By MELINDA MARTINEZ, Alexandria City Discuss

ALEXANDRIA, La. (AP) — The historical past of Louisiana is intertwined with the legacies of Huey P. Lengthy and Earl Okay. Lengthy, two of the state’s most outstanding figures who each pupil learns about in Louisiana historical past class.

Chatting with the Rotary Membership of Alexandria, native historian Michael Wynne stated he learn each e-book on Huey P. and Earl Okay. The books listed what they’d carried out in each different parish however not many touched on their involvement in Rapides Parish.

“And it in the event you take a look at them, it might be simply be cursory mentions of Huey Lengthy and barely any mentions besides in the direction of the very finish of Earl Lengthy’s life about Earl Lengthy,” stated Wynne. “And it was identical to, they’d nothing to do with Rapides Parish. It was like they by no means even handed by means of Rapides Parish.”

About three years in the past, he started to do analysis for an article he was writing. He thought that they needed to have “carried out some stuff” in Rapides so he combed by means of outdated City Discuss articles and located many tales which might be detailed in his e-book, “Unusual Bedfellows: Huey P. Lengthy, Earl Okay. Lengthy and Central Louisiana.”

Wynne stated the primary point out of Huey Lengthy in Rapides Parish comes from a 1910 City Discuss article that listed him as a boarder at a “Texas & Pacific” lodge situated at 148 Wheelock Avenue. He was two weeks shy of his seventeenth birthday.

His first letter to the editor appeared in The City Discuss round 1913. It was about employers mistreating staff.

In 1918, he introduced his candidacy for railroad commissioner in Alexandria — and gained.

It was on the Resort Bentley the place he first spoke of working for governor. His first documented marketing campaign occasion was on the outdated Metropolis Corridor constructing in 1923. About 3,000 to five,000 folks confirmed as much as hear him converse from the again of a pick-up truck. He additionally campaigned in Boyce and Glenmora. He misplaced that election to Gov. Henry L. Fuqua.

When Huey P. Lengthy ran for governor the second time In 1927, he held marketing campaign rallies at Bolton Excessive College. The primary one held in August 1927 reportedly had 1000’s of individuals present up filling the outdated auditorium and hallways. Many stood on the entrance garden with big audio system that had been loud sufficient to be heard downtown. One of many Bolton rally adverts states “everyone seems to be invited, particularly the women.” He additionally held a rally at Pineville Highschool in 1928.

“Huey used Rapides Parish as his take a look at floor to enter statewide politics,” stated Wynne. “The whole lot he did, he began not in Winn Parish, not in East Baton Rouge Parish or wherever else.

“I feel he did a number of speeches right here to see how they sounded and the way they got here out earlier than he used them in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Shreveport and in all places else. Rapides Parish was the start and infrequently the middle of Huey Lengthy’s and Earl Lengthy’s life.”

In 1932, to honor Huey Lengthy, the Rapides Parish College Board agreed to position bronze plaques honoring him in each faculty for getting college students free faculty books. Wynne stated it’s unknown if these plaques had been made or positioned in faculties.

Huey Lengthy had tumultuous relationships with many in Alexandria together with The City Discuss. Editor Rollo Jarreau wrote an extended, scathing editorial in 1929 stating that Lengthy besmirched the characters of many outstanding residents and asserts lies in his speeches.

By 1933, Huey was a U.S. senator and most of Louisiana hated him as a result of he was so domineering, Wynne stated. A City Discuss article states that when he gave a marketing campaign speech at Metropolis Corridor, folks hurled eggs and rotten fruit at him. A person on high of the Warranty Financial institution that was situated on third and Murray Streets threw eggs at him. Lengthy despatched males after him.

Wynne stated Alexandria was the final city Huey visited 5 days earlier than he was killed on the State Capitol in Baton Rouge.

Wynne’s curiosity within the Longs started in 1970, the thirty fifth anniversary of Huey’s loss of life. He recollects seeing Huey’s son, the late U.S. Sen. Russell Lengthy, at one of many talking engagements he was giving across the state.

As an adolescent, Wynne didn’t know that a number of this had gone on till he learn Pulitzer Prize successful writer T. Harry Williams’ e-book.

“First e-book in my life that I learn cowl to cowl – voluntarily.” he stated. “And I simply discovered it riveting. I couldn’t imagine that each one this type of shenanigans went on again then. You at all times suppose the current world is the worst world and most screwed up world in existence. And I simply couldn’t imagine all these things had gone on. It made something that occurred in 1970, 1980, 1990 ridiculously minor in comparison with what they used to do.”

In Wynne’s e-book, he states that Earl Lengthy and his spouse Blanche lived in Alexandria for 4 years. A household that bought theirhouse years later discovered his monetary paperwork within the attic.

In 1937, Earl headed a parade in downtown Alexandria that was sponsored by the Rotary Membership of Alexandria. It was held for “Security Week.”

Earl died at Baptist Hospital, now Rapides Regional Medical Middle, in 1960.

“His final marketing campaign for Congress was right here in Alexandria,” stated Wynne.

There are various accounts of how he died, Wynne instructed Rotarians. One includes Earl’s driver, Ellis “Simple Cash” Littleton, who instructed completely different tales about Earl’s loss of life. He even had one the place he stated Earl died in his arms.

Singer/songwriter Jay Chevalier of Forest Hill famous in his e-book “When the Music Stopped” that he was with Earl when he died, stated Wynne. Chevalier writes that the physician let him maintain Earl’s coronary heart in his palms however medical information point out no post-mortem was carried out. Chevalier wrote the music, “The Ballad of Earl Okay. Lengthy.”

Wynne’s e-book “Unusual Bedfelllows: Huey P. Lengthy, Earl Okay. Lengthy and Central Louisiana” will be bought on amazon.com.

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