Earl Long

Background

Long was born in Winnfield, the seat of government of Winn Parish, in north central Louisiana to Huey Pierce Long, Sr. (1852–1937) and the former Caledonia Palestine Tyson (1860–1913), a native of neighboring Grant Parish. He was the younger brother of U.S. Representative George Shannon "Doc" Long and Governor and U.S. Senator Huey Pierce Long, Jr.

Their younger sister was Lucille Long Hunt (1898–1985), who married John S. Hunt, II, of Ruston, the seat of Lincoln Parish, in north Louisiana. Their son John S. Hunt, III, was one of then three members of the Louisiana Public Service Commission, based in Monroe.

Long attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where his college roommate was John Jones Doles, Sr., a future state senator from Plain Dealing, in northern Bossier Parish. Long graduated from Loyola University College of Law in New Orleans.

First races for lieutenant governor

Long first ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1932 without the support of his brother, Governor and U.S. Senator-elect Huey Long, who was pre-committed in that election to the successful candidates, Oscar K. Allen of Winnfield for governor and John B. Fournet of St. Martinville for lieutenant governor. In his autobiography, Every Man a King, Huey Long said that Earl Long's first candidacy for lieutenant governor brought forth charges of a family dynasty in the making.

I sought to discourage [Earl], stating that it would be disastrous for a brother to undertake to have a brother succeed him [as governor] or to have him elected as lieutenant governor. It was already being charged that I was a dictator and that I had allowed many relatives to be placed on the state payrolls (nepotism). To have added a family name to the head of the ticket either for governor or lieutenant governor would have been disastrous to the whole ticket.

Not long after Huey Long's assassination, however, Earl Long handily defeated fellow Democrat Clement Murphy Mos much later a judge in Lake Charles, in the primary held for lieutenant governor in January 1936. Richard W. Leche of New Orleans was elected governor in 1936, but he resigned in scandal in 1939, and Long succeeded for eleven months to the governorship.

1939-1940

Long failed to win a gubernatorial term of his own in the election of 1940. During his abbreviated term, Long appointed a cousin, Floyd Harrison Long, Sr., as the custodian of the Central State (Mental) Hospital in Pineville. Earl Long's brief first tenure corresponded with the "Louisiana Hayride" scandals that engulfed both Governor Leche and the president of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, James Monroe Smith. Long was defeated in the Democratic primary by the conservative attorney Sam H. Jones of Lake Charles.

After the abbreviated governorship, with Coleman Lindsay of Minden as the lieutenant governor, Long was indicted in New Orleans on charges of embezzlement and extortion. The charges involved placing a "deadhead" (an unneeded state worker who performs few or no duties) on the payroll of a special state board.

The 1944 election

In 1944, Long did not run for governor as many had expected but instead for his earlier position as lieutenant governor on an intra-party ticket with former U.S. Representative Lewis L. Morgan of Covington in St. Tammany Parish in suburban New Orleans. Long led the party balloting for the second position in state government, but he lost the runoff to J. Emile Verret of New Iberia, the choice of incoming Governor Jimmie Davis. His previous elected position was as a member and president of the Iberia Parish School Board.

Had Lewis Morgan not entered the second primary against Jimmie Davis, Long would have become lieutenant governor without a runoff. At the time, Louisiana law provided that there would be no statewide constitutional runoff elections unless there was also a second contest for governor. That rule did not apply to state legislative races, however. In the same campaign, the Long-endorsed candidate for attorney general, state Senator Joe T. Cawthorn of Mansfield, lost to the Davis-backed Fred S. LeBlanc.

Long blamed his failure to become lieutenant governor in 1944 on Louisiana Secretary of State Wade O. Martin, Jr., a former ally with whom he quarreled for many years thereafter. Years later he repaid Martin politically. In 1957, Long pushed through a new law, taking jurisdiction of insurance and voting machines from the secretary of state's office and setting up two new patronage positions. Long appointed Rufus D. Hayes of Baton Rouge as the first insurance commissioner and Drayton Boucher of Webster Parish as the commissioner of voting machines. After Boucher decided not to run for office in the 1959–1960 election cycle, Long appointed Douglas Fowler of Red River Parish, who held the job for more than twenty years.

