Dudley J. LeBlanc
Encyclopedia
Dudley Joseph "Coozan Dud" LeBlanc (August 16, 1894 – October 22, 1971) was a colorful and popular Democratic
and Cajun
member of the Louisiana State Senate
whose entrepreneurial talents netted him a fortune through the alcohol
-laden patent medicine
known as "Hadacol
." He is also considered the "father of the old age pension" in Louisiana
.
, 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 eighteen, 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 clothes 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. Not totally correct, as one of his brothers (Raoul J. LeBlanc) was already serving in combat as a member of Louisiana's Washington Artillery in France.
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
. Years later in 2007, Sammy Kershaw
, a Country
singer from Abbeville, ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor
.
. 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
.
, 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. Huey Long got a fellow representative Gilbert Dupre
to claim that Leblanc "associated with negros." 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 African Americans:
"He [LeBlanc] 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 to 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.
At the time of his death, LeBlanc was also seeking a fifth term in the Senate from Vermilion and Acadia parishes.
LeBlanc also twice ran for the United States House of Representatives
: he waged unsuccessful Democratic primary challenges to the Lafayette-based incumbent Third District Representative Edwin E. Willis
in 1952 and 1954.
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.
LeBlanc humorously recounted his French-language campaigning, as a contestant on Groucho Marx
's television quiz show
, "You Bet Your Life
." The January 18, 1951, episode can be seen on the 2003 DVD release, "You Bet Your Life: The Lost Episodes."
, who won the first of his two nonconsecutive terms, having defeated principal rival Lewis L. Morgan
of Covington
, the seat of St. Tammany Parish. Still another 1944 candidate was Sam Caldwell
, the mayor of Shreveport
, who finished with fewer than thirty thousand votes.
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 and former mayor of Minden
, the seat of 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.
In the 1947-1948 campaign -- the election was in January 1948, but most of the voter appeals were made in the fall of 1947 -- then State Representative Dodd, who himself was running for lieutenant governor on the Earl Long slate, and LeBlanc, who was running for a second term in the state senate, campaigned together for a few days. They used LeBlanc's comfortable Abbeville home as a base of operations in Acadiana. LeBlanc had supported anti-Long candidates Sam Houston Jones and James Houston Davis
in 1940 and 1944, respectively. But in 1948, he supported Long, whom he expected to win, against Jones, who was trailing badly in a comeback attempt.
In 1951, LeBlanc had considered running for lieutenant governor
, which was then the presiding officer of the state senate, on Dodd's gubernatorial ticket. However, Earl Long, when he heard of LeBlanc's plans, had a friend tell an untruth about Dodd to LeBlanc. Long split the two old friends, as was his forte, but the breach was temporary. So LeBlanc and Dodd both ran unsuccessfully for governor.
LeBlanc wrote three books: The True Story of the Acadians in 1927, an "improved version" of the first book in 1932, and The Acadian Miracle in 1966. The latter was a revised and expanded edition of the first book.
for the year 1951. The indictment was thrown out, however, when his attorneys filed a motion that LeBlanc could not properly defend himself because a U.S. District Court in New York had destroyed the records of his company after a 1952 bankruptcy
hearing.
Services were held on October 23, 1971, at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in Abbeville. LeBlanc was a member of the Catholic Church and had donated the land on which St. Theresa Catholic Church of Abbeville stands. He was interred in the St. Mary Magdalen Parish Cemetery.
Survivors included his widow, the former Evelyn Hebert (1897–1992), a schoolteacher whom he married in 1919; four sons, Dudley J. LeBlanc, Jr. (born 1921), of Lafayette, Roland Francis LeBlanc, Sr. (born 1925), and Morgan E. LeBlanc (born 1938), both of Abbeville, and Jean B. LeBlanc (also born 1938) of Baton Rouge; two daughters, Mrs. Kay (Lewis) Jarrell (born 1927) of Lafayette and Mrs. Bertha Anne (James) Curley (born 1934) of Alexandria
; two brothers, Oliver J. LeBlanc, the Lafayette Parish clerk of court, and Paul V. LeBlanc of New Orleans, and twenty-four grandchildren. Two other brothers preceded him in death; Preston LeBlanc and Raoul (Ralph) J. LeBlanc (1898–1970).
In 1993, LeBlanc was posthumously inducted into the maiden class of the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
in Winnfield
. Presumably no one as colorful as he could have been omitted from the first Hall of Fame listings.
