Smiley Anders *

Anders was born in Natchez, Mississippi and attended college in Louisiana. He graduated from LSU in 1959 with a B.A. degree in journalism. He then earned his Masters degree in journalism from LSU in 1971. Dr. David Cheramie, Director of CODOFIL said, “Smiley’s warm style of writing is very important to our efforts to make Louisiana citizens realize the importance of saving our native French language.”

Smiley Anders has been employed by a number of media in the state. In 1960, he was the Oil & Gas editor for the Shreveport Times. From 1962-1966, he was the Information Director for the Louisiana Farm Bureau. The Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce employed him as their Public Relations Director from 1966-73. In 1973, the Advocate, then hired him as the Business Reporter from 1973-79. Since 1979, Anders has been known to all as one of the most popular columnists for the Advocate with over 100,000 people reading his column each and every day in South Louisiana.

He has received numerous awards for his work as a journalist. In both 1985 and 1996, Anders received first place recognition from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Again in 1993, he received Second place award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.

In 1975, he was voted as Communicator of the Year by the Public Relations Association of Louisiana. He served as President of the Press Club of Baton Rouge in 1975 and again in 1997.

He is married to Katherine Scales and has two children and six grandchildren.

* Asterisk after a person’s name indicates that the person is deceased.