2026 Legend
Dr. John Robert Moreland
Louisiana Legends Fest proudly announces John Robert Moreland M.D., a Homer native whose distinguished career in orthopaedic surgery has touched thousands of lives and whose commitment to preserving his Claiborne Parish heritage continues today, as its 2026 Louisiana Legend.
Dr. Moreland will be honored in his hometown during the 2026 Louisiana Legends Fest, joining a distinguished list of individuals recognized for exceptional achievement, service and lasting impact.
Louisiana Legend honorees are selected through an open nomination process and voted upon by the Legends Council, composed of Louisiana Legends Fest sponsors. Nominees are considered for their roots in Claiborne Parish and Louisiana and for the significance of their impact on their community, the state, the nation and the world.
FROM HOMER TO THE FOREFRONT OF MEDICINE
Born and raised in Homer, Moreland grew up working alongside his four siblings in his father’s Piggly Wiggly supermarket and graduated as valedictorian of Homer High School.
He earned a BS in Chemistry from Baylor University in Waco, Texas and his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas. After surgical training at Los Angeles County–USC Medical Center, and Orthopedic residency at UCLA he then had fellowships in joint replacement surgery at UCLA (one year) and in London England (one year).
After medical school Moreland then joined the orthopaedic faculty at UCLA and became nationally and internationally recognized for hip and knee replacement surgery, particularly complex revision procedures. His patients ranged from people seeking relief from debilitating joint disease to some of the most recognizable names in entertainment, contributing to his reputation as a “surgeon to the stars.”
INNOVATION BEYOND THE OPERATING ROOM
Dr. Moreland developed specialized surgical instruments for difficult hip and knee revision procedures. The Moreland Revision Instruments became recognized tools in orthopaedic surgery and are used in major hospitals across the country.
He also contributed to prosthesis and surgical-instrument design, medical research, professional publications and physician education. His professional distinctions included membership in both The Hip Society and The Knee Society, organizations dedicated to advancing joint-replacement surgery.
A LEGACY ROOTED IN CLAIBORNE PARISH
Despite a career that carried him far beyond Louisiana, Moreland maintained a strong connection to his hometown and family history.
The Moreland family’s Claiborne Parish roots extend to the early 1850s. Migrating from Georgia to Claiborne Parish, the historic Moreland Homeplace, associated with generations of the family, remains one of the parish’s important surviving historic residences. The broader family story also includes Spring Lake, associated with the Moreland and Phillips families.
Dr. Moreland acquired the Moreland Homeplace in 1991 from his uncle, S. S. Moreland, Jr. and has devoted significant effort to its preservation and restoration, continuing that work through present.
In 2025, he also became instrumental in the cleanup and restoration of Old Homer Cemetery, established as a public burial ground by the Claiborne Parish Police Jury in 1850. The cemetery, where the last burial occurred in 1995, contains the graves of many Moreland ancestors as well as generations of Homer residents.
At the Moreland Homeplace, he has helped preserve the place where generations lived.
At Old Homer Cemetery, he has helped preserve the place where generations rest.
A LOUISIANA LEGEND COMES HOME
“Dr. John Moreland’s story represents exactly why Louisiana Legends Fest was created,” said Jack Hightower, President of the Claiborne Unite Foundation, producer of Louisiana Legends Fest. “He began right here in Homer, carried the values and work ethic of this community into a career that influenced medicine nationally and internationally, and never lost his connection to home. His work preserving the Moreland Homeplace and Old Homer Cemetery makes that story even more meaningful. His impact reaches from Claiborne Parish to the world—and back home again.”
Dr. Moreland’s recognition reflects the mission of Louisiana Legends Fest: to celebrate individuals with Louisiana roots whose lives and accomplishments have made a meaningful difference far beyond the place where their stories began.
The medical profession knows Dr. John Robert Moreland for his contributions to orthopaedic surgery.
His patients know him for restoring mobility and independence.
His hometown knows him as one of its own.
And on October 17, 2026, Homer and Claiborne Parish will honor Dr. John Robert Moreland as a Louisiana Legend.
2026 Legacy Legend
Nena Plant Wideman
Louisiana Legends Fest and the Claiborne Unite Foundation are proud to announce Nena Plant Wideman as the 2026 Louisiana Legends Fest Legacy Legend, honoring a remarkable North Louisiana music educator, pianist and arts leader whose professional journey began in Homer and whose influence ultimately reached students and musicians around the world. Wideman will be recognized during the 2026 Louisiana Legends Fest in Homer on October 17, 2026.
