Edwin Edwards dies at age 93
Former Gov. Edwin Edwards, who dominated Louisiana politics for 30 years with his populist agenda and willingness to play the charming rogue, died Monday at 7 a.m. at his Gonzales home.
Edwards was 93.
Edwards is reported to have died of the respiratory disorders from which he’d suffered in recent years. Earlier this month he and his wife Trina issued a statement saying that he would undergo hospice care at home. He characterized the decision as a response to a recent ambulance trip to a Gonzales hospital and a desire to make his subsequent care more convenient for everyone.
It wasn’t necessarily a sign that he was near death, Edwards said in the statement.
Edwards, a Marksville native, was a World War II-era Navy pilot who came to Crowley to practice law and entered local politics there.
He was elected to the state Senate in 1965 and served less than two years before running for the U.S. House in 1965.
Edwards served in Congress until 1972, when he finished first in a 17-candidate gubernatorial field that also included former Gov. Jimmie Davis and Gillis Long. He beat J. Bennett Johnston by a 51-49 margin. He was re-elected in 1976.
Almost immediately, Edwards called for a convention to rewrite Louisiana’s outdated constitution.
One of the most far-reaching changes during his first two terms was a change in the way energy production is taxed. Instead of taxing oil production based on volume, it would be taxed according to its price, leading to an influx of state revenue during the oil shocks of 1973-74 and 1979.
Edwards was forced to sit out one term before beating incumbent Gov. David Treen in 1983.
Media accounts credit Edwards from championing the cause of working people and bringing women and minorities into state government.
But he was also dogged by charges of corruption. Although Edwards emerged from two federal trials in the 1980s without a conviction, he was wounded by the attention and by the 1980s oil slump that hurt Louisiana’s economy. He would later serve a prison sentence in a scandal over riverboat licenses.
Edwards withdrew from the 1987 gubernatorial runoff with Buddy Roemer.
Edwards came back once more, this time to beat former Klansman David Duke in the 1991 “runoff from hell.” Edwards’ fourth and final term was marked by an economic upswing, a recovery from the oil crunch of the 1980s.
Edwards and wife Trina were the subjects of a 2013 reality TV show “The Governor’s Wife” on A&E.
Edwards is survived by his wife and four grown children, Anna, Victoria, Stephen and David.