Bruce Lynn Bruce Newton Lynn , I , ( born March 25 , 1925 ) is a retired north Caddo Parish businessman and banker who was a Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1976 – 1988 . He is a native and resident of the village of Gilliam ( pronounced GIL LAM ) , where three generations of his family have operated the J . W . Lynn cotton plantation . Early years , education , military , family . Lynn was born to J . W . Lynn , an Arkansas native , and the former Irene Bruce ( 1895 – 1982 ) , originally from Kansas City , Kansas . He graduated from the former Belcher High School in 1942 . He attended Texas A & M University in College Station and later Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge , but he did not graduate from either institution . He later completed banking school . Lynn , a U . S . Marine , was stationed in the Pacific theater during World War II . In 1949 , he married the former Margaret Johnson of Doyline in Webster Parish . They have one son , Bruce N . Lynn , II ( born 1950 ) , who operates the plantation , and a daughter , Pamela Lynn Broesamle ( born 1952 ) of Scotts Valley , California , near San Jose . The couple has five grandchildren , including a namesake grandson , Bruce N . Lynn , III , ( born 1975 ) of Gilliam , and , as of July 2006 , one great - grandchild . Lynn is Presbyterian . With his background in cotton production , Lynn was in 1970 the president of the National Cotton Council , a trade association based in Memphis , Tennessee , and Washington , D . C . He remains an advisor to the council board . Because he was in Washington with the cotton council late in 1980 , he became a member of the transition team for President - elect Ronald W . Reagan . Lynn said the election of Reagan remains the highlight of his personal political interest . Lynn was affiliated with the former Louisiana Bank and Trust Company in Shreveport from 1970 - 1987 . His legislative elections . Lynn first filed to run as a Republican for the District 1 seat ( parts of Caddo and Bossier parishes ) in the state legislature in 1971 , but he withdrew after James H . " Jimmy " Wilson ( 1931 – 1986 ) won the Democratic nomination . Wilson was a former mayor of the town of Vivian , where he and Lynn had served together on the North Caddo Hospital Board . In 1975 , Wilson relinquished the state House seat to run unsuccessfully for the Louisiana State Senate . He lost to his then fellow Democrat Donald Wayne " Don " Williamson . Lynn then narrowly won the general election to succeed Wilson . He defeated Democrat Powell A . Layton , the principal of Northwood High School in Shreveport , by only 40 votes : 2 , 894 ( 50 . 3 percent ) to Layton ' s 2 , 854 ( 49 . 7 percent ) . Lynn ' s House terms coincided with six other Republicans , including B . F . O ' Neal , Jr . , Arthur W . " Art " Sour , Jr . , and Clark Gaudin . Three other members , A . J . McNamara , Lane A . Carson , and Michael F . " Mike " Thompson , had been elected as Democrats but switched their affiliations . Thereafter , Jimmy Wilson joined the Republican Party and waged two unsuccessful campaigns for the Fourth Congressional District seat vacated in January 1979 by popular long - term Democrat Joseph David " Joe D . " Waggonner , Jr . Lynn was narrowly reelected in the 1979 general election , 51 . 7 percent to 48 . 3 percent for the late Democrat Jack Miller , a businessman from Blanchard , also in Caddo Parish . He defeated Miller again in 1983 . When Lynn declined to run in 1987 , the seat went Democratic with the election of Caddo Parish Commission president Roy M . " Hoppy " Hopkins of Oil City , who subsequently died in office during the last year of his fifth term . Hopkins ' commission seat was filled for a term by James Whitfield Williamson , a businessman who served as the mayor of Vivian from 1972 – 1986 and an older brother of Don Williamson . Lynn ' s House seat returned to Republican representation in the special election of 2007 , when James H . " Jim " Morris of Oil City was elected to succeed Hopkins . Inmate sues Secretary Lynn . After his legislative service , Lynn was the director of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections from 1988 – 1992 , under appointment from then Governor Charles Elson " Buddy " Roemer , III . In his capacity as corrections secretary , Lynn was sued by an inmate who claimed invasion of privacy during a body search carried out on all convicts in the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola . Under orders from Lynn , David Keith Elliott submitted to a visual body cavity search . The searches were conducted in the general presence of other inmates , guards , and three bystanders . The U . S . District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana granted Lynn ' s motion for summary judgment and dismissed Elliott ' s suit . Elliott then filed before the New Orleans - based U . S . Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case entitled " Elliott v . Lynn " . Elliott claimed that the search violated his Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights under the United States Constitution . The three - judge appeals court panel held that , while the Constitution protects against " unreasonable search and seizure , " Elliott was not deprived of a " state created liberty interest without due process of law . " Elliott had also claimed that Lynn was not entitled to the protection provided by qualified immunity . The court found that during the period " preceding June 9 , 1989 , an extraordinary number of murders , suicides , stabbings , and cuttings occurred within the Louisiana State Penitentiary . These circumstances created an emergency situation , and the defendant Lynn ordered an institution - wide shakedown … All 3 , 164 prisoners , including Elliott , were subjected to a visual body cavity search over a period of two and one - half days . To facilitate this massive search effort , Lynn brought in additional correctional officers . " The court hence found in Lynn ' s favor .