1948–1952

In 1948, Long was elected governor to succeed Jimmie Davis. At the time the salary was $12,000 annually. Long defeated his old rival Sam Jones by a wide margin. Eliminated in the first primary was U.S. Representative James Hobson "Jimmy" Morrison of Hammond, who made his third and final gubernatorial bid. Long appointed A.A. Fredericks as his executive secretary. Harvey Locke Carey of Shreveport was the campaign manager for northwest Louisiana and later the short-term U. S. Attorney for the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

The Memphis Commercial Appeal criticized Long's election as governor in 1948. Long "promised everything but the moon"—old-age pensions, veterans bonuses, a new highway system: "[A]pparently the voters took him at his word, for they elected him by the largest majority ever given a Louisiana candidate [in a gubernatorial runoff contest]. That may be something in the nature of poetic justice, for the majority of voters will be getting exactly what was promised them, and for which they asked, whether they knew it or not."

During the second half of his four-year term, Governor Long became close to Margaret Dixon, the first woman managing editor of the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate. She often advised him on political strategy. In 1951 he appointed her to the LSU Board of Supervisors. Long suffered a major heart attack in 1950, but recovered.

In 1950, Long struck a deal with his intra-party rival, Mayor deLesseps Story Morrison, to return home rule to the Crescent City, which at the time was being virtually governed out of Baton Rouge. Morrison agreed not to work against Long's nephew, Russell B. Long, who was successfully seeking a full term in the United States Senate. Instead, Morrison formally endorsed one of Long's rivals, Malcolm Lafargue, the former U. S. attorney for the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, based in Shreveport. Though Morrison "endorsed" Lafargue, he privately urged his followers to support Russell Long, whom he fully expected to win the race anyway.

1952-1956 interim period

Term limited and unable to run in the 1951–1952 elections, Long essentially sat out the statewide elections. According to Garry Boulard's book, The Big Lie (2001), Long proved instrumental during the 1951–1952 campaign in charges of communism made against gubernatorial candidate Hale Boggs of New Orleans. Rival candidate Lucille May Grace attacked him publicly, but Boulard believes this was rigged by St. Bernard Parish boss Leander Perez. At a stormy session of the state Democratic committee, Long attacked Perez and Grace for attacking Boggs, but prevented Boggs from publicly defending himself. Some analysts thought this strategy greatly contributed to Boggs' defeat in the primary. Judge Robert F. Kennon of Minden won as governor, although most loyal Longites had lined up with Judge Carlos Spaht of Baton Rouge.

1956–1960

Long surfaced at the top of the state again in 1955–1956, when he scored an easy victory for governor over a field that included Mayor of New Orleans deLesseps Story "Chep" Morrison, Sr., a law partner of Hale Boggs; state highway director Fred Preaus of Farmerville, the choice of outgoing Governor Robert Kennon; former state police superintendent Francis Grevemberg; and businessman James M. McLemore of Alexandria. As Louisiana governors rarely won in the first primary, Long's first response on his victory was, "Huey never done that, did he?" In his second race for the office, McLemore ran on a primarily racial segregationist platform, following the ruling by the US Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that segregated public schools were unconstitutional.

In 1956, Long vetoed funding for the work undertaken by the LSU historian Edwin Adams Davis to establish the state archives. Davis appealed to the State Board of Liquidation for temporary relief until funding could be restored in the next legislative session. The archives became a permanent institution in Baton Rouge.

Long eased the governmental indignities placed on African Americans and allowed a considerable number to vote. He convinced the legislature to equalize teacher pay between the races. In 1959, in response to legislative attempts to restrict the suffrage, he called for full participation by blacks in Louisiana elections. He knew that he would attract most of the black vote. In the 1950s, he quarreled with the state's leading segregationist, then state Senator William M. Rainach of Claiborne Parish in north Louisiana.

