Conway LeBleu

Background

A native of Lake Charles, the seat of government of Calcasieu Parish, LeBleu graduated in 1935 from the former Lake Charles High School, now Lake Charles Boston High School, and joined a geophysical crew for Shell Oil. He was also a warehouse worker for Mobil Oil until 1942, when he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, forerunner of the Air Force. He served during World War II in the Pacific Theater of Operations and in Korea until his honorable discharge in 1946.

After the war, LeBleu attended McNeese State University, then McNeese Junior College in Lake Charles, and Colorado State University, then Colorado A&M University, in Fort Collins, Colorado. He graduated in 1950 from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture.

Mrs. LeBleu, the former Virgie Annie McCall (1918-2016), was a home economics teacher in public schools and at the then McNeese State College. A descendant of a pioneer Cameron Parish family, her father, Thomas W. McCall, was for forty years the Cameron Parish school superintendent.A native of Grand Chenier, she was active in the establishment of the Cameron Parish Library and her local Methodist churches.

Career

Conway and Virgie married in 1950 and established their residence in Cameron Parish. They survived the deadly Hurricane Audrey in 1957 but moved to Lake Charles after Hurricane Rita in 2005. He was a member of the Cameron Parish Cattleman's Association, the Farm Bureau, and the Optimist Club. He was active in the Sabine River Authority, the administrative agency for the Toledo Bend Reservoir project. He was a member of the Louisiana Intracoastal Seaway Association, the Cameron Waterworks Board, and the Cameron Parish Police Jury, the parish governing body akin to the county commission in most other states.

In 1964, LeBleu was elected to the state House to succeed Alvin Dyson, the three-term member from Cameron Parish. LeBleu served under three Governors, John McKeithen, Edwin Edwards, and David C. Treen. He worked to establish the Ellender Ferry Bridge and to upgrade evacuation routes from lower Cameron Parish. He also promoted tourism and sport fishing along the Gulf Coast. LeBleu was posthumously inducted in 2014 into the Southwest District Livestock Show and Rodeo because of his work in securing funding when the Burton Coliseum in Lake Charles, the home of the show, faced the possibility of closing. His efforts kept the structure in use for several years until a local maintenance tax was passed. LeBleu supported the livestock show and rodeo further by donating prize money and awards.

In his last House election, LeBleu defeated an Independent opponent, Michael Tritico, 11,764 (74.9 percent) to 3,943 (25.1 percent).

Family and legacy

Conway Charles LeBleu (1962–1993), a nephew of Conway and Virgie LeBleu, was one of four agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms killed in the raid of the Branch Davidian compound headed by David Koresh in Waco, Texas. Federal officials said that they were searching for illegal weapons at the compound. More than eighty of the Branch Davidians died in a federal raid in April 1993 after a two-month standoff. Conway Charles LeBleu, who was killed on the first day of the crisis on February 28, is interred at Consolata Cemetery in Lake Charles.

LeBleu died a week after his 89th birthday. He is interred alongside his wife, who outlived all of her immediate family, at the McCall Cemetery in Grand Chenier. Both Conway and Virgie LeBleu received the honor of being named "Cameron Parish Citizen of the Year."

LeBleu's archival material is located at McNeese State University. The Conway LeBleu Memorial Bridge, also called the Gibbstown Bridge, over the Louisiana Intracoastal Waterway is named in his honor.