Edwards Barham - Early Years, Family, Conservation

Early Years, Family, Conservation

Barham was born to Louisiana native Erle McKoin "Ninety" Barham (1916–1976) and the former Rosalie Smith (1913–1999), originally from Missouri. He graduated from Oak Ridge High School and received a bachelor's degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Thereafter, he obtained a master's degree in ornithology from the University of Louisiana at Monroe (then Northeast Louisiana State College). President Richard M. Nixon named him in the early 1970s to head a White House conservation initiative.

Barham is married to the former Bennie Faye Berry (born 1935). Their older son, Robert Berry Barham (born 1957), works with his father on the Morehouse Parish plantation. Another son, Erle West Barham (born 1964), farms a large area about the family's Ingleside Plantation in Leflore and Carroll counties in Mississippi. He claims residences in Sidon and Greenwood. West Barham, as he is known, grows cotton, rice, corn, and soybeans. He and his wife, Trudy C. Barham (born 1963), have two children.

West Barham is also a conservationist who has made a name for himself trying to preserve the habitat and survival of the bobtail quail. He is indeed sometimes called the "quail man." The conservationist thrust of the family was actually set by the senior Erle Barham. There is a wildlife refuge on Barham properties in Morehouse Parish near the parish seat of Bastrop, and the Tensas Wildlife Refuge near Delhi (pronounced DELL HIGH) in Richland Parish came to fruition with the help of the senior Barham.

The senior Barham was killed in the crash of the light plane that he was piloting near Oak Ridge. Barham and four friends were returning to Morehouse Parish from Baton Rouge, where they had attended the 1976 LSU-Oregon State University at Corvallis football game. Barham and three of the men were killed, but a fourth (John S. Barr, III) survived.