Long re-appointed A.A. Fredericks as his executive secretary from 1959 through 1960, his last two years of his last term as governor. He appointed another confidante, former legislator Drayton Boucher of Springhill and later Baton Rouge, as interim "Custodian of voting machines" from 1958 to 1959, as he took the responsibility from the Secretary of State. Long supported another ally, Douglas Fowler of Coushatta, who won the position when it was established as an elective office in 1960.

On three occasions, Long tapped Lorris M. Wimberly of Bienville Parish as Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives. In Louisiana, the powerful governor (although limited at the time by non-consecutive terms) chooses the House Speaker despite the separation of powers. In his last term, Long named Wimberly as director of the state department of public works.

In his last gubernatorial term from 1959 to 1960, Long relied heavily on his legislative floor leader, state Representative W.L. Rambo of Georgetown in Grant Parish, in getting bills through the legislature. Rambo was a Long "by marriage," having wed the former Mary Alice Long.

In 1959, Long considered resigning as governor. His loyal lieutenant governor, Lether Frazar of Lake Charles, would have succeeded him as the Louisiana chief executive for some seven months. Under this scenario, Long planned to run again for governor in the December 1959 Democratic primary but by leaving office early could avoid Louisiana's ban (at the time) on governors' succeeding themselves.

He never proceeded with this. Instead, the term-limited Long unsuccessfully sought the lieutenant governorship on a ticket headed by fellow Democrat and wealthy former Governor James A. Noe Instead, Jimmie Davis was elected to a second non-consecutive term as governor in 1960, having first served from 1944 to 1948. It was said that in 1948 Long followed Davis and in 1960 Davis followed Long.

Such figures were testaments to the persistence and power of the Long brand of populism in southern politics.

Long was defeated for lieutenant governor in the 1959 primary by the conservative C. C. "Taddy" Aycock of Franklin in St. Mary Parish in south Louisiana, who thereafter won the January 1960 runoff election over Alexandria Mayor W. George Bowdon, Jr. In the 1959 primary, Long also lost a race to Sheridan Garrett, 2,563 to 2,068, for a Winn Parish seat on the Louisiana Democratic State Central Committee.

"Uncle Earl" and anecdotes

The colorful "Uncle Earl" (so-named because of his relatives, including nephew and U.S. Senator Russell Long) once joked that one day the people of Louisiana would elect "good government, and they won't like it!" But, beneath his public persona as a simple, plain-spoken rural Louisianan of little education, he had an astute political mind of considerable intelligence. Earl Long was a master campaigner, who attracted large crowds when his caravan crisscrossed the state. He would not allow a local person to introduce him or his ticket mates at a rally. Only out-of-parish people could do the honor. Long reasoned that nearly any local person would have made some political enemies who might reject Earl Long just because that person's "enemy" was pro-Long. Long was determined to get every vote possible and so tried to remain independent of local rivalries.

Both Earl Long and his brother Huey had grown close to Earl Williamson, a local politician in Caddo Parish. Williamson's son, Don W. Williamson, later recalled Earl Long coming into their town of Vivian and picking up his father to join the Long entourage for a trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas, where they enjoyed buttermilk drinking and horse racing as well as illicit attractions in the resort city. Long demanded absolute loyalty among his inner circle, often saying that he did not need them to back him when he was right but when he was wrong.

Long's erratic political behavior led the aspiring singer Jay Chevalier to compose in 1959 the song, "The Ballad of Earl K. Long".

Long's feud with Dave Pearce

In the 1948 Democratic primary, W.E. Anderson of Tangipahoa Parish defeated Dave L. Pearce, a legislator from West Carroll Parish in northeastern Louisiana, for the position of Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry. For the 1952 primary, the Democratic Party renominated Anderson without opposition to a second term. After Anderson died that year, outgoing Governor Long appointed Pearce to finish the term. Pearce won a special election and also served as commissioner during the administration of the anti-Long Governor Robert F. Kennon of Minden.