Born December 21, 1905, Nena Plant grew up in North Louisiana with family roots extending into the historic Mount Lebanon community. After attending Louisiana State Normal College, now Northwestern State University, she accepted her first professional teaching position in Homer in 1926. Homer and Claiborne Parish became the foundation of her adult life. She taught music, married Yandell Wideman, raised a family and became part of the community during an important period in Claiborne Parish history. Following her husband’s death in 1937, Wideman continued raising her children while pursuing advanced musical study in Chicago and building an extraordinary career in music education.
“Nena Plant Wideman represents exactly what we hope to recognize through the Legacy Legend honor. Her story began right here in Homer as a young teacher, but through talent, determination and a lifelong commitment to others, her influence grew far beyond Claiborne Parish. Generations later, the competition that carries her name is still creating opportunities for young musicians. We are especially proud to bring her story home and honor the impact she made here, across Louisiana and beyond," said Tina Kendrick, Claiborne Unite Foundation Board Member.
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After advanced study at Chicago Musical College, Wideman returned to Northwest Louisiana and became one of the region’s most influential music educators. She taught hundreds of young pianists through her private studio and as a member of the piano faculty at Centenary College in Shreveport. She became an important leader and advocate for classical music throughout Northwest Louisiana.
Wideman played a significant role in the development of the Shreveport Symphony Society, serving in leadership and committee positions and helping select John Shenaut as the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra’s first musical director.
Her most enduring public legacy began in 1950, when she established the Piano Concerto Contest to give talented young musicians the opportunity to perform with a professional symphony orchestra. Wideman managed, promoted and supported the competition for more than 30 years, bringing guest conductors and judges from across the United States to Shreveport.
In 1981, the Shreveport Symphony renamed the event the Nena Plant Wideman International Piano Competition, recognizing Wideman as its founder and “guiding spirit.” The competition continues today at Centenary College’s Hurley School of Music and attracts accomplished young pianists from universities and conservatories across the United States and around the world.
Wideman’s influence also touched musicians who achieved international recognition. Family recollections shared by her step-grandson, the Reverend Fred Wideman, describe a warm relationship between Nena and celebrated pianist Van Cliburn. One treasured family story tells of Nena asking Cliburn to place his famously large hands on a sheet of paper so she could trace them in pencil; the Wideman family reportedly still preserves the tracing. Following Wideman’s death in 1984, Cliburn reportedly sent 100 carnations to her funeral.
Reverend Fred Wideman continues the family’s connection to Claiborne Parish and lives on Lake Claiborne near Homer. He is expected to attend the Louisiana Legends Fest recognition honoring his grandmother’s legacy.
Wideman is buried beside her husband, Yandell Wideman, in the family burial plot at Arlington Cemetery in Homer. Her story reflects the purpose of the Louisiana Legends Fest Legacy Legend recognition: honoring individuals whose roots are tied to Claiborne Parish and North Louisiana and whose accomplishments have made an impact far beyond their hometown.
From a Homer music classroom in 1926 to an international piano competition that still carries her name a century later, Nena Plant Wideman left a legacy built on education, opportunity, perseverance and service to others.
2025 Legend
Born in Cypress Bottom, Claiborne Parish, Frank Foster has achieved remarkable success in Country music since the release of his first album in 2011. He not only has taken the road less traveled, but the road almost never traveled. Acting as his own record label, management, booking agency and publishing company, he has managed to find success that some major label artist may never find. This rural Louisiana native and former oilfield man has taken his songs from the campfire to the coliseum seemingly overnight, all the while gaining a following of fans whose
Frank Foster
loyalty is unmatched. He is a singer, a songwriter, and his own boss. He refuses to let anyone water down his kind of country music. If he lives it, he writes it; if he writes it, he sings it; if he sings it, he believes it. Frank Foster … a true original and a true Louisiana Legend.
We are also excited to announce Frank as our music headliner performing during the event. “This is the fifth year for Legends Fest and it will be the biggest and the best to date. We could not be more pleased to have a legend like Frank Foster as part of the event as both the legend and the music headliner. He represents the best of Claiborne Parish and Louisiana in his life and his music. You will not want to miss this year’s event,” said Jack Hightower, president of Claiborne Unite Foundation, which produces the annual festival.
