William F . Cotton William Frederick " Bill " Cotton , Sr . ( October 23 , 1897 – April 23 , 2006 ) , was a prominent businessman from Central Louisiana who acquired or built bakeries in five Louisiana cities - Alexandria , Shreveport , Baton Rouge , Monroe , and Natchez , Mississippi . At the time of his death at the age of 108 , he was also the nation ' s oldest living Shriner and one of the last remaining American veterans of World War I . Education and military service . One of eight children , Cotton was born in tiny Corley in Logan County near Booneville in western Arkansas . He graduated in 1917 from high school in Fort Smith in Sebastian County , Arkansas . He then joined the United States Navy and served as the chief commissary steward on the off the coast of France . In November 1999 , he was awarded for his valor during the Great War the National Order of the Legion of Honor , the highest designation honor bestowed by the French on foreign nationals . After he was honorably discharged from the Navy in 1919 , Cotton enrolled at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville , where he studied accounting for two years . He then went to work for Shipley Bakery in Fort Smith . In 1929 , Cotton wed the former Genevieve Hathorn , who died on December 11 , 1963 . At the time of Cotton ' s death , he was married to the former Mae C . Compton ( born 1918 ) . Cotton Brothers Bakery . In 1923 , he moved to Alexandria , the seat of Rapides Parish , and , along with his brother , Herbert M . " Hub " Cotton , founded the Cotton organization . They bought the Louisiana Baking Company and changed the name to " Cotton Brothers " . One of their products is Holsum — bread , buns , and pastries . They enlarged the plant five times before building the company facility on MacArthur Drive in Alexandria in 1951 . Cotton was a founding member of W . E . Long Baker ' s Co - op in Chicago , which has the trademark on Holsum products . He was also a director of the former Guaranty Bank and Trust Company in Alexandria . Extensive civic leadership . A Shriner since 1927 , he was a member of the El Karubah Temple in Shreveport . Cotton " was a fine man . . . . always the gentleman . . . I respected him dearly , " said Ray McLaurin , a fellow Shriner from Alexandria . Cotton was also president of the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce in 1942 and president of the Lions Club in 1943 . He served on the elected Rapides Parish School Board and was a member of Governor Sam H . Jones ' War Council , the Industry and Commerce Board , and the National Association of Manufacturers , a trade association founded only two years before Cotton ' s birth . Also in 1943 , he founded the Better Sire Club in Alexandria in an effort to improve the bloodlines of cattle . Bill Cotton and Rife Saunders also helped to persuade Governor Jones to establish the originally two - year ( later four - year ) Louisiana State University at Alexandria . To this day , the Bill Cotton Scholarship is awarded to a qualified freshman at the university . Cotton and others persuaded then U . S . Senator Russell B . Long , a Louisiana Democrat , to promote what is now Interstate 49 between Shreveport and Lafayette through Alexandria . In 1997 , Cotton proposed that the roadway be named the " Russell Long Interstate Highway " , but the name has not yet been selected . When he turned one hundred , Cotton , a reservoir of energy , was still mowing his own yard , driving one hundred miles weekly to go fishing , planting pecan trees , and walking regularly . He also held a driver ' s license until he was 103 . Cotton was grand marshal of the Alexandria Veterans Day parade for several years . Bud Teal of the American Legion , said that Cotton was a member of the organization for eighty - five years . Services were held at Cotton ' s church , Emmanuel Baptist Church , in downtown Alexandria . Burial was in Greenwood Memorial Park in Pineville .