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
and Cajun
Cajun
Cajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles...
member of the Louisiana State Senate
Louisiana State Legislature
The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...
whose entrepreneurial talents netted him a fortune through the alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
-laden patent medicine
Patent medicine
Patent medicine refers to medical compounds of questionable effectiveness sold under a variety of names and labels. The term "patent medicine" is somewhat of a misnomer because, in most cases, although many of the products were trademarked, they were never patented...
known as "Hadacol
Hadacol
Hadacol was a patent medicine marketed as a vitamin supplement. Its principal attraction, however, was that it contained 12 percent alcohol , which made it quite popular in the dry counties of the southern United States. It was the product of four-term Louisiana state Senator Dudley J...
." He is also considered the "father of the old age pension" in Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
.
Early years and military service
LeBlanc was born to Numa and Noemie LeBlanc in the farming community of LeBlanc near YoungsvilleYoungsville, Louisiana
Youngsville is a city in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 5,289 as of the 2005 Census Bureau estimates. It is part of the Lafayette Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Youngsville is located at ....
, in Lafayette Parish. The LeBlancs moved to Erath
Erath, Louisiana
Erath is a town in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 2,187 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Abbeville Micropolitan Statistical Area.Erath is home of the Acadian Museum....
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
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
. When he turned eighteen, LeBlanc graduated from the institution now known as the University of Louisiana at Lafayette
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, or UL Lafayette, is a coeducational, public research university located in Lafayette, Louisiana, in the heart of Acadiana...
. At the time it was called "Southwestern Louisiana Institute." LeBlanc self-financed his college expenses by running a clothes 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. Not totally correct, as one of his brothers (Raoul J. LeBlanc) was already serving in combat as a member of Louisiana's Washington Artillery in France.
LeBlanc was a sergeant during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. His adulthood was spent primarily in Abbeville
Abbeville
Abbeville is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.-Location:Abbeville is located on the Somme River, from its modern mouth in the English Channel, and northwest of Amiens...
, the seat of Vermilion Parish, where LeBlanc had a large, comfortable home. Another gubernatorial hopeful, Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Charlton Havard Lyons, Sr.
Charlton Lyons
Charlton Havard Lyons, Sr., also known as Big Papa Lyons , was a Shreveport oilman who in 1964 waged the first determined Republican bid for the Louisiana governorship since Reconstruction. Lyons also made a strong but losing bid for the United States House of Representatives in a special election...
, was born in Abbeville. Lyons lost the 1964 general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
to John Julian McKeithen
John McKeithen
John Julian McKeithen was the 49th Governor of Louisiana, serving from 1964 to 1972. A Democrat from the town of Columbia, he was the first governor of his state in the twentieth century to serve two consecutive terms...
. Years later in 2007, Sammy Kershaw
Sammy Kershaw
Samuel Paul "Sammy" Kershaw is an American country music artist. A third cousin of Cajun fiddler Doug Kershaw and ex-husband of Lorrie Morgan, he has been active in country music since 1991. He has released ten studio albums, with three RIAA platinum certifications and two gold certifications...
, a Country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
singer from Abbeville, ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor
Lieutenant governor
A lieutenant governor or lieutenant-governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction, but is often the deputy or lieutenant to or ranking under a governor — a "second-in-command"...
.
Tangling with Huey P. Long, Jr.
In 1924, LeBlanc was elected to the Louisiana House of RepresentativesLouisiana House of Representatives
The Louisiana House of Representatives is the lower house in the Louisiana State Legislature, the state legislature of the US state of Louisiana. The House is composed of 105 Representatives, each of whom represents approximately 42,500 people . Members serve four-year terms with a term limit of...
. 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
Louisiana Public Service Commission
Louisiana Public Service Commission is an independent regulatory agency which manages public utilities and motor carriers in Louisiana. The commission has five elected members chosen in single-member districts for staggered six-year terms...
, 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
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
The 1932 gubernatorial campaign
LeBlanc and Huey P. Long, Jr.Huey Long
Huey Pierce Long, Jr. , nicknamed The Kingfish, served as the 40th Governor of Louisiana from 1928–1932 and as a U.S. Senator from 1932 to 1935. A Democrat, he was noted for his radical populist policies. Though a backer of Franklin D...
, 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. Huey Long got a fellow representative Gilbert Dupre
Gilbert Dupre
Gilbet Dupre was a Louisiana State Representative of Opelousas. Dupre is known for being an opponent of Louisiana Governor Huey Long and specifically of the new Louisiana State Capitol that Long was trying to get approved...
to claim that Leblanc "associated with negros." Long, himself a former public service commissioner, threw his support to the eventual gubernatorial winner, Oscar K. Allen of Winnfield
Winnfield, Louisiana
Winnfield is a city in and the parish seat of Winn Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 5,749 at the 2000 census. It has long been associated with the Long faction of the Louisiana Democratic Party and was home to three governors of Louisiana.-Geography:Winnfield is located at ...
