Lucille May Grace
Encyclopedia
Lucille May Grace, a.k.a. Mrs. Fred Columbus Dent, Sr., (October 3, 1900 – December 22, 1957), was the first woman to attain statewide elected office in Louisiana
. A Democrat
, "Miss Grace," as she preferred to be called, became Register of the State Land Office in 1931 on appointment of Governor Huey Pierce Long, Jr.
She succeeded her father, who died in office, and she was elected in her own right in 1932, 1936, 1940, 1944, 1948, and 1956.
Lucille Grace was born in Plaquemine
in Iberville Parish, located south of Baton Rouge, to Fred J. Grace and the former May Dardenne. She graduated in 1919 from the Academy of the Sacred Heart
in Grand Coteau
near Opelousas
in St. Landry Parish
. She thereafter received a bachelor's degree from Louisiana State University
in Baton Rouge. She was secretary-treasurer of her LSU freshman class, the first female to have attained that distinction. She was also a member of Phi Kappa Phi
honor society, the Daughters of the American Revolution
, and the United Daughters of the Confederacy
.
Though she married Fred Columbus Dent, Sr. (1909–1973), of Baton Rouge in 1933, she kept the name "Miss Lucille May Grace" because that was how voters recognized her. While Miss Grace was of an "aristocratic" bearing, she ran on the "populist" Long ticket and became well liked among her state's voters, both in the Long faction and the anti-Long group as well. A newspaper editor wrote of Miss Grace in 1939 that: "the mere placing (of) her name on a state ticket means she will be returned... to the position of Register of the State Land Office by a larger vote than she received four years ago..."
Miss Grace was regarded as an efficient businesswoman and executive. She held the register's position from 1931 to 1952, when she instead ran for governor, and again from 1956 until her death in 1957.
but faced a Democratic runoff against J. Emile Verret
, a school board member from Iberia Parish. Long lost the runoff to Verret, but he had been the high votegetter in the first primary. If there had been no gubernatorial runoff that year, Long would have been the automatic lieutenant governor nominee. Louisiana law at the time provided that there would be no second primaries for other constitutional offices unless there was also a gubernatorial contest. Long hence could have won if the "Long" candidate for governor, Lewis L. Morgan
of Covington
, the seat of St. Tammany Parish, had withdrawn from the runoff with James Houston "Jimmie" Davis
.
Miss Grace was among a group of Democrats who persuaded Morgan to remain in the runoff against Davis. In effect, she was helping to sink Long. Having lost his 1940 bid for governor and then his 1944 race for lieutenant governor, Earl Long might no longer be a viable candidate in Louisiana politics. Miss Grace had nothing to lose with the runoffs proceeding, for she had already been nominated in the first primary for another term as State Land Register.
Similarly, Wade O. Martin, Jr.
, (1911–1990) the Democratic nominee for secretary of state for the first time in 1944, had similarly been nominated in the primary and faced no runoff election. Martin also urged Morgan into proceeding with the runoff. Earl Long did not forget what he saw as their treachery against him even though both continued to run and be nominated and elected as "Long" candidates.
Miss Grace ran for governor in 1952, fifty-two years before Louisiana elected its first ever female governor, Democrat Kathleen Babineaux Blanco in 2003. Miss Grace ran eighth among nine primary candidates—Louisiana voters would not then seriously consider a woman as governor, but she made headlines in her race.
(1914–1972) of New Orleans of either being a communist or having been a communist in his youth. At the instigation of the "boss" of Plaquemines Parish, Judge Leander H. Perez
, Miss Grace sued Boggs in an unsuccessful effort to force him from the race. She charged that his ties to the "red menace" or "sympathy" with communism rendered him ineligible to be governor, under the provisions of the then Louisiana Constitution of 1921.
