Kenneth Eli “Ken” Osterberger Jr. was born on April 3, 1930, and died on August 10, 2016.
He was a member of the Louisiana State Senate for East Baton Rouge Parish.
Osterbergerserved first as a Democrat in the elections of 1972, 1975, 1979, and 1983 and then as a Republican in the contest held in 1987.
Kenneth tenure ended in 1992, and he was succeeded by the Moderate Republican Jay Dardenne, the current Louisiana commissioner of administration and the former lieutenant governor.
Osterberger’s legislative service corresponded with the first three administrations of Governor Edwin Edwards and the intervening years of Governors David C. Treen and Buddy Roemer.
Before his Senate service, Osterberger was for eight years a member of the Baton Rouge Metro government.
Osterberger was the President Pro Tempore of the Metro government, from 1969 to 1972.
During 1975, in his first reelection to the state Senate, Osterberger polled nearly two-thirds of the votes cast in the first ever nonpartisan blanket primary held in Louisiana, when he was challenged by the then Democrat, later Republican convert, David Duke, a former official with the Ku Klux Klan who then resided in Baton Rouge.
During 1983, Osterberger in his last race as a Democrat defeated the Republican “Rocky” Powell, 29,816 (73.8 percent) to 10,607 (26.2 percent).
He died due to Alzheimer’s disease.
Kenneth Osterberger passed away at 86 years old.