Willie Mount  Willie Landry Mount (born August 25, 1949) is an American politician from Louisiana who served as a Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate from 2000 to 2012. She represented District 27, which includes parts of her native Lake Charles and the surrounding cities of Sulphur and Westlake. From 1993 to 1999, Mount was the first woman to serve as the mayor of Lake Charles. Mount was a candidate in the 2004 U.S. House of Representatives election for Louisiana's 7th congressional district. She was defeated by Republican Charles Boustany in a contested general election campaign that received national attention. In 1974, Mount obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from McNeese State University in Lake Charles. She owned a small business and worked as a real estate agent and pharmaceutical representative for Lederle Laboratories. Mount resides in her hometown with her husband, attorney Benjamin Mount; they have no children. Mount had been active in community work through organizations such as the Junior League of Lake Charles, and ran for mayor of Lake Charles in 1993. She defeated Paul Savoie, a Democrat and a former mayor. During her tenure she served as president of the Louisiana Conference of Mayors and supported restoration efforts following hurricanes. To this end Mount testified before Congress in support of the Conservation and Reinvestment Act of 1999. She co-sponsored the building of an Amtrak station, modeled after an older station that had been destroyed in a fire. In an effort to succeed retiring state senator James J. Cox, Mount announced her Senate candidacy on October 19, 1999, while addressing the Calcasieu Parish School Board, whose support she sought. Upon being elected, Mount resigned as mayor and City Council President Rodney Geyen took over the office. In the senate, Mount served on a variety of committees, chairing the Senate Committees on Coastal Restoration and Flood Control, Revenue and Fiscal Affairs, and also serving as Vice-Chair of the Senate Committee on Education. In 2008, she became chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare. Mount often sponsors legislation regarding health and public service. This includes bills intended to identify sex offenders and enact term limits for various boards and commissions. She was responsible for passing these term limits as an amendment to the Louisiana Constitution, as SB 232 on November 4, 2008. Mount also sponsored legislation to merge New Orleans criminal and civil district courts, create a childhood and family learning center, couple the opening of new hospice care providers with inspections of existing ones, allow police to suspend driver's licenses of teenagers with problems at school, and create a state-run internet database providing information on the quality of health care providers.