Edwin Washington Edwards was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as the US representative for from 1965 to 1972 and as the 50th governor of Louisiana for four terms, twice as many elected terms as any other Louisiana chief executive.
87 Facts About Edwin Edwards
2.
Edwin Edwards served a total of 16 years in gubernatorial office, which at 5,784 days is the sixth-longest such tenure in post-Constitutional US history.
3.
Edwin Edwards began serving his sentence in October 2002 in Fort Worth, Texas, and was later transferred to the federal facility in Oakdale, Louisiana.
4.
Edwin Edwards was released from federal prison in January 2011, having served eight years.
5.
Edwin Edwards was considered to be the last remnant of the political machine founded and led by Huey Long and Earl Long to serve as Governor.
6.
In 2014, Edwin Edwards again sought election to the US House of Representatives, running to represent.
7.
Edwin Edwards placed first in the jungle primary, but was defeated by Republican Garret Graves by nearly 25 percentage points in the runoff election, a sign of Edwards' precipitous decline in popularity due to his felony conviction, as well as the Republican Party of Louisiana's growing dominance over state politics.
8.
Edwin Washington Edwards was born in rural Avoyelles Parish, near Marksville.
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Edwin Edwards's father, Clarence Edwards, was a half-French Creole Presbyterian sharecropper, while his mother, the former Agnes Brouillette, was a French-speaking Roman Catholic.
10.
Edwin Edwards' ancestors were among early Louisiana colonists from France who eventually settled in Avoyelles Parish, referred to as the original French Creoles.
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Edwin Edwards's father was descended from a family in Kentucky, who came to Louisiana during the American Civil War.
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The young Edwin Edwards had planned on a career as a preacher.
13.
Edwin Edwards served briefly in the US Navy Air Corps near the end of World War II.
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Edwin Edwards relocated there in 1949 after his sister, Audrey E Isbell, who had moved there with her husband, told him there were few French-speaking attorneys in the southwestern Louisiana community.
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Edwin Edwards entered politics through election to the Crowley City Council in 1954.
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Edwin Edwards was a member of the Democratic Party which, in that era, had a monopoly on public offices in Louisiana, but which fell out of favor in the late 20th century.
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Edwin Edwards remained on the Crowley council until his election to the Louisiana State Senate in 1964; in that race he defeated, in a major political upset in the Democratic primary, the incumbent Bill Cleveland, a Crowley businessman who had served for twenty years in both houses of the Louisiana legislature.
18.
Years later as governor, Edwin Edwards appointed Cleveland's daughter, Willie Mae Fulkerson, a former member of the Crowley City Council, to the Louisiana Board of Prisons.
19.
Edwin Edwards said that the major philosophical difference that he held with Johnston was in regard to their "awareness of problems of the poor".
20.
Bill Dodd, who was defeated for state superintendent of education in the same election cycle that Edwards was winning the governorship in for the first time, attributed the Edwards victory in part to political kingmaker Louis J Roussel Jr.
21.
Edwin Edwards is such a good administrator and motivator that he can put together an organization that will win in business and in politics.
22.
Charismatic, well dressed, and quick with clever one-liners and retorts, Edwin Edwards maintained wide popularity.
23.
On taking office, Edwards hired J Kelly Nix as his executive assistant and in 1974 elevated him to first executive assistant.
24.
Edwin Edwards was later associate commissioner of higher education for the Louisiana Board of Regents, and an LSU journalism professor.
25.
In 1983, as Edwin Edwards prepared to return to office, O'Keefe was engulfed in scandal and forced to leave the Senate.
26.
Edwin Edwards was as replaced by Edwards loyalist Samuel B Nunez Jr.
27.
Early in the first gubernatorial term, Edwin Edwards initiated the creation of the first new Louisiana state constitution in more than a half century.
28.
Edwin Edwards intended to replace the Constitution of 1921, an unwieldy and outmoded document burdened with hundreds of amendments.
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Edwin Edwards undertook a major reorganization of the state government, abolishing over 80 state agencies and modeling the remaining structure after that of the federal government.
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Edwin Edwards was able to greatly expand the state's oil revenues by basing severance taxes on a percentage of the price of each barrel rather than the former flat rate.
31.
Edwin Edwards easily won reelection in 1975, with 750,107 votes.
32.
At the time, Edwin Edwards was remarkably candid about his questionable practices.
33.
Edwin Edwards managed to avoid direct implication in the Roemer case.
34.
The accusations were investigated by a grand jury, but the Edwin Edwards administration attacked Vidrine's credibility and the investigation stalled.
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Edwin Edwards admitted that Park gave Elaine an envelope containing $10,000 in cash, but insisted that the gift was given out of friendship and that there was nothing improper about it.
36.
Edwin Edwards began raising money and touring the state long before the 1983 election, maintaining what supporters called "the government in waiting".
37.
Edwin Edwards had supported Treen's opponent, Democratic Public Service Commissioner Louis Lambert of Ascension Parish.
38.
Edwin Edwards expected a 70 percent profit on the contributors' tickets to retire the debt.
39.
The legislature, overwhelmingly dominated by lawmakers beholden to Edwin Edwards, passed these taxes into law, but the taxes were highly unpopular and damaged Edwin Edwards' level of public support.
40.
Edwin Edwards predicted that if lawmakers passed Treen's budget instead of the higher taxes the voters would rebel and blame the legislature itself for the results.
41.
In February 1985, soon after his third term began, Edwin Edwards was forced to stand trial on charges of mail fraud, obstruction of justice, and bribery, brought by US Attorney John Volz.
42.
Edwin Edwards proclaimed his innocence and insisted that the charges were politically motivated by Volz and the Republican Party.
43.
