| Dudley J. Leblanc |
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EARLY YEARS AND MILITARY SERVICE LeBlanc was born to Numa and Noemie LeBlanc in the farming community of LeBlanc near Youngsville , in Lafayette Parish . The LeBlancs moved to Erath in Vermilion Parish , when he was a toddler. He considered Vermilion Parish as his home throughout his life, though technically he was not a native of that parish. He graduated from Erath High School. When he turned 18, LeBlanc graduated from the institution now known as the University Of Louisiana At Lafayette . At the time it was called "Southwestern Louisiana Institute." LeBlanc self-financed his college expenses by running a pressing business at night. The operation was so successful that he reportedly helped to put two cousins through school as well. After he graduated from college, LeBlanc became a high-powered salesman of tobacco, shoes, crude oil, and, later, patent medicines. He was so successful that he sent each of his four brothers through college. "Then I went into the U.S. Army . Educating my brothers took it all," LeBlanc quipped. LeBlanc was a sergeant during World War I . His adulthood was spent primarily in Abbeville , the seat of Vermilion Parish, where LeBlanc had a large, comfortable home. Another gubernatorial hopeful, Republican Charlton Havard Lyons, Sr. , was born in Abbeville. Lyons lost the 1964 General Election to John Julian McKeithen . TANGLING WITH HUEY P. LONG, JR. In 1924 , LeBlanc was elected to the Louisiana House Of Representatives . He ran because he did not think that the incumbent representative had done a good job of bringing roads into Vermilion Parish. A story persists that the representative dared LeBlanc to run against him, and LeBlanc accepted the challenge and narrowly unseated the lawmaker. LeBlanc served only a half term in the state House because he was elected in 1926 to one of the then three seats on the Louisiana Public Service Commission , the utility rate-making body. He defeated the candidate supported by Huey P. Long. LeBlanc's district covered all of the southwestern third of the state. The commission was expanded to five members under the Louisiana Constitution of 1974 . LeBlanc provided the third swing vote to remove Long as the PSC chairman, as Long was attempting to use the position to promote his pending gubernatorial candidacy. LeBlanc accused Long of being a "slacker" in World War I . THE 1932 GUBERNATORIAL CAMPAIGN LeBlanc and Huey P. Long, Jr. , both being salesmen, had become friends during the 1920s . By the time that LeBlanc decided to run for governor in 1932 , they were bitter intraparty rivals. Long, himself a former public service commissioner, threw his support to the eventual gubernatorial winner, Oscar K. Allen of Winnfield . There were reports of fraud in the balloting, but the election was not close. Allen prevailed with 214,699 votes (56.5 percent) to LeBlanc's 110,848 ballots (29 percent). A third candidate, George Guion, polled 53,756 votes (14.2 percent). Some fishermen even claimed to have seen ballot boxes floating down the Mississippi River . In the 1932 campaign, LeBlanc spent more time attacking Long than he did Allen. Long retaliated: in stump speeches, he poked fun at LeBlanc's French name, much as Long's brother, Earl Kemp Long , later ridiculed then New Orleans Mayor DeLesseps Story Morrison, Sr. , in the 1955 gubernatorial primary. Long also criticized LeBlanc's funeral business, which catered to blacks: "He charges for a coffin and charges $7.50 for a shroud. I am infomed that the [expletive deleted is laid out, and after the mourners have left, LeBlanc takes the body into a back room, takes off the shroud and nails him up into a pine box and buries him at a total of $3.67 and a half cent." Historian T. Harry Williams of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge wrote that LeBlanc's black clients were so outraged by the possibility that the shoruds might be being used more than once that they deserted LeBlanc's business in droves. It was during this losing campaign for governor that LeBlanc began calling for a $30 old-age pension. Years later, Governor John McKeithen, who found LeBlanc charming and humorous, declared LeBlanc the "father of the old-age pension." By that time, the payments were $100 per month. McKeithen also considered returning LeBlanc to the post of president pro tempore of the state Senate, third in line in gubernatorial succession. LeBlanc was president pro tempore from 1948 - 1952 ). When controversy surfaced over the proposed appointment, McKeithen changed his mind. Long was unable to succeed himself as governor but in the meantime had been elected to the U.S. Senate and was poised to take his "Share Our Wealth" philosophy nationwide to Washington, D.C. After his defeat for governor, LeBlanc returned to another prosperous burial insurance business, the "Thibodaux Benevolent Association." Long ran LeBlanc out of Louisiana by getting the legislature to pass a law forbidding LeBlanc from operating his firm in the state. LeBlanc, therefore, moved the company to Texas , where it continued to prosper. After Long's assassination in 1935, LeBlanc sold that business and returned to Abbeville. FOUR STATE SENATE TERMS In 1940, LeBlanc was elected to the first of his four nonconsecutive terms in the state Senate. LeBlanc served from 1940 - 1944 (Sam Jones), 1948 - 1952 (second Earl Long administration), 1964 - 1968 , and 1968 - 1971 ( McKeithen), when he died in office, with some seven months remaining in the term. At the time of his death, LeBlanc was also seeking a fifth term in the Senate, representing Vermilion and Acadia parishes. LeBlanc also twice ran for the in 1952 and 1954 . CAMPAIGNING IN FRENCH LeBlanc often campaigned in French when he made appearances in Acadiana. In his ethnic tongue, he extolled his virtues as a politician who deserved the support of his fellow French ethnics, and he attacked his opponents in a language that most of his rivals could not understand. William J. "Bill" Dodd , a friend and sometimes rival of LeBlanc's, said that LeBlanc once addressed a political gathering in which Public Service Commissioner Ernest S. Clements , who did not speak French -- he was from mostly English Oberlin in Allen Parish -- was in attendance. A practical joker, LeBlanc had some fun with Clements: he assailed Huey and Earl Long AND Clements. There was Clements on the platform applauding as LeBlanc called him "a crook!" Only in Louisiana, it was said, could such politicking be commonplace. And, yes, on more than one occasion Earl Long called LeBlanc "a crook." Dodd recalled an incident when he was lieutenant governor and presided over the state senate. LeBlanc was accused by an unnamed north Louisiana senator of having a financial interest in some proposed law. Dodd said in his memoirs, Peapatch Politics: The Earl Long Era in Louisiana Politics, that "Dudley had a hard time getting gung ho for any political act that didn't help him personally." The two senators nearly came to physical blows. Then the whole Senate burst into laughter,and two forgot their differences. RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR AGAIN, 1944 AND 1952 In 1944, LeBlanc surrendered his senate seat to make his second run for governor. He fared poorly. He polled only 40,392 votes (8.4 percent). Ernest Clements was running for governor too -- he polled about half as many votes as LeBlanc received. The winner that year was LeBlanc's fellow Democrat, Jimmie Davis , who won the first of his two nonconsecutive terms. LeBlanc returned to the state senate in 1948, only to give up the seat again in 1952, so that he could contest the gubernatorial nomination for the third time. He polled 62,906 votes (8.3 percent). The winner that year was Democrat, Robert F. Kennon , a judge from Minden in Webster Parish . Dodd was in the same race and also fared poorly, but he still received more votes than LeBlanc. LeBlanc used his state Senate seat to pass legislation to assist teachers, farmers, and veterans. He also developed the Louisiana Old Age Pension, originally $30 a month, for people over 65. At one point, he was outbidding the Longs on how much the state could afford to pay the aged. | |||||||||||||||
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