On October 15, 1951, Miss Grace, acting under authority of LSA-R.S. 18:307, the Primary Election Law, Section 28 of Act 46 of 1940 and Section 4 of Act 351 of 1946, filed objections to the candidacy of Boggs alleging that he was "a member of the United States Congress when (and at all times since) he filed notification of his candidacy and that he was also a member of an organization advocating doctrines inimical to the federal Constitution. She therefore [220 La. 25] contended that the declaration accompanying Boggs' notification of candidacy was untrue as he did not possess the qualifications for candidacy ... "
Garry Boulard's The Big Lie: Hale Boggs, Lucille May Grace, and Leander Perez in 1951 (2001) is the definitive work on the Boggs-Perez-Grace rivalry. According to a brochure advertising Boulard's book: Boggs and Perez had quarreled for two decades, and their "acrimonious relationship intensified during the 1951 gubernatorial election when Lucille May Grace, at the instigation of Leander Perez, accused Hale Boggs of being a communist. Through interviews with many key players in the incident, Boulard blends oral history with material from over a dozen archives, creating an incisive survey of three Louisiana politicians and how the 1951-1952 elections forever changed their lives."
Boggs still maintained a nominal segregationist position himself and voted against passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
, as did all eight Louisiana U.S. House members and both U.S. senators as well.
William J. "Bill" Dodd, another gubernatorial candidate in 1952, claimed in his memoirs entitled Peapatch Politics: The Earl Long Era in Louisiana Politics that Perez "used Miss Grace to accuse Hale Boggs of having been a communist and of still being a communist sympathizer. A suit was filed to keep Boggs off the ballot. The suit plus a month or two of daily negative publicity killed Boggs and Miss Grace before they got started good."
Earl Long, who was vacating the governorship under Louisiana's then term-limits law, rebuffed Miss Grace's allegations even though she was his former and future ticket mate. Long declared that Boggs "ain't no communist or ain't one anymore and won't be influenced nearly as much by them communists as by his brother, who is a Catholic priest, and by old Archbishop [Joseph] Rummel
in New Orleans [who supported school desegregation]."
Dodd continued: Earl Long knew that "most of the backwoods rednecks in the rural north Louisiana parishes were more prejudiced against and afraid of Catholics than they were of communists. He put a double whammy on Boggs, and it not just killed him, it buried him."
Ironically, Perez ditched Miss Grace as his gubernatorial preference and endorsed another losing candidate, James M. McLemore, a rich landowner, stockman, and auction-barn operator in Alexandria
. McLemore was the first candidate for governor in the twentieth century to base a campaign primarily on racial matters, speaking out particularly against miscegenation
. He also ran again for governor in 1956.
Miss Grace unseated incumbent anti-Long Register Ellen Bryan Moore
(1912–1999), who had defeated the Longite Mary Evelyn Dickerson Parker
, in the Democratic primary four years earlier. Miss Grace became ill in 1957 and died in office, as had her father twenty-six years earlier. In addition to her husband, Miss Grace was survived by a son, Fred C. Dent, Jr., (1937–2010), a captain in the United States Army Special Forces
who wore the Green Beret. Dent, Jr., was a former state commissioner of financial institutions and headed the interest group Tax Busters. He ran as a Republican
for the Mayor
-Presidency of East Baton Rouge Parish in 2000 but polled less than 6 percent of the votes in the nonpartisan blanket primary. Victory went to another Republican, Bobby Simpson
of Baker
. The Dents also had a daughter, Joelyn Dent Collins of Richmond
, Virginia.
The Dents are interred at St. John's Cemetery in Plaquemine.
Governor Earl Long named a temporary successor to Miss Grace. Thereafter, Grace's rival, Ellen Bryan Moore, a strong Democrat from the anti-Long
faction, staged a comeback in the 1959 Democratic primary and regained and retained the register's position (which is no longer elected) from 1960 to 1976.
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...
. A Democrat
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...
, "Miss Grace," as she preferred to be called, became Register of the State Land Office in 1931 on appointment of Governor Huey Pierce 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...
She succeeded her father, who died in office, and she was elected in her own right in 1932, 1936, 1940, 1944, 1948, and 1956.
