1""~"') TAPE #003 Page 1 of 10 f;1; _ ! G. DUPRE LITTON Tape 1

Mr. Litton graduated from the LSU Law School in 1942, having been

president of Phi Delta phi Legal Fraternity, associate editor of Law Review,

and the first LSU student named to the Order of the Coif. During a period

of thirty-four years, Mr. Litton served in numerous important governmental

capacities, including executive counsel to the governor, chairman of the ~ state board of tax appeals, first assistant attorney general, and legal advisor to the legislature.

Q. Mr. Litton, your career in state government has closely involved

you with the administrations of this state through several governors, dating

back to the time of Huey Long. Would youqive us your recollections of the high points in these administrations?

A. Thank you, Mrs. Pierce. My recollection of the governors of Louisiana

dates back even prior to 1930, which was some 50 years ago. However, in 1930,

I entered LSU, and at that time, Huey P. Long was governor. He had been elected in 1928. I recall that on a number of occasions, I played golf at the Westdale

Country Club, which is now called Webb Memorial Country Club, I believe, and

I saw Huey Long playing golf, accompanied, generally by some twelve to fifteen

bodyguards who were on both sides of him, as he putted or drove. Enough has been written about Huey Long that it would probably be superfluous for us here at this time to go into any details concerning him.

However, history will undoubtedly recall that Huey Long was one of the most powerful and one of the most brilliant governors in Louisiana history.

Unfortunately, he was as dictatorial as he was brilliant.

Huey Long was elected to the United States Senate in 1931. He did

not take his oath of office until a number of months after his election, because he did not want his lieutenant governor, Dr. Paul Cyr, from the New TAPE #003 Page 2 of 10 G. DUPRE LITTON Tape 1

Iberia-Jeannerette area, who was the lieutenant governor, to be able to take over the governor's office. Dr. Cyr took the oath as gove+nor and attempted to establish the office of governor at the corner of Lafayette and Main Street in a building known as the Louisianne Hotel, and the Supreme Court eventually held that upon taking the oath prematurely, Dr. Cyr had also given up his office' of lieutenant governor, and was neither governor n~ lieutenant governor! This promoted Alvin King, from Lake Charles, who was president pro tem of the Senate, to the office of governor, where he served until Governor O. K. Allert took office in 1932.

In the election prior to Governor Allen's taking office, Huey P. Long was in complete control of the state of Louisiana. Allen had been an old friend of Huey in Winfield, had beautiful white hair, and was rather stout. He was a lifelong friend of Huey, had an excellent disposition, and was quite easy­ going. During the period from 1932 to 1935, while Allen was governor, and Huey

P. Long was united States senator, Huey Long would come to Baton Rouge whenever the Legislature was in session, or any other important event was to take place, and sit in Governor Allen's chair in the governor's office and run the state of Louisiana, even though he was United States senator.

While attending LSU, I was working as a janitor for $5.00 a week, at the time that O. K. Allen took office, and the first of the month after he took office, which was June 1, 1933, excuse me, June 1, 1932, I received my firing papers. At that time, I was quite naive, and I didn't realize that they fired everybody, even janitors, when a new governor took office. However, I was able to bring enougn political pressure to bear to retain tha.t excellent position.

Governor Allen died in 1935, and was suceeded as governor by James A.

Noe, who had also been president pro tem of the Senate. Governor Noe served from 1935 until Richard W. Leche took office in 1936. Huey P. Long was TARE #003 Page 3 of 10 G. DUPRE LITTON Tape 1

assassinated on September 8,1935. The 1936 state elections, or electioneering, were just about to begin.

Huey's brother, Earl K. Long, was anxious to run for governor, but the group in charge of the Huey P. Long machine selected Richard W. Leche as the candidate for governor. Leche was judge of the Orleans court of appeals. Earl ,

Long was selected to run for lieutenant governor. The campaign was based on a

"Complete the Work" program. Huey's picture was on all the political signs along with Dick Leche and Earl Long. During the campaign, Earl was the real crowd-gatherer, and the crowd-pleaser.

Governor Leche was an extremely large man, approximately six feet, two inches tall, weighed about two hundred and sixty pounds. He was quite easy­ going, and was inclined to be influenced too much by those around him. The

Leche-Long ticket was elected in 1936 by more than a two-to-one margin. Long received almost 400,000 votes for lieutenant governor.

