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Earl Kemp Long: The Man from Pea Patch Farm Author(s): Morgan D. Peoples Source: Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Autumn, 1976), pp. 365-392 Published by: Louisiana Historical Association Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4231630 Accessed: 29-07-2018 05:38 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Louisiana Historical Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association This content downloaded from 138.47.53.7 on Sun, 29 Jul 2018 05:38:45 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Earl Kemp Long: The Mana From Pea Patch Farm By MORGAN D. PEOPLES* Department of History Louisiana Tech University Ruston, Louisiana During the summer of 1959, Louisiana governor Earl K. Long appeared gaunt, tired, and erratic. He was ill, and he showed it. Nevertheless, he was doing what he enjoyed more than anything in the world-campaigning for Louisiana's top political office. A sup- porter of his once observed: "If they ever tell you ol' Earl is dead, you just ask them to call a governors' race. If Earl don't git [sic] up an' run, he's dead sure enough."1 In 1963, as another first Demo- cratic primary neared its completion, there was an almost complete absence of political activity in Winnfield, the home of the "Long Boys." A former Winnfield supporter of the Longs drawled: "When Ole Earl, hisself, was here directing political traffic nobody was confused very long-he soon had the voters lined up for or against his man-not wobbling about like they are doing now." An old boyhood chum of the Longs was in full agreement: "The master of the Pea Patch farm is gone-and now-political confusion prevails here in Winn Parish." 2 As early as 1951, Earl Long, the last of the great Louisiana stump speakers, had confided to a large gathering at Jennings, "I am going to stay in politics until I am taken from this earth." 3 And he was a man of his word. The end came nine years later. While campaign- ing for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Long was stricken with a severe heart attack; ten days later he died. "Earl * Presidential address delivered at the Eighteenth Annual Meeting of the Louisiana His- torical Association in Lafayette, March 26, 1976. 1 "Earl's Whirl," Time, LXXIII (May 18, 1959), 24. 2 Harley Bozeman, "Winn Parish As I Knew It," Winn Parish Enterprise-News-American, November 21, 1963. 3Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, March 16, 1951. 365 This content downloaded from 138.47.53.7 on Sun, 29 Jul 2018 05:38:45 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 366 LOUISIANA HISTORY *!S,tEE;; _ .... _FF' - * -: - ' _F - *:S, ff,.f /Alk..,,*. n * .: . : . :: # EL-_, .......- ' .i * ..t.L ' -_,, s_ . w * S_ _ . _ . .: t .. .... ,. w.:, ,yl' . :::: . : , f j.. = .: o; as . ......... SSi* .v_ 4 6 _ .............. ..: ' 2'.. .r i;. .r _._ t..t ;....^ . .. ^.... 3wX' :Ea ' t , i 't''We'A'??f J, s_.... _ * *:_L,,.MiF ..?|_; .; ................................. '_. D'''. :: ; .. _. * ::.; sisal Earl Kemp Long This content downloaded from 138.47.53.7 on Sun, 29 Jul 2018 05:38:45 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms EARL KEMP LONG 367 must have died happy," his cousin, David Bell, asserted, "because he died after doing what he loved best-politicking."4 Actually, Earl Long had three great loves: politicking, plain people, and his Pea Patch Farm. Plain people liked him because he was one of them-"hearty, bluff, and rough as a corncob." He talked like a field hand, and sometimes displayed the manners of a mule skinner. No city-bred politician, he asserted, could know or understand the problems of country people.5 The astute politico loved to "play country" at his Pea Patch Farm.6 This rural retreat was located three miles northeast of downtown Winnfield, in a parish so poor that "a man would skin a flea for the hide and tallow."7 The 320-acre plot of land was pur- chased from the Federal Land Bank of New Orleans on January 4, 1937, for the paltry sum of three thousand dollars. Included in the purchase was a dilapidated structure with linoleum floors, naked light bulbs, and picture calendars on the wall. Under its galvanized tin roof were two bedrooms, a storeroom, a kitchen, and a bath (the one luxury which was added by the politician-farmer). An oilcloth covered the kitchen table and a dish towel was draped over the bathroom window. Outside the front door stood a lone sweetgum tree.8 Pea Patch was never a permanent home for the Earl K. Longs, but a politician's retreat and a "hawg" hunting lodge. The Winn Parish native sometimes spoke lightly of his pastoral sanctuary. "I used to call it my Billy Goat Ranch. Just a small place where I can 4Lake Charles American Press, September 6, 1960. 