2025 Legacy Legend
Dr. James C. Willis and Dr. Joseph E. Knighton
The Louisiana Legends Festival is proud to announce that this year’s Louisiana Legends Fest Legacy Legends are a pair of medical doctors with a huge impact on regional healthcare. Dr. James C. Willis and Dr. Joseph E. Knighton were both born and raised in Claiborne Parish, LA. Both doctors opened separate practices in Homer. Early in the 1900’s they merged their practices and in 1909 moved this practice from Homer to Shreveport. The new practice was originally set up in downtown Shreveport, but by the 1920’s they would move this practice to where the population was moving, to the very westernmost end of the trolley line. They built their office close to where the Louisiana State Fairgrounds are today. The Willis Knighton Clinic sat next door to the Tri State Sanitorium, a hospital they would later buy and operate. In 1950, one year after becoming a not-for-profit hospital, it was renamed the Willis Knighton Hospital to honor Dr. Willis and Dr. Knighton. For over 100 years, Willis Knighton Medical Center has followed the vision of their early founders and continues to serve as a leader in healthcare locally, regionally, and nationally.
Dr. James C. Willis was born in Claiborne Parish in 1865. He went to medical school at the University of Tennessee which would later become Vanderbilt University. Dr. Willis had seven children. A son, named after his father, was born in Homer in 1891, and would become a doctor who practiced with his father in Shreveport. Dr. Willis died in 1942 at the age of 77. In his last months, he suffered some acute medical condition and was flown to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for emergency surgery but died shortly thereafter.
Dr. Joseph E. Knighton was born in 1870 in Claiborne Parish. His father, a farmer, had settled here after the end of the Civil War. Like his future partner, he attended Medical School in Nashville, Tennessee, but also continued his medical education at Johns Hopkins and Tulane and studied overseas in Ireland, Scotland and France. In January 1900, at the very beginning of a new century, he opened his first practice in Homer. Dr. Knighton had three children. Like Dr. Willis, there was a son, born in Homer, who would become a doctor and work with his father. Dr. Knighton suffered a fatal heart attack at work in 1949. He was 79 years old.
One must marvel at the ambition and their optimism about the future. Both Dr. Willis and Dr. Knighton served the community in pioneering healthcare service and education. Recognizing a need for more nurses, the Tri State Hospital started a training program for nurses. The Tri State Nursing School was a three- year program, graduating 20-25 nurses a year.
Although undergoing continual renovations, improvements, and growth the main medical facility sits at the same site for the last 101 years. The Willis Knighton system now includes 5 hospitals: WK North; WK South; WK Pierremont; WK Bossier; and the James K. Elrod WK Rehabilitation. The system also includes Live Oak Retirement Center, and The Innovation Center in Bossier City which houses the Talbot Medical Museum.
Dr. Joseph E. Knighton
Dr. James C. Willis
2024 Legend
Homer Iron Men
The Louisiana Legends Council is honored to announce as this year’s Legend the 1957 Homer High School Football Team. The 1957 Homer High Pelicans were one of the greatest football teams to ever play in Louisiana. This small-town team only fielded 19 players, yet they defeated teams from much larger schools all over Louisiana. Renowned sportswriter Jerry Byrd gave the team its nickname- The Homer Iron Men. The 1957 Louisiana State Championship game ended in a 6-6 tie with the Homer Iron Men standing toe to toe with a much larger Bossier High School. The 19 Iron Men scored a winning touchdown, but it was overturned by a penalty.
Twelve team members made All-District, five made All-State, one made All-Southern and two made High School All Americans. Following their semifinal win over Ruston, LSU football coach Paul Dietzel told Homer Coach Glenn Gossett that he would offer every player on that team a football scholarship to LSU. At least eight players played college football, four at LSU, one at Tulane, and three at Northwestern.
This team’s history continues to bring great memories and recognition to Claiborne Parish. The Iron Men’s legacy is one of skill, determination and grit, attributes that make them perfect candidates to be honored as the Louisiana Legends Festival 2024 Legend.
This team legacy continues to bring great memories to Claiborne Parish. The skill, determination, and grit are the things that attributes that keep this team recognized in Claiborne Parish history and make them the perfect recognition as 2024 Louisiana Legends Fest Legend.
Front Row: Buddy Pixley, B. Barker, D. Ackley, Derwood Thomas, Jimmy Andrews, R. Perry Middle Row: 84, Charles Lewis, Kenneth Hood, 74, Gladney Davidson, G. W. Zachary Top Row: Ray Wilkins, John Wayne Odom, Ray Weaver, Fred Miller, Herman Coleman, Bobby Flurry, Sammy Camp Not Pictured: Bill Thomas, Coach Glenn Gossett, Coach Jimmy Bradshaw, Coach Don Johnson
2024 Legacy Legend
Geoffrey Beene
The first Legacy Legend is one of America’s true fashion design pioneers, Geoffrey Beene was known for his timeless designs and iconic sense of style.