Governor Leche made peace with Franklin Roosevelt, President Franklin

Roosevelt, with whom Huey had stayed at odds, and he restored the flow of federal funds and patronage to our state. He repealed the law under which Huey had put public school teachers' teaching jobs under the control of the governor and the politicians, and enacted the Teacher Tenure law.

During the Leche administration, LSU had numerous buildings under construction, including Leche Hall, which was patterned after the United States

Supreme Court building, which was the Law School, and Smith Hall, a girls' dormitory named for LSU President James Monroe Smith. Rumors spread everywhere of deducts and kickbacks on state projects. Federal investigators swarmed into the state. In June of 1939, President Smith of LSU notified Governor Leche that he had forged LSU bonds which he used as security to borrow $500,000 from three banks, and had lost the money on the wheat market. Smith left Baton TAPE #003 Page 4 of 10 G. DUPRE LITTON Tape 1

Rouge in the middle of the night, and was later located and arrested in northern

Canada. He faced federal and state charges, and many other officials and

politicians in Louisiana were arrested and charged.

Governor Leche soon resigned, allegedly on account of illness. In a

portion of his statement regarding his illness and its complications, at the ~

time of his resignation, he said "As to what they are, well, just say 'general

complications,' I suppose," Some 250 indictments were returned, resulting from

activities during the Louisiana scandals. Governor Leche and President Smith and several others went to prison. Four prominent officials under indictment committed suicide.

Earl Long was sworn in as governor in the Mansion on the evening of

Leche's resignation. There were eleven months remaining in Leche's term.

Investigators and headlines and investigations continued during that entire eleven months. Governor Long announced for governor on July 4, 1939 for a full term to begin in 1940. He said that he wanted the guilty caught and punished, but it wasn't that unusual for a politician to turn up crooked. He cited people throughout the United States, including a New York Supreme Court judge, a New Mexico WPA director, the secretary of a Baptist church drive, and even one of the disciples of Jesus Christ!

Earl Long's principal opponents in the 1940 election were attorney

Sam Houston Jones of Lake Charles, and oilman James A. Noe of Monroe. Jones was an ally, excuse me, Jones was from Merryville, and a prominent attorney in

Lake Charles. Jimmy Noe was an ally of Huey P. Long, and he had served as gov­ ernor for some four months after the death of Governor o. K. Allen in 1935.

Sam Jones was poses sed of a keen and scholarly mind; he was an extremely effective orator and writer, a student of Louisiana law and Louisiana history.

During the campaign, Earl Long referred to Sam Jones as "Old High-Hat, Sweet- Smelling, Silk-Stocking Jones." Page 5 10 TAPE #003 of G. DUPRE LITTON Tape 1

Another candidate for governor in the 1939-40 election was James

H. Morrison of Hammond. Mr. Morrison later became a congressman from the

sixth congressional district. Morrison led a convict circus parade throughout

the state during the campaign, drawing enormous crowds. His crowd for a parade in New Orleans was estimated at 100,000. In the parade were cages " for each politician in convict stripes. One cage for former Governor Leche, one for former LSU President James Monroe Smith, one for Mayor Robert S.

Maestri of New Orleans, and cages for all of the other politicians during the Leche regime.

The vote in the first primary was Long, 226,385; Jones, 154,836;

Noe, 116,564; and Morrison, 48,243. This placed Long and Jones in the runoff, and Noe, who had been a close associate of the Longs, endorsed Jones. In a bitter financial campaign, during the second primary, the official vote was

Jones, 284,437; Long, 265,403. Jones was a rather small man; his followers were too gung-ho in believing that all of the opposition was crooked and should be prosecuted. Jones later found out that all of the political...sQe.k-s 5(\: j'l.A4&S, were not on one side.

In 1943-44, the campaign for governor showed the following candidates:

Jimmie Davis, Sam Caldwell, mayor of Shreveport; Ernest Clements from Oberlin;

Dudley J. LeBlanc from Abbeville; and again, James H. "Circus" Morrison of

Hammond. The leading candidates were Davis and Louis Morgan, a 67-year old politician from St. Tammany Parish, who was being run for governor by the

Long forces.

