O'Neal was born in Shreveport to Benjamin F. O'Neal Sr. ( 1889 – 1968 ) and the former Abbie Hendrick . O'Neal 's grandfather , also Benjamin Franklin O'Neal of Benton , was the sheriff of Bossier Parish from 1871 to 1877 , and thereafter the U.S. marshal for the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana . The grandfather was a delegate to the 1900 Republican National Convention , which renominated President William McKinley and then New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt for vice president . The grandfather died in New Orleans in 1910 , while he was visiting a son . Hence , unlike most Louisiana Republicans , who were former Democrats , O'Neal came from an old Republican family . B. F. O'Neal Sr. was involved in real estate and property development and from 1910 to had been the advertising manager of '' The Shreveport Times '' . O'Neal Jr. had two older sisters , Mary Steele Cooper and Jane Hendrick Kleine , both of whom died in 1999
1900 Republican National Convention
1900 Republican National Convention
B. F. O'Neal Jr.