New Orleans and businessman and former highway director Fred Preaus of Farmerville.

Along with Fred Preaus and State Representative T. T. Fields, Patton worked to make Lake D'Arbonne in Farmerville a reality. Popular with fisherman and boaters, the large man-made lake opened in 1963. Shortly thereafter, Patton was unseated for a third term in the primary held on December 7, 1963, by his fellow Democrat, Charles C. Barham of Ruston, the older of two sons of former Lieutenant Governor C. E. "Cap" Barham.

Patton and his parents are interred at Corinth Cemetery in Ruston. In 1946, he married the former Peggy Gantt (born December 25, 1927) of Farmerville.