Jimmie Davis was quite a remarkable man. Born in Beech Springs,

Louisiana, one of eleven children of a sharecropper, his early life was far from easy. He worked long hours after school and during his vacation. He sang in quartets to make spending money_ He graduated from Louisiana College, and he taught in elementary schools throughout north Louisiana. His graduate TAPE #003 Page 6 of 10 G. DUPRE LITTON Tape 1

school education at LSU was interrupted by several sojurns to his home in Jackson Parish to farm "on the halves," according to his terminology, and

earn enough funds to return to college. He obtained a master's degree at

LSU, and taught at Dodd College in Shreveport after obtaining that degree.

Governor Davis was a fine-looking man. He was a country-and- " western and gospel singer. He was very easy-going, and he seldom became un­ nerved or lost his patience. He had a great personality. Governor Jones supported the Davis ticket, and reported the gains of his administration, which he promised would continue upon election of the Davis ticket. He emphasized the abolition of the spoils system in Louisiana govern­ ment, and the institution, in lieu thereof, of state civil service.

The results of the first primary were somewhat unusual in Louisiana politics. Davis led the field in the race for governor, with thirty-five per­ cent of the total vote, compared to Louis Morgan's twenty-seven percent. How­ ever, in the race for lieutenant governor, Morgan's running mate, Earl Long, received fourty-two percent of the total vote, swamping his principal opponent, Emile Verret, the Davis candidate.

During the second primary, the coolness between gubernatorial candi­ date Louis MOrgan and his running mate Earl K. Long became icy. Their sole appearance on the same platform was in New Orleans on the night before the election. It was obvious that the political breech between them had not healed.

The results of the second primary were Davis, 251,228 votes to Morgan's 217,915 votes for governor. For lieutenant governor, the vote was Verret, 237,452 and

Long, 226,649. Again, Earl Long, although losing, had run far ahead of his ticket. As a matter of fact, he received fourty-nine percent of the total vote in this election. TAPE #003 Page 7 of 10 G. DuPRE LITTON Tape 1

The Davis administration was during World War II, to a considerable

extent, and construction of roads and bridges was impossible because material could not be obtained, and very little could be done. During his administration,

a sizeable surplus in the state treasury was built up.

When time came for the 1947-48 gubernatorial election, Earl Long had ~

foremost in his mind that he wanted Sam Jones as his principal opponent. He

reasoned that the reform administration of JOnes from 1940 to 1944 had made many more enemies than friends. As so often occurs in politics, reformers are in­ clined to political persecution of the opposition, which promotes sympathy among the voters. Over a period of several years, Long had people from all walks of life and from all areas of the state, contact Sam Jones, urging him to be a can­ didate for governor in 1948. Early in 1947, Sam Jones announced for governor.

Besides Earl Long and Jones, the other gubernatorial candidates were

Jimmy Morrison, the perennial candidate from Hammond, and circuit court of appeal Judge Robert F. Kennon of Minden. Judge Kennon had been elected mayor of Minden at the ripe age of twenty-one, and had served as district attorney before election to a judgeship. In the campaign, Kennon diluted Jones' strength with the independent voter. The vote in the first primary in 1948 was Long, 267,253; Jones, 147,329; Judge Kennon, 127,569, and Morrison, 101,754. It was almost a foregone conclusion that Long would be the next governor, and politi­ cians from throughout the state began a rush to his bandwagon. During the second primary, almost all the newspapers in the state supported Sam Jones. However, the election results were pretty much what Earl

Long had predicted. He received 432,528 votes, to 223,971 for Jones: one of the most one-sided political races in Louisiana history. Earl Long had achie­ ved the office that he had sought from some eight years. TAPE #003 Page 8 of 10 G. DuPRE LITTON Tape 1

In the election for governor in 1951-52, the leading candidates were

Judge Kennon, Carlos G. Spaht, attorney of Baton Rouge; Hale Boggs from New

Orleans, a member of congress; William J. Dodd, and Dudley J. LeBlanc. In this primary, Spaht led in the first primary, but all of the other candidates endor­

sed Judge Kennon in the second primary, who won rather handily. ~

Judge Kennon was a great handshaker, an extremely personable man,

quite easy-going. He probably was the best hand-shaking Politician in Louisiana gubernatorial history.

