BATON ROUGE -- Services will be Friday for long-time Louisiana Democratic Party leader Jesse Bankston. He died Nov. 25 at age 103.
Bankston was the longest serving member - 51 years - of the Louisiana Democratic State Central Committee.
He worked to build a racially diverse party.
Bankston was director of the Department of Hospitals when he refused in 1959 to release Gov. Earl K. Long from a mental hospital. Long fired him.
Bankston served as director of the State Hospital Board and was an elected Board of Elementary and Secondary Education member for 28 years.
Survivors include three sons and a daughter.
Greenoaks is in charge of arrangements.
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