Lucille Grace was born in Plaquemine
Plaquemine, Louisiana
Plaquemine is a city in and the parish seat of Iberville Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 7,064 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area....
in Iberville Parish, located south of Baton Rouge, to Fred J. Grace and the former May Dardenne. She graduated in 1919 from the Academy of the Sacred Heart
Academy of the Sacred Heart, Grand Coteau
The Academy of the Sacred Heart, founded in 1821 in Grand Coteau, Louisiana, is an independent, Catholic school for girls in Pre-Kindergarten-3 through grade twelve, with residential accommodations for students in grades seven through twelve...
in Grand Coteau
Grand Coteau, Louisiana
Grand Coteau is a town in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,040 at the 2000 census. Grand Coteau is on Interstate 49 south of Opelousas and is part of the Opelousas–Eunice Micropolitan Statistical Area. The town is a center for local farming...
near Opelousas
Opelousas, Louisiana
Opelousas is a city in and the parish seat of St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies at the junction of Interstate 49 and U.S. Route 190. The population was 22,860 at the 2000 census. Although the 2006 population estimate was 23,222, a 2004 annexation should put the city's...
in St. Landry Parish
St. Landry Parish, Louisiana
St. Landry Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is at the heart of Acadian/Cajun culture and heritage in Louisiana. The parish seat is Opelousas. According to the 2010 census, the population of St. Landry Parish is 83,384.St...
. She thereafter received a bachelor's degree from 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. She was secretary-treasurer of her LSU freshman class, the first female to have attained that distinction. She was also a member of Phi Kappa Phi
Phi Kappa Phi
The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi is an honor society established 1897 to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to area of study and to promote the "unity and democracy of education"...
honor society, the Daughters of the American Revolution
Daughters of the American Revolution
The Daughters of the American Revolution is a lineage-based membership organization for women who are descended from a person involved in United States' independence....
, and the United Daughters of the Confederacy
United Daughters of the Confederacy
The United Daughters of the Confederacy is a women's heritage association dedicated to honoring the memory of those who served in the military and died in service to the Confederate States of America . UDC began as the National Association of the Daughters of the Confederacy, organized in 1894 by...
.
Though she married Fred Columbus Dent, Sr. (1909–1973), of Baton Rouge in 1933, she kept the name "Miss Lucille May Grace" because that was how voters recognized her. While Miss Grace was of an "aristocratic" bearing, she ran on the "populist" Long ticket and became well liked among her state's voters, both in the Long faction and the anti-Long group as well. A newspaper editor wrote of Miss Grace in 1939 that: "the mere placing (of) her name on a state ticket means she will be returned... to the position of Register of the State Land Office by a larger vote than she received four years ago..."
Miss Grace was regarded as an efficient businesswoman and executive. She held the register's position from 1931 to 1952, when she instead ran for governor, and again from 1956 until her death in 1957.
Runoff politics, 1944
In 1944, Earl Kemp Long, who had been governor from 1939 to 1940, ran for lieutenant governorLieutenant 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"...
but faced a Democratic runoff against J. Emile Verret
J. Emile Verret
J. Emile Verret was the Democratic lieutenant governor of Louisiana from 1944 to 1948, having served under the first of the two nonconsecutive gubernatorial terms of James Houston "Jimmie" Davis. Verret defeated former Governor Earl Kemp Long in the party's runoff election for the second-ranking...
, a school board member from Iberia Parish. Long lost the runoff to Verret, but he had been the high votegetter in the first primary. If there had been no gubernatorial runoff that year, Long would have been the automatic lieutenant governor nominee. Louisiana law at the time provided that there would be no second primaries for other constitutional offices unless there was also a gubernatorial contest. Long hence could have won if the "Long" candidate for governor, 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, had withdrawn from the runoff with James Houston "Jimmie" 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...
.
Miss Grace was among a group of Democrats who persuaded Morgan to remain in the runoff against Davis. In effect, she was helping to sink Long. Having lost his 1940 bid for governor and then his 1944 race for lieutenant governor, Earl Long might no longer be a viable candidate in Louisiana politics. Miss Grace had nothing to lose with the runoffs proceeding, for she had already been nominated in the first primary for another term as State Land Register.