During the Kennon administration, civil service was placed in the constitution, beyond the reach of legislative act and politicians.

Judge Kennon resides in Baton Rouge. He practices law on St. Charles

Street, and he keeps in excellent physical condition by running several miles each day.

The gubernatorial campaign of 1955-56 was quite an unusual one. It marked the first time in recent history that one cnadidate had received a major­ ity of all votes cast for governor. In the race were Earl Long, deLesseps S.

Morrison, mayor of New Orleans; Francis Grevemberg, the head of the state police;

Fred Preaus from Farmerville, the candidate backed by the Kennon administration; and five lesser candidates. Earl Long was elected in the first primary.

The gubernatorial election of 1959-60 involved Jimmie Davis, deLesseps

S. Morrison, Willie Rainach of Summerfield in Claiborne Parish, the segregation candidate, and Jimmie Noe, who had been resurrected from the political grave.

Mayor Morrison led in the first primary, but Davis easily won in the second primary, with the assistance of Governor Long.

During Governor Davis' second term, almost a billion dollars was inves­ ted in Louisiana, and the budget for his last year as governor in 1963-64 was Page 9 of 10 TAPE #003 G. DuPRE LITTON Tape 1

$546,000. Compare that with the budget for 1979-80, which exceeds $4.5 billion.

The next gubernatorial campaign was the election of 1963-1964. In

that campaign for governor were John J. McKeithen, deLesseps S. Morrison, Gillis

W. Long, Robert F. Kennon, Shelby N. Jackson, and five minor candidates. The

two top candidates were Morrison, 299,702, and McKeithen 147,304. In a rough- ,

and-tumble second primary, McKeithen edged Morrison by about 40,000 votes.

McKeithen then, for the first time in recent Louisiana history, had to face a republican in the general election in March 1964. His opponent was Charlton

Lyons, and McKeithen again won, after an extremely hard campaign. During McKeithenls first term, there were many accomplishments. I

first knew John MCKeithen in law school, where we were classmates. Senator

Russell Long, John McKeithen, and I sat alongside each other in our law classes,

where we were placed in alphabetical order. McKeithen had attended a religious-

sponsored institution on the east coast of the Carolinas before entering law

school. He had campaigned for lieutenant governor when Carlos Spaht ran for governor in 1952. He later was elected to the public service commission, a

stepping-stone to the governor1s office. Huey P. Long and Jimmie Davis had

followed that same route. Many reform measures were enacted during the McKeithen administration, . including the addition of a Code of Ethics bill, mandatory central purchasing of all state supplies, and the investment of idle state funds.

Until the McKeithen administration, a governor in Louisiana was not permitted to succeed himself as governor, and a constitutional amendment adopted during McKeithen's first term permitted a governor to serve eight years. After the constitution was amended to permit him to do so, McKeithen sought a second term in 1967 and defeated his nearest opponent, John R. Rarick by more than 600,000 votes.

McKeithen was a large man, forecful and energetic. A good politician. TAPE #003 Page 10 of 10 G. DuPRE LITTON Tape 1

Perhaps the Superdome in New Orleans was his poli~i=aldownfall.

In the gubernatorial campaign of 1971-72, Edwin Edwards, Bennett

Johnston, Gillis Long, and a host of minor candid~~eswere involved. Edwards, Johnston, and Gillis Long ran very close in the first primary, and Edwards faced

Johnston in the second primary, where he won by s~me 4,000 votes. utilizing ,

the same constitutional provision as had John McKeithen, he was r~31ectedin 1976, quite handily, over Wade o. Martin, Jr., secretary of state, and Bob

Jones, son of former governor Sam Jones.

Edwin Edwards is very likely the best-looking governor that we've had to date. Extremely articulate, and a big spender of state funds, but has been able to make most voters unaware of that fact. He brags of consolidating some

200-plus agencies into about 14 agencies, but all ~ployees, all automobiles, and all spending in the previous agencies still carries on. Earl Long would likely describe Edwards as "He's slick as a peeled onion." I have known all governors of the state of Louisiana since Huey P.

Long. Beginning with Dick Leche, to the present ~irne,I have known every governor on a first-name basis. It has been an extremely interesting experience to know these gentlemen over a period of more tha~ fourty years.