. 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
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
.
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 African Americans:
"He [LeBlanc] charges for a coffin
Coffin
A coffin is a funerary box used in the display and containment of dead people – either for burial or cremation.Contemporary North American English makes a distinction between "coffin", which is generally understood to denote a funerary box having six sides in plan view, and "casket", which...
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
T. Harry Williams
Thomas Harry Williams was an award-winning historian at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge whose career began in 1941 and extended for thirty-eight years until his death at the age of seventy...
of Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
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 to 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.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
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
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, 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 to 1944 (Sam Jones), 1948 to 1952 (second Earl Long administration), 1964 to 1968, and 1968 to 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 from Vermilion and Acadia parishes.
LeBlanc also twice ran for the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
: he waged unsuccessful Democratic primary challenges to the Lafayette-based incumbent Third District Representative Edwin E. Willis
Edwin E. Willis
Edwin Edward Willis was an American politician and attorney from the U.S. state of Louisiana who was affiliated with the Long political faction. A Democrat, he served in the Louisiana State Senate during 1948 and in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1969.-Early life:Willis...
in 1952 and 1954.
Campaigning in French
LeBlanc often campaigned in FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
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
Ernest S. Clements
Ernest S. Clements was a seemingly unlikely member of the Long political faction in Louisiana in a career which spanned 38 years from the 1930s to the 1970s. The pious, introverted Clements did not fit the public image of the no-holds-barred, extroverted Long man. William J...
, who did not speak French -- he was from mostly English Oberlin
Oberlin, Louisiana
Oberlin is a town in and the parish seat of Allen Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,853 at the 2000 census. The town is named after Johan Friedrich Oberlin.-Geography:Oberlin is located at ....
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.
LeBlanc humorously recounted his French-language campaigning, as a contestant on Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
's television quiz show
Quiz Show
Quiz Show is a 1994 American historical drama film produced and directed by Robert Redford. Adapted by Paul Attanasio from Richard Goodwin's memoir Remembering America, the film is based upon the Twenty One quiz show scandal of the 1950s...
, "You Bet Your Life
You Bet Your Life
You Bet Your Life is an American quiz show that aired on both radio and television. The original and best-known version was hosted by Groucho Marx of the Marx Brothers, with announcer and assistant George Fenneman. The show debuted on ABC Radio in October 1947, then moved to CBS Radio in September...
." The January 18, 1951, episode can be seen on the 2003 DVD release, "You Bet Your Life: The Lost Episodes."
Running for governor again, 1944 and 1952
In 1944, LeBlanc surrendered his senate seat to make his second run for governor. 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 DavisJimmie Davis
James Houston Davis , better known as Jimmie Davis, was a noted singer of both sacred and popular songs who served two nonconsecutive terms as the 47th Governor of Louisiana...
, who won the first of his two nonconsecutive terms, having defeated principal rival Lewis L. Morgan
Lewis L. Morgan
Lewis Lovering Morgan was an American lawyer and politician form the state of Louisiana.He served in the United States House of Representatives from November 5, 1912, to March 4, 1917, from Louisiana's 6th congressional district, which then included part of the New Orleans area...
of Covington
Covington, Louisiana
Covington is a city in and the parish seat of St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 8,483 at the 2000 census. It is located at a fork of the Bogue Falaya and the Tchefuncte River....
, the seat of St. Tammany Parish. Still another 1944 candidate was Sam Caldwell
Sam Caldwell
Samuel Shepherd Caldwell, known as Sam Caldwell , was an oilman who served as the Democratic mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana, from 1934-1946....
, the mayor of Shreveport
Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States....
, who finished with fewer than thirty thousand votes.
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
Robert F. Kennon
Robert Floyd Kennon, Sr., known as Bob Kennon , was the 48th Governor of Louisiana, serving from 1952-1956. He failed to win a second non-consecutive term in the 1963 Democratic primary....
, a judge and former mayor of Minden
Minden, Louisiana
Minden is a city in the American state of Louisiana. It serves as the parish seat of Webster Parish and is located twenty-eight miles east of Shreveport, the seat of Caddo Parish. The population, which has been stable since 1960, was 13,027 at the 2000 census...
, the seat of Webster Parish
Webster Parish, Louisiana
Webster Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The seat of the parish is Minden. In 2010, its population was 41,207....
. 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.