Similarly, Wade O. Martin, Jr.
Wade O. Martin, Jr.
Wade Omer Martin, Jr. was the Democratic Secretary of State of Louisiana under five governors, having served from 1944 to 1976...
, (1911–1990) the Democratic nominee for secretary of state for the first time in 1944, had similarly been nominated in the primary and faced no runoff election. Martin also urged Morgan into proceeding with the runoff. Earl Long did not forget what he saw as their treachery against him even though both continued to run and be nominated and elected as "Long" candidates.
Miss Grace ran for governor in 1952, fifty-two years before Louisiana elected its first ever female governor, Democrat Kathleen Babineaux Blanco in 2003. Miss Grace ran eighth among nine primary candidates—Louisiana voters would not then seriously consider a woman as governor, but she made headlines in her race.
Miss Grace targets Hale Boggs
Miss Grace accused a gubernatorial rival, Congressman Thomas Hale Boggs, Sr.Hale Boggs
Thomas Hale Boggs Sr. , was an American Democratic politician and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Orleans, Louisiana...
(1914–1972) of New Orleans of either being a communist or having been a communist in his youth. At the instigation of the "boss" of Plaquemines Parish, Judge Leander H. Perez
Leander Perez
Leander Henry Perez, Sr. , was the Democratic political boss of Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes in southeastern Louisiana during the middle third of the 20th century. Officially, he served as a district judge, later as district attorney, and as president of the Plaquemines Parish Commission...
, Miss Grace sued Boggs in an unsuccessful effort to force him from the race. She charged that his ties to the "red menace" or "sympathy" with communism rendered him ineligible to be governor, under the provisions of the then Louisiana Constitution of 1921.
On October 15, 1951, Miss Grace, acting under authority of LSA-R.S. 18:307, the Primary Election Law, Section 28 of Act 46 of 1940 and Section 4 of Act 351 of 1946, filed objections to the candidacy of Boggs alleging that he was "a member of the United States Congress when (and at all times since) he filed notification of his candidacy and that he was also a member of an organization advocating doctrines inimical to the federal Constitution. She therefore [220 La. 25] contended that the declaration accompanying Boggs' notification of candidacy was untrue as he did not possess the qualifications for candidacy ... "
Garry Boulard's The Big Lie: Hale Boggs, Lucille May Grace, and Leander Perez in 1951 (2001) is the definitive work on the Boggs-Perez-Grace rivalry. According to a brochure advertising Boulard's book: Boggs and Perez had quarreled for two decades, and their "acrimonious relationship intensified during the 1951 gubernatorial election when Lucille May Grace, at the instigation of Leander Perez, accused Hale Boggs of being a communist. Through interviews with many key players in the incident, Boulard blends oral history with material from over a dozen archives, creating an incisive survey of three Louisiana politicians and how the 1951-1952 elections forever changed their lives."
Other 1952 campaign developments
Leander Perez, a wealthy businessman who virtually owned his own parish of Plaquemines (not to be confused with Miss Grace's birthplace of Plaquemine), claimed that Hale Boggs had been involved in communist subversion when Boggs was a college student. Perez, a segregationist, also brought up racial issues. He objected to Boggs' relatively moderate positions on race at the time. When New Orleans public schools were first integrated during the 1959-1960 academic year, Perez would chant offensive slogans, such as "Don't wait for your daughters to be raped by these Congolese... Don't wait until these burrheads are forced into your schools."Boggs still maintained a nominal segregationist position himself and voted against passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
, as did all eight Louisiana U.S. House members and both U.S. senators as well.
William J. "Bill" Dodd, another gubernatorial candidate in 1952, claimed in his memoirs entitled Peapatch Politics: The Earl Long Era in Louisiana Politics that Perez "used Miss Grace to accuse Hale Boggs of having been a communist and of still being a communist sympathizer. A suit was filed to keep Boggs off the ballot. The suit plus a month or two of daily negative publicity killed Boggs and Miss Grace before they got started good."