Q. Mr. Litton, we certainly appreciate yotr::- time "and this "informative interview. #003 G. DUPRE LITTON page 1 8 Tape 2 of

INTERVIEW STARTS AT #13 ON COUNTER G. Dupre Litton. Mr. Litton has been a practicing attorney for thirty-seven years, having been an honor graduate from LSU Law School in 1942.

He has served in numerous important governmental capacities, including executive assistant to the state auditor, first assistant attorney general, chairman of the state board of tax appeals, executive counsel to the governor, legal advisor' to the Legislature, general counsel to the state Department of Labor, counsel for the Voting Machine Department, Insurance Department, Revenue Department,

Highway Department, Division of Administration, and Charity Hospital in New

Orleans. His last service for the state was with the Louisiana Tax Commission, where he served as a member from 1968 to 1973, and as chairman from April 1970 to May 1972.

Q. Mr. Litton, I would like to interview you concerning important events of the Earl K. Long era. Would you tell me something about Governor Earl K.

Long and your association with him?

A. Thank you, Mrs. pierce. The most colorful political character in my opinion in Louisiana history was Earl Kemp Long, who was born in Winnfield on

August 26, 1895. The family of Earl Long was a most remarkable one. His father,

Huey P. Long, Sr., and his mother had nine children who grew to be adults, four boys, and five girls. One of the most remarkable things about this family was that while they were very -- not real poor, but certainly not rich -- all nine children had an education. All four boys were lawyers, all five girls were teachers. The eldest son, Julius, was district attorney for a number OL years in the area surrounding Winnfield, and was actually the mentor of Huey and Earl.

He later moved to Shreveport, where he specialized in the practice of Workmen's

Compensation Law, and was a renowned man in that field, handling workmen's compensation cases in almost everyone of the sixty-four parishes in the state #003 G. DUPRE LITTON page 2 of 8 Tape 2

of Louisiana.

Huey was the second son, and was elected railroad commissioner,

which was a predecessor to the present Public Service Commission, in about

1922, was elected governor in 1928, and was elected United States senator, where he served until his assassination in 1935. ,

Earl Long was the youngest son in the Long family, and served the

state as lieutenant governor from 1936 to 1939, served as governor from 1939

to 1940, served again as governor in 1948 to 1952, and again as governor in

1956 to 1960. He had just been elected to Congress in 1960 when he died, and did not serve in the Congress.

The family was an extremely remarkable one. The other brother

George Long, moved to Oklahoma, where he served in the Oklahoma legislature as a state senator. He then moved back to Alexandria, and was elected to the

United States Congress in 1952, and was reelected each two years thereafter until his death in 1958.

Earl Long began his career as a traveling salesman, while he studied law at night at Loyola University. He passed the Bar examination in 1926.

Earl Long helped his brother Huey become railroad commissioner and also helped elect Huey governor in 1928, but was more or less in the shadow or background until Huey was killed in 1935.

When the House of Representatives in Louisiana filed impeachment charges with the state Senate against Huey Long in 1939, Earl Long fathered the idea of the "Round Robin," which stopped the impeachment proceedings. The

"Round Robin" was.a group of more than one-third of the senators in the state of Louisiana who signed a "Round Robin" petition that they believed that the impeachment charges against Huey Long were unconstitutional and would not vote to impeach him under any circumstances. Earl also assisted Huey in his election to the united States Senate in 1930. #003 G. DUPRE LITTON Page 3 of 8 Tape 2

Huey and Earl had a misunderstanding in 1931 when Earl announced

for lieutenant governor, and Huey Long supported a ticket composed of o. K.

Allen for governor, and John B. Fournet for lieutenant governor. In this

campaign, the Huey Long candidates were elected.

Earl Long married Blanche Revere on August 17, 1932 in Colorado "' Springs, Colorado.

The feud between Huey P. Long and Earl K. Long ended in 1934. In

1935, after Huey P. Long was assassinated, a "Complete the Work" ticket was organized to run in the 1936 statewide elections, composed of Richard W. Leche for governor and Earl K. Long for lieutenant governor. On this same ticket were O. K. Allen, the governor at the time, who was a candidate for the short senatorial term of Huey P. Long, and Allen Ellender, a candidate for the reg­ ular six-year term in the state Senate.tsic).*

In June of 1939, the Louisiana scandals erupted, which forced the resignation of Richard W. Leche as governor, and Earl K. Long assumed the duties of governor at that time. Earl Long was not involved in any of the Louisiana scandals, and he brought back considerable confidence in state gov­ ernment in the short period that he served from June of 1939 until May of 1940 as governor.

