Theodore M. Hickey

Theodore M. Hickey, known as Ted Hickey (July 8, 1910 – July 21, 1993), was a Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate from the 8th Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana. He served from 1955 to 1957 and again from 1963 until 1984. In his last year, he was the Louisiana Senate President Pro Tempore.^[2]

Background

Hickey was the youngest of five children of George Fulton Hickey (1879-1936), a New Orleans firefighter, and Mary Karcher Hickey (1881-1961), a daughter of Paul Bernard and Margaret Conrad Karcher.^[3]

Hickey and his wife, the former Henrietta Miller (1909-1997), were living at 1833 Mandeville Street in New Orleans in the 1940 census.^[4] The Hickeys lost a teenaged son, Theodore T. Hickey (1936-1953), who was born the year that his paternal grandfather died. The Hickeys, their son, and his mother are entombed along Crucifixion Walk at Saint Roch Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans.^[5] His father, George Hickey, is interred at St. Vincent de Paul Cemetery No. 2, also in New Orleans.^[3]

Political life

Hickey was the author in 1956 of the act which established the University of New Orleans. At the time New Orleans was the largest metropolitan area in the U.S. without a public university though it had several private universities, such as Tulane, Loyola, and Dillard. The institution was originally named Louisiana State University in New Orleans but renamed in 1973. The UNO University Ballroom at was named in Hickey's honor late in 2014, more than two decades after his death. Hickey was also a master of moving legislation to passage. Henry Braden, an African-American colleague from New Orleans, said: "He could let the debate go back and forth, then take the mike and put everything in perspective. He would prod our conscience and put a stop to some things."^[6]

Between his two stints in the state Senate, Hickey was a member of the New Orleans City Council during the administrations of Mayors deLesseps Story Morrison and Victor Schiro. He represented District E from 1958 to 1961 and replaced Schiro on the council at-large when Schiro succeeded to the office of mayor upon Morrison's resignation to become United States Ambassador to the Organization of American States. Schiro was then elected in 1962. Hickey's council colleagues included later Lieutenant Governor Jimmy Fitzmorris and future Civil Court Judge Fred J. Cassibry.^[7][8]

In 1960, Hickey was one of the ten presidential electors, along with Edmund Reggie, Attorney General Jack P.F. Gremillion, and Frank B. Ellis, for Democratic nominee John F. Kennedy in the campaign against Richard M. Nixon.^[9]

References