1925 Biography - E. M. Bodenheimer

E. M. Bodenheimer has been a resident of Shreveport for more than half a century, and through most of those years has been closely identified with the city's business and civic development. He is district manager for the Union Central Life Insurance Company, and is the official head of one of the finest residential communities in the State of Louisiana, the Town of South Highland, which adjoins Shreveport on the south.

He was born on his father's plantation in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, in 1860. His father, Jacob Bodenheimer, came from Germany in 1827 and was a substantial and thrifty pioneer in Northwest Louisiana. He died in 1866, and in the same year his widow with her family moved to Shreveport.

E. M. Bodenheimer was six years of age when he came to Shreveport, finished his education in the local schools, and for twenty years was actively connected with the mercantile business. For a dozen years he has been engaged in the real estate and insurance business, and has been responsible for the building up of a large volume of insurance in force for the Union Central Life Insurance Company of Cincinnati.

Upon the organization of South Highland as a village he was elected the first mayor, and has held that office consecutively. South Highland is the home of some of the wealthy and most prominent citizens of Shreveport. It is a marvel municipality in point of improvements as well as civic spirit. The town has practically completed a 100 per cent paving program at a cost of about half a million dollars, and other features of the community are one of the finest school buildings in the state, a beautiful public park, fine artesian water supply. Mr. Bodenheimer and family live in a beautiful home at 815 Delaware Street, this being one of the first of the finer residences that adorn South Highland.

Mr. Bodenheimer married Miss Bertha Levy, who is now deceased. There are two sons, Dr. J. M. and G. M. Bodenheimer, and a daughter, Mrs. Harriet Goldsmith. Doctor Bodenheimer and wife have two children, Elias and Bertha, and Mr. Bodenheimer has another grandchild, Albert Goldsmith, a son of Mrs. Harriet Goldsmith, who is a widow. G. M. Bodenheimer has two children, Berthold and G. M., Jr. Mr. Bodenheimer is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias, and also of the Chamber of Commerce and of B'nai Zion Congregation.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, Volume 2, pages 142-143.