He was born on August 30, 1927, in Haynesville, La. into a family of doctors and was encouraged to follow in their footsteps. He studied medicine at Tulane University in New Orleans, but dropped out in 1946, following three years of study. Beene moved to Los Angeles, where he studied fashion design at the University of Southern California and began his career in the fashion industry. Geoffrey also attended the Traphagen School of Fashion in New York, the Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne (ECSCP) in Paris and the couture house of Molyneux in Paris.
Beene founded his firm, Geoffrey Beene, Inc., in New York City in 1963, in partnership with Teal Traina's Leo Orlandi in a Seventh Avenue Showroom. In 1976, Beene became the first American designer to show a collection in Milan, Italy. This international success in the fashion industry led to his sixth Coty Award in 1977, giving impetus to American fashion abroad. In 1982, Beene received his eighth Coty Award; the most awarded to any one designer. He went on from there to receive three CFDA awards, and a honorary doctorate from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Mr. Beene challenged the American fashion establishment by creating haute couture for women and classic, superbly tailored styles for men that married comfort and luxury. Geoffrey Beene has become synonymous with impeccable styling, superb tailoring, comfort and quality. Beene's clients included Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, Nancy Reagan, Faye Dunaway and Glenn Close.
Mr. Beene was widely regarded as “America’s Greatest Designer” at the time of his death in 2005. Mr. Beene is buried in Haynesville, La.
2023 Legend
Coach Alton "Red" Franklin
Coach Alton “Red” Franklin. Coach Franklin is one of the winningest high school football coaches in Louisiana and the country. As head Coach of Haynesville’s Golden Tornado for 35 years he won 11 state titles, 4 runner-up titles, reached the state playoffs in 31 of his 35 years, had 8 perfect seasons and compiled a record of 366-76-8. He was twice named National High School Athletic Association Region 5 Coach of the Year and was inducted into the Louisiana High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame, the Ark-La-Tex Sports Museum of Champions and the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
In addition to his impressive coaching skills, Coach Franklin is generally credited with easing the transition of school integration which occurred during his first years as head coach, reassuring his athletes by posting a quote in the locker room stating, “Those who stay will be champions.”
2022 Legend
Dr. James Andrews
Homer native Dr. James Andrews, a nationally and internationally known orthopedic surgeon. Dr. Andrews is renowned in the field of sports medicine. He is a past president of the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine and has served on the Board of Directors for the Arthroscopy Association of North America and the International Knee Society.
A graduate of Homer High School, Dr. Andrews played on the legendary Iron Man Team of 1957. He was the SEC pole vault champion while at LSU. He's been inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine Hall of Fame. He has been a Clinical Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at medical schools in Alabama, Virginia, Kentucky, South Carolina and at Tulane in Louisiana. In 2020 he was named Tulane Medical School's Alumni of the year.
2021 Legend
Bobby Rush
Born November 10, 1933, in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, Bobby Rush (Emmett Ellis, Jr.) is an American blues musician, composer, singer, and entertainer.
Rush is the son of Emmett and Mattie Ellis and he grew up on a farm in the community of Colquit, Louisiana. Emmett Sr. was a respected church pastor and farmer in the Claiborne Parish community. Bobby reflects on his days working with his father in the sugar cane fields. Bobby recalls the hard work cutting sugar cane resulted in the wonderful syrup for the biscuits his mother made. Emmett, Sr. had a love for the guitar and harmonica and his playing had a huge influence on young Bobby’s love of music. Bobby tells of hanging around the back of Mr. Beer’s store looking for an old empty tub. He soon found an old syrup bucket, a stick, and hay bailing wire, he made his first “didley bow” and his love for music grew.
When Bobby was 14 years old, he and his family moved to Pine Bluff, Arkansas as his father moved to a new church. Over the next seven decades, Bobby Rush has been a consistent force in American Blues Music. Bobby has traveled the world entertaining, noted as the first American Blues Artist to play in China. Bobby’s dozens of albums and thousands of shows have resulted in great recognition of his talent, his influence, and his impact on the world.
Bobby Rush is a two-time Grammy Award winner, Best Male Soul Blues Artist, B. B. King Entertainer of the Year, a member of the Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame and a member of the Blues Hall of Fame. At each step, Bobby has worked to honor his mother and father and has remained proud of his heritage and has supported worthy causes in his native Claiborne Parish.
In recognition of his talent, perseverance, his patience, and his influence, the Louisiana Legends Festival is recognizing Mr. Bobby Rush, as the inaugural Louisiana Legend.
“I was born in a shotgun house in Carquit (Colquit), Louisiana. Carquit (Colquit), smack-dab between Haynesville and the county (Parish) seat of Homer, was like a million other tiny towns in the South. It was just a road with a sign.”
Bobby Rush, I Ain’t Studdin’ Ya; My American Blues Story.
