Lanie Black represented the best of politics — and accomplished the impossible

In 1998, Lanie Black did the impossible in Mississippi County. He won the contest for state representative as a Republican — the first to do so since Reconstruction.

The four-term legislator, farmer and Navy veteran died recently. He was 73.

I knew Black as a legislator but first through his lovely wife Ann, a distant cousin. The couple celebrated 50 years of marriage earlier this year.

The story I remember growing up is how Lanie provided a great kindness to my family.

In the mid-1990s, my grandfather was on hospice care in Charleston. When the health care workers were not available, Lanie would take a break from the fields and go to my grandparents’ house, turn my grandfather in bed to prevent bedsores, then head back to the farm and finish his day’s work.

It’s stories like this that earned him so much respect.

Former Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder served in the State Senate at the same time Black served in the House. But the two originally met when Kinder ran Bill Emerson’s first congressional campaign in 1980.

Lanie BlackSubmitted

“That's when I met Lanie in Mississippi County and came to regard him so highly as everybody who knew Lanie respected and loved him,” Kinder told me this week. “In 1998, we were able to persuade him to get in that race for that state rep. seat in what was then still a Democratic seat 22 years ago. It's hard to believe it's been that long. But he was the one Republican who commanded enough respect in the community — he and his family — to be able to win that seat that year, and of course he held it easily for four terms until he was term limited out.”

Kinder recalled that Black served in the House at the same time as the late Peter Myers of neighboring Sikeston. The two were close friends as they represented neighboring bootheel districts in the Capitol.

Prior to Black’s electoral victory in 1998, Fred E. "Gene" Copeland, considered the Dean of the Missouri House, held the seat. Copeland was first elected in 1960 and served 19 consecutive two-year terms. In 1996, Black challenged Copeland and lost in a narrowly decided race for the 161st District.

“That was the year that [Democrats] gave out coupons [for beer] to people that voted,” Lloyd Smith, a Republican campaign strategist and former chief of staff to Bill and Jo Ann Emerson, told me. “And then they could redeem their coupons at a local liquor store. And Lanie ended up losing. … And, you know, he wasn't gonna run again.”

As the 1998 election filing date neared, Smith read a book by former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett that made him think of his Charleston friend.

“I found the chapter, and you can look it up. James Madison lost his first race for Assemblyman in Virginia because his opponent bought spirits on Election Day,” Smith told me, making the comparison to how Black lost the 1996 election.

Smith marked up the book and left a copy at Black’s home with a note that included the famous Edmund Burke quote, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

“He calls me that night,” Smith said, “and he goes, ‘I can't believe you found the one thing that really goes at my heartstrings.’”

With Copeland opting not to run for re-election in 1998, Black entered the race for the House and faced off against former Missouri first lady and State Rep. Betty C. Hearnes — who happened to be Black’s choir director at First Baptist Church in Charleston.

Smith said his former boss Emerson walked a few parades with Black, but the reason he won was a commitment to retail politics. He knocked on doors and would stand outside Noranda Aluminum during shift changes, shaking each person’s hand.

“He didn't leave any stone unturned,” Smith said. “I think he lost like 20 pounds because he knocked on just about every door in [the district], at least once and some of them twice.”

With his ability to rally farmers and small business leaders, he won the 1998 election — a pivotal point in Republican politics for the Missouri bootheel.

Smith added that Black never forgot the old adage of politics: Don’t assume, always ask for the vote.

Jason Crowell first met “Mr. Black” through Boy Scouts, then as a 28-year-old freshman legislator served in the House alongside his mentor.

“I had the honor and pleasure of serving not only with Lanie but Peter Myers, two people who knew more about agriculture than any encyclopedia would. They were Google before Google. I used them as a resource, not only in just overall general knowledge, but on character and how to carry yourself and interact.”

Crowell, who went on to become the Republican Majority Floor Leader and later a state senator, said Black’s insight on agriculture issues played an important role and provided a necessary balance among legislators representing more urban areas.

Crowell noted that unlike the bulk of his time in the General Assembly, Black came to the legislature as part of the minority party. He said Black understood how to get things done with those of the opposite party.

He was beyond Republican and Democrat, Crowell said. He “put the people of Mississippi County first.”

“He made the place better for his service, without any question,” Crowell said. “At the end of the day, I think the greatest compliment anybody can receive is for your efforts, for your time on this earth, you left it better than you found it. And by that measure, Lanie left our communities, our state, our country for his service much better than he found it.”

Politics didn’t define Lanie Black. A man of faith, love of family and service to country, he did the right thing for the right reasons. That’s how I’ll remember him.

Lucas Presson is assistant publisher of the Southeast Missourian.