Earl Long, who was vacating the governorship under Louisiana's then term-limits law, rebuffed Miss Grace's allegations even though she was his former and future ticket mate. Long declared that Boggs "ain't no communist or ain't one anymore and won't be influenced nearly as much by them communists as by his brother, who is a Catholic priest, and by old Archbishop [Joseph] Rummel
Joseph Rummel
Joseph Francis Rummel was bishop of the Diocese of Omaha, Nebraska and Archbishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans Joseph Francis Rummel (October 14, 1876, Steinmauern, Baden - November 8, 1964, New Orleans, Louisiana) was bishop of the Diocese of Omaha, Nebraska (Mar. 30, 1928 - Mar. 9, 1935)...
in New Orleans [who supported school desegregation]."
Dodd continued: Earl Long knew that "most of the backwoods rednecks in the rural north Louisiana parishes were more prejudiced against and afraid of Catholics than they were of communists. He put a double whammy on Boggs, and it not just killed him, it buried him."
Ironically, Perez ditched Miss Grace as his gubernatorial preference and endorsed another losing candidate, James M. McLemore, a rich landowner, stockman, and auction-barn operator in 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....
. McLemore was the first candidate for governor in the twentieth century to base a campaign primarily on racial matters, speaking out particularly against miscegenation
Miscegenation
Miscegenation is the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, and procreation....
. He also ran again for governor in 1956.
A final year in the Register's office
Miss Grace returned to the Long ticket in 1956 once more to seek the register's position. Dodd said that Miss Grace could not have won without Earl Long's support. He found Miss Grace ungrateful for all that Earl Long had done for her over the years: "She loved Huey Long but hated Earl Long, as did many of Huey's best personal and political friends."Miss Grace unseated incumbent anti-Long Register Ellen Bryan Moore
Ellen Bryan Moore
Ellen Bryan Moore was a pioneer of women in Louisiana politics, having served in the formerly elected office of "Register of State Lands" from 1952–1956 and 1960-1976...
(1912–1999), who had defeated the Longite Mary Evelyn Dickerson Parker
Mary Evelyn Parker
Mary Evelyn Dickerson Parker is a former Democratic state treasurer of Louisiana, having served from 1968-1987. She was the first woman to have held the position. Prior to her tenure as treasurer, she held several appointed positions in state government...
, in the Democratic primary four years earlier. Miss Grace became ill in 1957 and died in office, as had her father twenty-six years earlier. In addition to her husband, Miss Grace was survived by a son, Fred C. Dent, Jr., (1937–2010), a captain in the United States Army Special Forces
United States Army Special Forces
The United States Army Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets because of their distinctive service headgear, are a special operations force tasked with six primary missions: unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, special reconnaissance, direct action, hostage rescue, and...
who wore the Green Beret. Dent, Jr., was a former state commissioner of financial institutions and headed the interest group Tax Busters. He ran as a 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...
for the Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
-Presidency of East Baton Rouge Parish in 2000 but polled less than 6 percent of the votes in the nonpartisan blanket primary. Victory went to another Republican, Bobby Simpson
Bobby Simpson (Louisiana politician)
Bobby Ray Simpson is an educator who served as the Republican Mayor-President, a combined municipal-parish office of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, from 2001-2004...
of Baker
Baker, Louisiana
Baker is a city in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, United States, and a part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 13,793 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Baker is located at...
. The Dents also had a daughter, Joelyn Dent Collins of Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, Virginia.
The Dents are interred at St. John's Cemetery in Plaquemine.
Governor Earl Long named a temporary successor to Miss Grace. Thereafter, Grace's rival, Ellen Bryan Moore, a strong Democrat from the anti-Long
Earl Long
Earl Kemp Long was an American politician and the 45th Governor of Louisiana for three non-consecutive terms. Long termed himself the "last of the red hot poppas" of politics, referring to his stump-speaking skills...
faction, staged a comeback in the 1959 Democratic primary and regained and retained the register's position (which is no longer elected) from 1960 to 1976.