Long's first lieutenant governor, William J. "Bill" Dodd, in his memoir entitled Peapatch Politics: The Earl Long Era in Louisiana Politics (named for Earl Long's "Peapatch Farm" in Winn Parish), writes that Earl Long developed a "hatred" for Pearce. The governor encouraged state entomologist Sidney McCrory of Ascension Parish to run against Pearce in the 1956 primary election. Dodd did not explain why the relationship between Long and Pearce had declined.

McCrory defeated Pearce. But beginning with the 1959 primary, Pearce was nominated by the Democrats for the first of what became four consecutive terms as agriculture commissioner. That year, Earl Long ran for lieutenant governor, but lost to Taddy Aycock.

Dodd noted with humor that Long had become irritated with McCrory after inviting him on Long's intraparty ticket in 1956 in order:

to harass and, we hoped, defeat Uncle Earl's old political enemy, Dave Pearce. All McCrory could talk about was pesticides and how to get rid of different kinds of crop-killing bugs. His main topic and claim to fame, which dominated all of his speeches, whether he was in cotton country, forestry areas, or the city of New Orleans, was his eradicating the pink boll worms from Louisiana cotton fields. Uncle Earl almost went crazy when he had to listen to ... McCrory killed enough pink boll worms to fill the Atlantic Ocean.

Bill Dodd analyzes Earl Long

In his memoir, Dodd assesses Long, accordingly:

He had no formal speech training, but he was a great, forceful, and effective speaker. He had no university background in psychology, yet he practiced psychology in his political life, which was his whole life. He had no training in either economics or governmental administration, yet as governor he was an expert in both. Somewhere along the line, Earl Long changed from an amateurish shoe-polish salesman and political camp follower into a sound businessman and excellent government administrator. Other governors...drew from their formal educational training and varied business and political experiences to operate the governor's office. But none of them surpassed old Earl in the politics of getting elected or handling the job after being elected.

Dodd said that Long "was as conservative as Ronald Reagan and as prejudiced as a Cyclops in the KKK about blacks", but he gave the state many liberal laws, was good to blacks, and strong for welfare. He called women lobbyists "poor things who couldn't get enough at home" and "man-crazy nuts".

Dodd repudiated the 1989 film Blaze about Blaze Starr, a burlesque performer who has an affair with Earl Long. According to Dodd:

Blaze has done much to distort the truth about Earl Long...He never loved Blaze or any of the many strippers and camp followers who came when he whistled...The vulgar language and lurid sex scenes are bad enough to get this movies rated too bad for young people. The unreality of the events and actions of Earl Long make it worthless as a true picture of Earl or Louisiana politics. On a scale of nothing to something, I would rate Blaze a perfect zero.

Eccentricity and hospitalization

Long was well known for eccentric behavior, leading some to suspect that he had bipolar disorder. In his last term in office his wife, Blanche Revere Long (1902–1998), and others attempted to remove him on the grounds of mental instability. For a time, Long was confined to the Southeast Louisiana Hospital in Mandeville, but his legal adviser, Joseph A. Sims, was said to have rescued Long from the institution. Long was never formally diagnosed with any mental disorder. Commentators have speculated that political opposition may have led the effort to prove him mentally incompetent, including his wife, who resented his connection with Blaze Starr.

He had a severe heart attack in 1951. Additionally, in his later years he was alleged to have suffered from strokes, resulting in further mental impairment. Some have speculated that he may have suffered from dementia in his last days.

While confined in the psychiatric hospital in Mandeville, Long kept his political machine running via telephone. His staff discovered that nothing in Louisiana law required him to relinquish power because he was confined to the hospital. Long ordered Jesse Bankston, the head of the state hospital system, fired and replaced him with a supporter, who had Long released. Bill Dodd, who had periods of positive association with Long followed by alienation, defended Long over the hospital confinement. So too did long-time State Senator Sixty Rayburn of Bogalusa, a personal and philosophical ally of Long's.

