His wife, Dorothy Richard-Pierce, a native of Opelousas, was also a teacher; Pierce first thought that they could save her monthly salary.

Pierce had been the president of the youth council of the Monroe branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and was active in the civil rights movement.

[1] In the 1996 nonpartisan blanket primary for mayor of Monroe, Pierce led a field of six candidates with 5,584 votes (35.5 percent).

[3] After forty years, Pierce left the employment of the school board on June 30, 1996, the day before he took the oath of office as mayor.

[1] Pierce sought reelection in 2000; mayoral election day in Monroe coincides with the presidential primaries; that year Al Gore and George W. Bush won large majorities in Ouachita Parish on the path toward their party nominations.

[5] After Rambin's death, the Monroe City Council then named its president, Jamie Mayo, an African American from District 5, as the interim mayor.