In the 1947-1948 campaign -- the election was in January 1948, but most of the voter appeals were made in the fall of 1947 -- then State Representative Dodd, who himself was running for lieutenant governor on the Earl Long slate, and LeBlanc, who was running for a second term in the state senate, campaigned together for a few days. They used LeBlanc's comfortable Abbeville home as a base of operations in Acadiana. LeBlanc had supported anti-Long candidates Sam Houston Jones and James Houston Davis
Jimmie Davis
James Houston Davis , better known as Jimmie Davis, was a noted singer of both sacred and popular songs who served two nonconsecutive terms as the 47th Governor of Louisiana...
in 1940 and 1944, respectively. But in 1948, he supported Long, whom he expected to win, against Jones, who was trailing badly in a comeback attempt.
In 1951, LeBlanc had considered running for lieutenant governor
Lieutenant governor
A lieutenant governor or lieutenant-governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction, but is often the deputy or lieutenant to or ranking under a governor — a "second-in-command"...
, which was then the presiding officer of the state senate, on Dodd's gubernatorial ticket. However, Earl Long, when he heard of LeBlanc's plans, had a friend tell an untruth about Dodd to LeBlanc. Long split the two old friends, as was his forte, but the breach was temporary. So LeBlanc and Dodd both ran unsuccessfully for governor.
Defender of Cajun culture
In addition to his determined political activities, LeBlanc was a staunch defender of preserving Cajun culture in Louisiana. He served as president of the Association of Louisiana Acadians, and in the late 1960s, he worked to establish the interest group CODOFIL, or le Conseil pour le développement du français en Louisiane (the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana). LeBlanc helped to make Louisiana the only English-French bilingual state in the nation.LeBlanc wrote three books: The True Story of the Acadians in 1927, an "improved version" of the first book in 1932, and The Acadian Miracle in 1966. The latter was a revised and expanded edition of the first book.
1957 indictment
LeBlanc was indicted in 1957 for fraudulently filing his federal income taxIncome tax
An income tax is a tax levied on the income of individuals or businesses . Various income tax systems exist, with varying degrees of tax incidence. Income taxation can be progressive, proportional, or regressive. When the tax is levied on the income of companies, it is often called a corporate...
for the year 1951. The indictment was thrown out, however, when his attorneys filed a motion that LeBlanc could not properly defend himself because a U.S. District Court in New York had destroyed the records of his company after a 1952 bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
hearing.
LeBlanc's obituary
LeBlanc died of a massive stroke suffered at Abbeville General Hospital, where he had been admitted for emergency surgery for a gastric ulcer three days earlier.Services were held on October 23, 1971, at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in Abbeville. LeBlanc was a member of the Catholic Church and had donated the land on which St. Theresa Catholic Church of Abbeville stands. He was interred in the St. Mary Magdalen Parish Cemetery.
Survivors included his widow, the former Evelyn Hebert (1897–1992), a schoolteacher whom he married in 1919; four sons, Dudley J. LeBlanc, Jr. (born 1921), of Lafayette, Roland Francis LeBlanc, Sr. (born 1925), and Morgan E. LeBlanc (born 1938), both of Abbeville, and Jean B. LeBlanc (also born 1938) of Baton Rouge; two daughters, Mrs. Kay (Lewis) Jarrell (born 1927) of Lafayette and Mrs. Bertha Anne (James) Curley (born 1934) of Alexandria
Alexandria, Louisiana
Alexandria is a city in and the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes....
; two brothers, Oliver J. LeBlanc, the Lafayette Parish clerk of court, and Paul V. LeBlanc of New Orleans, and twenty-four grandchildren. Two other brothers preceded him in death; Preston LeBlanc and Raoul (Ralph) J. LeBlanc (1898–1970).
A grandson's innovation
Roland F. LeBlanc, Jr. (born 1954), of Abbeville, a grandson of Dudley LeBlanc, conceived the idea of turning the juice of sugar cane into jelly. Roland LeBlanc developed the product after three years of experiments, research, and travel. The produce is marketed under the corporate name "LeBlanc's Cane Jelly." LeBlanc innovation continues.Louisiana Hall of Famer
The novelist and biographer Steven Longstreet compared LeBlanc with Huey Long, while LeBlanc was still living: "He's as good a speaker and as quick a thinker as Long was. But I don't think he has Long's streak of cruelty, and he has the quality that Long never had -- the ability to laugh at himself."In 1993, LeBlanc was posthumously inducted into the maiden class of the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
The Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield, Louisiana, highlights the careers of more than a hundred of the state’s leading politicians and political journalists. Because three governors, Huey P. Long, Jr., Oscar K...
in Winnfield
Winnfield, Louisiana
Winnfield is a city in and the parish seat of Winn Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 5,749 at the 2000 census. It has long been associated with the Long faction of the Louisiana Democratic Party and was home to three governors of Louisiana.-Geography:Winnfield is located at ...
. Presumably no one as colorful as he could have been omitted from the first Hall of Fame listings.