Earl and Blanche separated at that time. He died before their divorce was completed.

Long was reluctant to appoint a successor as governor in 1952 and 1960, for he hoped to return to office in 1956, which he did, and in 1964, but he died in 1960. William C. Havard, Rudolf Heberle, and Perry H. Howard, in The Louisiana Election of 1960 described Long in the following way:

"Long knew that a term of office on the part of a relatively inactive and conservative administration would create the type of situation for which his [populist] appeals were ideally suited. Furthermore, he had always played down the race issue (after all, there were [then] 150,000 Negro voters in the state), and he certainly clearly foresaw that the issue could furnish only a limited amount of mileage for political travel in the face of current national developments. In point of fact, his victory in the congressional primary [in 1960] within nine months of the second gubernatorial primary was indicative of the shrewdness of his calculation. If Earl Long had not died immediately following that congressional race....few observers doubted that he would have been an odds-on favorite to rebuild his machine sufficiently to capture the governorship in 1964. As it happens, the death of Earl Long leaves a tremendous hiatus—in a sense deliberately created by Earl himself—in the leadership of the Long faction...."

Congressman-elect

Only a few months after his term as governor expired in 1960, Earl Long ran for the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana's 8th congressional district, since redistricted. An entourage of Long backers from over the years flocked to support him in the race, including Bill Dodd, former Senate floor leader C. H. "Sammy" Downs, state Senator Sixty Rayburn, the Long attorney Joseph A. Sims, and A. A. Fredericks, Long's former executive assistant.

Because of a third candidate, former State Representative Ben F. Holt of Rapides Parish, Long finished in second place in the primary election and was compelled into a runoff contest for the Democratic nomination with the short-term incumbent, Alexandria attorney Harold B. McSween. No Republican filed for the seat, and Long was unopposed in the general election set for November 8, 1960, when Long's choice for president, John F. Kennedy, would defeat Richard M. Nixon. Soon he suffered a fatal heart attack while in the Baptist Hospital (later Rapides General Hospital) in Alexandria. The 8th district seat had once been held by Earl Long's late brother, George Long, who had been succeeded by McSween. After Earl Long's death, the Democratic State Central Committee gave the nomination to McSween. McSween was thus unopposed in the 1960 general election for a second consecutive term in the U.S. House. McSween was defeated in the 1962 primary by his fellow liberal Democrat, Gillis William Long, who claimed to be the rightful heir to the Long dynasty.

His funeral in Baton Rouge attracted numerous attendees. Long was interred at the Earl K. Long Memorial Park in Winnfield. His nephew, U.S. Senator Russell Long, was among the pallbearers.

Peoples and Kurtz biography

Morgan D. Peoples and Michael L. Kurtz, in Earl K. Long: The Saga of Uncle Earl and Louisiana Politics, noted that the only thing certain about Long was his "unpredictability, for no one, and probably not even Long himself, knew what he would say or do next. Yet, whatever he did or said, Long acted from political motives—he was a political animal through and through. 'While the rest of 'em are sleeping,' he once told his rivals, 'I'm politicking.'"

Influence

John Kenneth Snyder, Sr., a dedicated Long follower, was elected as mayor of Alexandria. Snyder tried to govern in the Long style and was repeatedly opposed by the city's business establishment.

In 1950, Governor Long appointed John Sparks Patton, a Claiborne Parish school administrator, as superintendent of the Louisiana School for the Deaf. Patton had advocated that the state pay for taxpayer-funded school textbooks, an idea implemented by Huey Long.

In 1951 and 1959, Long named two widows in Webster Parish, Lizzie P. Thompson of Doyline and Mary Smith Gleason of the Evergreen Community, near Shongaloo, to fill the seat in the Louisiana House after their husbands, C.W. Thompson and E.D. Gleason, died consecutively in office.

Legacy

Representation in other media