Earl Long was a candidate for governor in 1940. His opponents were

Sam Jones and Jimmy Noe. In the second primary, Jimmy Noe, who had always been a Long man, supported Sam Jones, and Jones won the election by some seventeen or eighteen thousand votes in the entire state of Louisiana. Earl Long had made a remarkable race under the circumstances.

*Mr. Litton is apparently refering to the six-year term in the United States Senate. #003 G. DUPRE LITTON Page 4 of 8 Tape 2

In 1944, the Long organization supported Louis Morgan for governor,

and Earl Long for lieutenant governor. Other candidates for governor in that

election were Jimmie Davis, Jimmy Morrison, Dudley J. LeBlanc, and Sam Caldwell.

The ticket of Jimmie Davis was elected in the 1944 election, but Earl Long

received approximately 49% of the vote cast for lieutenant governor, which was ,

considerably more than anyone else on his ticket.

Earl Long then spent the next four years opposing most of the admin­

istration action during the Davis administration, and preparing for the 1948

campaign.

In 1948, the candidates for governor were Earl Long, Sam Jones,

Jimmy Morrison, Robert F. Kennon, and several minor candidates. Earl Long

promised a fifty-dollar a month old-age pension, additional trade schools,

better roads and bridges.

Earl had a remarkable sense of humor, and during this particular

campaign, Sam Jones was slightly injured in an automobile accident. Earl Long

quipped "I quit campaigning to see that Sam got the best medical attention possible. I knew that if he died,they might put in a good man in the race that would beat us both!"

In this particular election, Earl Long received 41.5% of the vote;

Jones, 22.9%; Kennon, 19.8%; and the other candidates, a much smaller percent­

age. In the second primary, Earl Long received more than two-thirds of the vote in the state of Louisiana and was elected governor. He held the inaug­ uration at Tiger Stadium and served hot dogs and buttermilk to a very large inaugural crowd. In 1952, Earl could not run for governor under our constitution at that time. The. candidates for governor were Hale Boggs, Robert F. KennOn, #003 G. DUPRE LITTON Page 5 of 8 Tape 2

Dudley J. LeBlanc, Carlos G. Spaht, William J. Dodd, and James McLemore. This was the only state-wide election from 1932 to 1960 where Earl Long was not a candidate for either governor or lieutenant governor. Robert F. Kennon and

Carlos G. Spaht ran the second primary in 1952, and Judge Kennon was elected with 482,000 votes compared to 302,000 for Mr. Spaht. " I knew Earl Long from 1935 until his death, but I was closest to him from 1956 until his death in 1960. In the 1956 gubernatorial campaign, Governor

Long was again a candidate for governor, and his opponents were Jimmy Morrison,

Fred Preus, James McLemore, Francis Grevemberg, and six other candidates. At one time during this campaign, Governor Long said "Out of a sorry bunch of can­ didates, I stand head and shoulder above them." EArl Long was elected governor in the first primary with 51.4% of the vote, which is the first time in this century, to my knowledge, that a governor was elected in the first primary.

During his period as governor between 1956 and 1960, Governor Earl

Long again increased the old-age pension, he greatly increased the support for education, and built numerous new roads and bridges.

In the early part of 1959, Earl Long began suffering from some type of illness, which I always thought was probably a series of small strokes. In the latter part of May of 1959, Governor Long made two speeches to the legis­ lature wherein he used extremely bad language, and made many accusations which were incorrect. His family and close friends had him sent to the John Sealy

Psychiatric Hospital in Galveston, Texas on May 30, 1959, where he remained for some nineteen days.

Governor Long provoked a court hearing on an habeas corpus proceeding, and during the proceedings, agreed to voluntarily enter Oschner Clinic if he were perimtted to leave John Sealy. This was agreed upon by all concerned, and he entered Oschner Clinic, where he remained less than twenty-four hours.

