Harvey Peltier Jr.

Harvey Andrew Peltier Jr. (January 18, 1923 – December 5, 1980),^[1] was from 1964 to 1976 a member of the Louisiana State Senate from District 21, which included Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes in South Louisiana. He served alongside Claude B. Duval, senator from Terrebonne and St. Mary parishes.^[2]

Peltier resided in his native Thibodaux, Louisiana. At the age of twenty-five, he was a delegate to the 1948 Democratic National Convention held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which nominated the Truman-Barkley ticket.^[3] He was appointed in 1975 by Governor Edwin Edwards as a trustee of the University of Louisiana System and was its first president from 1975 until his death in 1980.^[4][5]

Peltier's father, Harvey Peltier Sr., an attorney, banker, and horse breeder,^[6] a political confidante of and a campaign manager for Governor and U.S. Senator Huey Pierce Long Jr.^[7] was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1924 to 1929^[8] and held the same senate seat as his son, from 1930 to 1940.^[2] Peltier Sr. also served on the former Louisiana State Board of Education as the elected member from Louisiana's 3rd congressional district.^[9]

Peltier's mother was the former May Ayo (1902-1992). He had a sister, Bernice P. Harang, and three brothers, Donald Louis Peltier (1926-2008), Richard Benton Peltier (1938-2007),^[10] and Dr. James R. Peltier (born 1930), a member of the Louisiana State University Board of Supervisors.^[11] Peltier's brother-in-law, Warren Harang Jr. (1921–2005), was a former president of the Thibodaux Chamber of Commerce and the American Sugar Cane League, a member of the Lafourche Parish School Board, and the mayor of Thibodaux from 1968–1978, 1986–1990, and 1994–1998.^[12]

In 1945, Peltier married Irma Mary Geheeb (1924-2014), the third daughter of Albert John and Cleo Belou Geheeb. Known as "Mickey", she graduated from the former Ursuline College, now Ursuline Academy, in her native New Orleans. The Peltiers lost an infant son in 1952 and have three surviving children, Patricia P. Crum, Harvey "Drew" Peltier, III, and wife Linda, and Mary Ellen Peltier.^[13] Peltier's son-in-law, John Mitchell Crum (1945-2012), was a district attorney of the 40th Judicial District of St. John the Baptist Parish.^[14]

The Peltier family is interred in the family tomb at St. Joseph Cemetery in Thibodaux.^[1]

In February 2014, four months before the death of his wife, Peltier Jr. was posthumously inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield. Peltier's colleague in the Louisiana House, Richard P. "Dick" Guidry of Lafourche Parish, was inducted in the same ceremony.^[3]

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