5 Thomas Martin, Dynasty: The Longs of Louisiana (New York, 1960), p. 288; Richard B. McCaughan, Socks on a Rooster (Baton Rouge, 1961), p. 86. 6John T. Baldwin, Jr., "Election Strategy and Tactics of Earl Kemp Long As Seen in His Gubernatorial Campaigns," (M.A. Thesis, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana, 1973), p. 4. 7 Stephen Hess, "The Long, Long Trail," American Heritage, XVII, Number 5 (August, 1966), 41. 8 McCaughan, Socks on a Rooster, p. 127; Eleanor Harris, "The Truth About Earl K. Long," The American Weekly, September 20, 1959; Stan Opotowsky, The Longs of Louisiana (New York, 1960), pp. 135, 146; "Election Strategy of Earl Kemp Long," p. 4; Brooks Read and Bud Hebert (eds.), "Earl K. Long: Last of the Red Hot Papas," (Baton Rouge, 1961); Winn Parisb Enterprise-News-American, July 2, 1959. Miss Sadie who worked for the governor for many years at Pea Patch saw many improvements there. She said that it was sometimes called the "Lazy L" after Earl took office as governor in 1956. See New Orleans Times- Picayune, January 20, 1957. This content downloaded from 138.47.53.7 on Sun, 29 Jul 2018 05:38:45 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 368 LOUISIANA HISTORY raise a little corn, a few cows, chickens, [and] guineas," he once stated.9 Blanche Revere Long, Earl's wife, referred to it at times as the "tin shack." Although some newsmen depicted her as hating the farm, the truth is that she visited it many times, staying there as long as two weeks at a time.10 Ole Earl especially enjoyed "hawg" hunting at Pea Patch. He owned a pack of champion Catahoula hog-and-stock dogs which could pin wild tusk hogs in the most difficult places.11 "I like to hunt wild hawgs," he once beamed. "You always come home with meat. Not so with deer hunting." 12 After the kill came the dirty, smelly, messy job of gutting and scraping the hogs. For this chore, Louisiana's top executive donned his oldest and most disreputable clothing, rolled up his sleeves, and set to work.'3 Clem Huffman, farm manager for many years, still recalls the day some "high-faluting" political friends of Governor Long came from Lake Charles to see him on an important matter. "Is the governor here?" they asked. "Yes suh," replied Rosa, the black cook. "He's back there behind the house." When the city folks entered the backyard, they failed to recognize the governor. He was covered from head to toe with hog hair, blood, and gore, but Earl was not chagrined in the least, he wanted his supporters to circulate such a folksy image to the voters of the Lake Charles area. 14 On almost any weekend while he was governor or lieutenant governor, Long might succumb to the urge to visit Pea Patch. A short time later, he would be headed toward Winnfield, his car laden with fruits, groceries, and at least two big garbage cans. Along the way the limousine stopped at restaurants to fill the gar- bage cans with slop for his penned farm hogs. Upon arriving, Earl would immediately fall into a farm routine, slopping the hogs and feeding the chickens. About 4:30 a.m. he would rise, dress in pants 9 "Last of the Red Hot Papas." In 1959 Earl Long claimed he raised about as much stuff on Pea Patch Farm as "almost any man in Winn Parish." "I Time, Vol. 74 (uly 6, 1959), 17; personal interview, C. C. Huffman, Winnfield, Louisi- ana, July 31, 1975; Opotowsky, Longs of Louisiana, p. 240. 11 ShreveportJournal, June 25, 1959; "Last of the Red Hot Papas"; personal interview, C. C. Huffman. 12 "Last of the Red Hot Papas." 13 Personal interview, C. C. Huffman. 14 Ibid. This content downloaded from 138.47.53.7 on Sun, 29 Jul 2018 05:38:45 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms EARL KEMP LONG 369 and undershirt, eat a hearty breakfast, and by eight o'clock be ready to meet his neighbors.15 The Pea Patch Farm was a good place to enjoy the sweet fruits of victory and to map out future political strategy, a process referred to by Long's fund campaign treasurer, Lewis Gottlief, as "making catfish bait." 16 It was also a good place for Earl to lick his wounds after suffering political defeat.
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