He left the hospital for Baton Rouge with a state trooper. He was stopped on #003 G. DUPRE LITTON Page 6 of 8 Tape 2 the outskirts of Baton Rouge and taken to the coroner'of East Baton Rouge

Parish where he was examined by the coroner and another physician, and was committed to the Southeast Louisiana Hospital in Mandeville, where he remained for several days before provoking another court hearing regarding his incar­ ceration. While in the Southeast Louisiana Hospital in Mandeville, he fired the head of the State Department of Hospitals, and the superintendent at Mande­ " ville, and appointed friends in their place. These two new appointees certi­ fied that in their opinion, Governor Long 'should be released, and at the court hearing, held in Covington, the judge released Governor Long. He later left on a wertern excursion, where he visited, among other places, Fort Worth, El

Paso, Taos, New Mexico, Denver, Colorado, Independence, Missouri, and Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Upon his return from the western trip, he called a special session of the legislature to convene on August 10, 1959, which was the shortest leg­ islative session in the history of the United States. The legislature voted to adjourn sine die as soon as they convened.

In 1959, while still suffering from his illness, Earl K. Long organized the Noe-Long ticket, with Jimmy Noe a candidate for governor, and

Earl K. Long as the candidate for lieutenant governor. Other candidates for governor in 1959 were Jimmie Davis, Jimmy Morrison, Willie Rainach, Bill

Dodd, and a number of minor candidates. Correction: the Morrison who was candidate for governor in 1959 was not Jimmy Morrison, he was deLessepps

"Shep" Morrison, the mayor of New Orleans. This election, in the first primary, Morrison led with 279,000 votes, Davis was second with 214,000, and

Jimmy Noe trailed in fourth place with 98,000 votes. Earl Long, however, while losing in his race for lieutenant governor, polled 157,452 votes while running with Noe, who received less than 100,000. Thus Earl Long received some 60,000 more votes than any other member of the ticket of which he was Page 7 of 8 #003 G. DUPRE LITTON Tape 2

a member. In the runoff, Jimmie Davis was elected over Shep Morrison, and

Earl K. Long supported Governor Davis, and, very likely, was the big differ­ ence in the second primary.

The last campaign of Earl K. Long was probably the most miraculous campaign that he ever made. In early June of 1960, Earl Long entered the " congressional campaign in the Eighth Congressional District, where no incum­

bent had ever been defeated. His opponents were the incumbent congressman,

Harold McSween, and Ben Holt. Ben Holt was a former Long floor leader in

the legislature, and was the representative who moved to adjourn the special session above mentioned.

Governor Long made six to eight speeches each day during the cam­

paign. He gave away balloons, pocket combs, Cokes, ham, bacons and water­

melons. to get out the crowd.

The results of the first primary were: McSween, 29,000; Earl Long,

26,000 votes; and Ben Holt, 10,000 votes. The second primary was between

the incumbent Harold McSween, and Earl Long. Ben Holt endorsed and campaigned

for Congressman McSween. Earl Long was ill and tired, but was the most de­

termined man ever to campaign in this state. On the day before the election,

he suffered a heart attack in a hotel in Alexandria. He refused to be taken

to a hospital until after the votes had been counted, saying that he would

rather stay in the hotel, win the election and die than go to the hospital,

lose the election, and live. His theory was that if he went to the hospital prior to the election, he would lose certain votes of voters who realized

that he might die and not be able to serve. Earl Long won election to Con­ gress by a vote of 39,000 to 35,000 and died some nine days after the election on September 5, 1960.

In my opinion, Earl K. Long was the most colorful, best informed, most aggressive, most determined and most resourceful man of politics in our #003 G. DUPRE LITTON Page 8 of 8 Tape 2

state's history.

He was buried in the center of his beloved Winfield, where his home had been located. As a matter of fact, his burial place is just where

the bedroom was in which he was born.

I believe that the two most important characteristics of Governor ~

Long in state government were one, he was tight-fisted with the state's money

(and we certainly need more of that in government), and two, he made the public aware of politics. He opposed every existing administration of which he was not a part, and he had serious opposition when he was in office.

Prophetic he was when he quipped sometime shortly before his death, "I'm the last of the red-hot papas in politics. When I'm gone, there won't be any more."

Q. Mr. Litton, I appreciate very much your giving me these informative and colorful interviews concerning a most interesting period of Baton Rouge and Louisiana history.