C. E. "Cap" Barham

Barham monument at Greenwood Cemetery in Ruston

Charles Emmett "Cap" Barham (September 28, 1904 – February 23, 1972) was the Democratic lieutenant governor of Louisiana from 1952 to 1956, who is credited with having made the office independent of the governor. Prior to his statewide position, Barham was a state senator from the then 29th District (Lincoln and Union parishes) between 1948 and 1952. Like Governor Robert F. Kennon, under whom he served, Barham was part of the anti-Long faction of Louisiana politics, but he was frequently at odds with Kennon as well.

Biography

Barham was born in Kimbleton near Dubach in Lincoln Parish to John Robert Barham and the former Leola Fowler. He was educated in Dubach public schools and then attended Northwestern State University (then "Louisiana Normal College") in Natchitoches, from which he graduated with teaching credentials in 1927. He taught school for a year at Dubach and then enrolled in the law school of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He received his L.L.B. degree in 1931 and thereafter opened his law practice in Ruston.

Barham married the former Carice Helen Hilburn (October 30, 1907 – December 2, 1965),^[1] and they had two sons, Charles C. Barham, a Ruston attorney and the Lincoln-Union state senator from 1964 to 1972 and 1976 to 1988, and Robert Ewing Barham (1940–1996), an English professor at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston. Barham was an uncle by marriage to Wiley Wilson Hilburn, Jr. (born 1938), head of the Louisiana Tech University journalism department, editorial writer for the Shreveport Times and an authority on Louisiana politics, and Chester William "Chet" Hilburn (born 1945), a journalist retired from the Houston Chronicle.

Barham ran for lieutenant governor on the intraparty ticket with Congressman Hale Boggs of New Orleans in the 1951-1952 election campaign. Boggs, considered one of Louisiana's most liberal officials in his time, did not make the gubernatorial runoff, but Barham was placed into a second primary with John McKeithen from Columbia in Caldwell Parish, who had run on a ticket with Judge Carlos Spaht of Baton Rouge. Eliminated in the first round of voting was Leon Gary, the mayor of Houma in Terrebonne Parish, who ran on the Bill Dodd intraparty ticket that year, Elmer David Conner of Jennings, the choice of Robert Kennon, and Lionel Ott, a member of the New Orleans City Council who had run with gubernatorial contender James M. McLemore of Alexandria. In the runoff campaign, Barham was "adopted" by Kennon, as the Kennon-Barham slate won an easy victory over Spaht-McKeithen. Barham was the only member of the original Boggs ticket to win office at the statewide level. Nevertheless, Barham often found himself at odds with the much more conservative Governor Kennon.

In 1956, Barham ran again for lieutenant governor. He allied himself with Boggs' former law partner, deLesseps Story Morrison, the mayor of New Orleans.^[2] Both Morrison and Barham were crushed in the primary by Earl Kemp Long and Long's choice for lieutenant governor, Lether Frazar, a former president of two state colleges. After leaving the lieutenant governorship, Barham was a delegate to the 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which renominated Adlai E. Stevenson to run again against Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In 1969, Barham was among the first six men inducted into the Northwestern State University "Hall of Fame."

He is interred beside his wife and sons at Greenwood Cemetery in Ruston.

After the death of his first wife, Barham married another "Helen", Helen Zargas Barham (1926-2016) of Monroe, who was previously married to Gayle K. Doningues and Cyril Everett "Cy" Epler (1911-1968). She had three children, the step-children of "Cap" Barham: Gale Domingues Wolf of Jackson, Mississippi, Michael Cyril Epler and wife Melissa of Monroe, and Patrick Henry Epler of Birmingham, Alabama. The second Mrs. Barham, who was an avid golfer and civic volunteer, is interred at Saint Paschal Catholic Cemetery in West Monroe.^[3]

Notes

References

Lieutenant Governors of Louisiana Landry Plauché Farmer Wickliffe C. Mouton Griffin Hyams Pearce Wells Voorhies Dunn Pinchback Antoine Wiltz McEnery Robertson Walton Knobloch Jeffries Parlange Lott Snyder Estopinal Cage Sanders Lambremont Barret F. Mouton Bouanchaud Johnson Simpson Gilbert Cyr Fournet Noe Long Lindsey M. Mouton Verret Dodd Barham Frazar Aycock Fitzmorris Freeman Hardy Schwegmann Blanco Landrieu Angelle Dardenne Nungesser