Edwin Edwards quipped that he had been judged by a "jury of my peers".
44.
Prosecutors referred to Marion Edwin Edwards, indicted in the alleged health care scheme, as a "bag man" for his brother.
45.
Edwin Edwards placed a shopping bag on his head to resemble a crown and tossed about phony $100 bills.
46.
Edwin Edwards later recited during a toast at a French Quarter bar, though his beverage was non-alcoholic as he was a teetotaler, a rhyming invitation for Volz to "kiss my ass".
47.
The trials were rather lengthy, and at one point during the first trial but before the mistrial Edwin Edwards rode to the Hale Boggs US Courthouse on a mule from his hotel.
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Marion Edwin Edwards mocked the US Department of Justice, US Attorney Volz, and United States Judge Marcel Livaudais, who presided over the trials.
49.
Edwin Edwards had made unpopular budget cuts to education and other social programs earlier in his term.
50.
At first Edwin Edwards had predicted that a casino and a state lottery would net the state $600 million; then he lowered the expectations to $150 million.
51.
Edwin Edwards's challengers were asked, in succession, if they would consider endorsing Edwards in the general election if they did not make it to the runoff.
52.
In one stroke, Edwin Edwards made Buddy Roemer a minority governor.
53.
Also, Edwin Edwards virtually ceded control of the state to Roemer even before his inauguration.
54.
Edwin Edwards received 34 percent of the vote while Duke received 32 percent.
55.
Support for Edwin Edwards grew in between the primary and the runoff.
56.
On election day, Edwin Edwards defeated Duke in a landslide, 61 to 39 percent, a margin of nearly 400,000 votes.
57.
Edwin Edwards invited former state Representative Kevin P Reilly Sr.
58.
Edwin Edwards appointed a board that, at his private direction, awarded 15 floating riverboat casinos that had been authorized by the Legislature and the Roemer administration.
59.
Edwin Edwards appointed a political ally, Paul Fontenot, to head the State Police; he would oversee the licensing and investigation of casino operators.
60.
The Edwards investigation resulted in the conviction of San Francisco 49ers owner Edward J DeBartolo Jr.
61.
Edwin Edwards was found guilty on seventeen of twenty-six counts, including racketeering, extortion, money laundering, mail fraud, and wire fraud; his son Stephen was convicted on 18 counts.
62.
From 2002 to 2004 Edwin Edwards was incarcerated at the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas.
63.
In 2004, Edwin Edwards filed for divorce from his second wife Candy, saying that Mrs Edwin Edwards had "suffered enough" during his incarceration.
64.
Edwin Edwards supporters lobbied US President Barack Obama for a pardon for Edwin Edwards so he might run in the 2011 Louisiana gubernatorial election.
65.
Obama did not reply to petitions by supporters of Edwin Edwards and lacking a pardon, Edwin Edwards remained ineligible to seek the governorship of Louisiana until the end of his life and would have only been eligible to run after fifteen years would have passed from the end of his sentence.
66.
On January 13,2011, Edwin Edwards was released from prison and served the remainder of his sentence at a halfway house.
67.
Edwin Edwards's sentence ended on July 6,2011 and he began three years of probation.
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Edwin Edwards entered into home confinement at his daughter's Denham Springs, Louisiana home through the supervision of a halfway house, on January 13,2011.
69.
On February 7,2013, Edwin Edwards was granted early release from probation due to good behavior.
70.
In February 2014, Edwin Edwards announced that he was contemplating running in the 2014 election to represent the Louisiana's 6th congressional district in the US House of Representatives, which is centered on the state capital of Baton Rouge.
71.
Edwin Edwards finished first in every poll taken of the race, though only with a plurality.
72.
Edwin Edwards has the seventh longest gubernatorial tenure in post-Constitutional US history at 5,784 days.
73.
Edwin Edwards followed George Wallace of Alabama, Jim Hunt of North Carolina, Bill Janklow of South Dakota, Terry Branstad of Iowa, Lewis Cass of Michigan, and Jim Rhodes of Ohio as 16-year governors.
74.
In 1949, Edwin Edwards married Elaine Schwartzenburg, whom he had met at Marksville High School.
75.
In 1972, Edwards appointed her as an interim US senator to complete the unfinished term of Allen J Ellender of Houma, who died while campaigning for his seventh term in office.
76.
Edwin Edwards had a vasectomy reversal, and the couple froze sperm to attempt to have a baby but were not successful.
77.
In July 2011, Edwin Edwards married Trina Grimes, his prison pen pal.
78.
Marion Edwin Edwards, an insurance agent and political consultant, was a cancer survivor and counseled other patients for many years.
79.
Edwin Edwards did not attend the funeral because of security difficulties.
80.
On July 29,2011, Edwin Edwards married Trina Grimes Scott was born on August 1978 and from Baton Rouge, at the Monteleone Hotel in New Orleans.
81.
Edwin Edwards' one-time prison pen pal, she was fifty-one years his junior and was born midway in his second term as governor.
82.
On December 13,2016, Edwin Edwards was hospitalized under stable condition again for pneumonia in Baton Rouge.
83.
Edwin Edwards was rushed to the hospital again by ambulance in November 2020, with shortness of breath.
84.
Edwin Edwards returned to his home in Gonzales after spending two nights at Our Lady of the Lake Medical Center in Baton Rouge.
85.
Edwin Edwards's wife told the media that he was resting well and "giving orders" once he got home.
86.
Edwin Edwards was sent to hospice care for pain in his lungs in Gonzales, Louisiana on July 6,2021.
87.
At the time of his death, Edwin Edwards had outlived four of his successors: Dave Treen, Buddy Roemer, Mike Foster, and Kathleen Blanco.