Raymond Laborde

Raymond Julian Laborde, I (August 18, 1927 – January 17, 2016), was an American department store owner and a Democratic politician in his native Marksville in Avoyelles Parish in south Central Louisiana. He was the mayor of Marksville from 1958 to 1970 and thereafter served five terms from 1972 to 1992 in the Louisiana House of Representatives.^[1][2] He was a gubernatorial floor leader, Speaker Pro Tempore from 1982 to 1984,^[1] and in his last full term the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.^[3]

After his election without opposition to a sixth House term in the 1991 nonpartisan blanket primary, Laborde immediately resigned to become commissioner of administration in the fourth and final nonconsecutive term of his boyhood friend, Governor Edwin Washington Edwards.^[4]

Personal life

Laborde was born to Dr. Emeric M. Laborde (1901–1969),^[5] a Marksville dentist, and the former Minnie L. Neck (1899–1994). As students at Marksville High School, Laborde in 1943 defeated Edwin Edwards for senior class president.^[6] In his first year in the House as an Edwards floor leader in 1972, Laborde balked at Edwards' call for a $1 billion tax increase. "And, oh man, did I catch hell. When I got back home, Edwin had put the word out, and everyone was calling me. Let me tell you, it was mighty uncomfortable. I couldn't wait for him to call a special session, so I could get back there and get that tax passed," Laborde said in a 2007 interview with Alexandria Daily Town Talk.^[6]

After graduation from Marksville High School, Laborde enrolled at his father's alma mater, Roman Catholic-affiliated Loyola University in New Orleans, where at the age of eighteen he played on the 1945–1946 Loyola national championship basketball team.^[7] He graduated from Loyola in 1949 and then launched his Raymond's Department Store at 317 North Main Street in Marksville.^[8] He was later a captain in the Louisiana National Guard.^[6]

In 1951, Laborde married the former Nellie Sanchez and had five children.^[9]

Political career

Avoyelles Parish has been known for its colorful but mostly local politicians. One who stood out, F.O. "Potch" Didier, sheriff from 1960 to 1980, actually spent seven days in his own jail after having been convicted of malfeasance in office.^[6] The mothers of Laborde and Didier had the common maiden name of Neck (pronounced "Nicks") and were distant cousins.

In 1954, the 27-year-old Laborde ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Marksville but narrowly lost to Edgar Coco (1905–1970),^[5] scion of a prominent local family. Four years later, Laborde unseated Coco. From 1962 to 1963, he was president of the Louisiana Municipal Association.^[10] He ran in the 1963–1964 election cycle for the since defunct position of custodian of voting machines (later elections commissioner), an office unique to Louisiana when created in the late 1950s by Governor Earl Kemp Long. Laborde was defeated in the runoff by the one-term incumbent, Douglas Fowler of Coushatta, the seat of Red River Parish in north Louisiana. At the time, candidates for statewide constitutional offices were often affiliated with gubernatorial tickets. Laborde ran with the slate headed by former New Orleans Mayor deLesseps Story Morrison, a ticket which included later state Senator Claude B. Duval of Houma for lieutenant governor and then State Representative Jack M. Dyer of Baton Rouge for insurance commissioner. All were defeated with the election of John J. McKeithen as governor and the reelection of Clarence C. Aycock as lieutenant governor.

After his initial election to the legislature, Laborde rarely faced serious opposition. In the 1983 primary, in which Edwards returned for a third nonconsecutive term by unseating the one-term Republican Governor David C. Treen, Laborde prevailed over fellow Democrat Johnny Bennett, 10,633 votes (59.3 percent) to 7,346 (40.7 percent).^[11] Though considered a strong Edwards ally, he was Speaker Pro Tempore in the Treen administration and later Ways and Means chairman under Governor Buddy Roemer, who defeated Edwards in the 1987 primary.^[3]

In 1978, Laborde was named "Avoyellean of the Year".^[12] In 2003, he was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.^[7]

Later years and legacy

His Raymond's Department Store once had eight competitors downtown. The store is the oldest jobber of Dickies work wear in Louisiana. In later years, it specialized in school uniforms.^[13]

On April 7, 2011, seven weeks after undergoing a heart operation, Laborde appeared before the Louisiana House Appropriations Committee which years earlier he had chaired. He excoriated the plan of Republican Governor Bobby Jindal to sell off five state prisons to Jindal's significant contributors, GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America^[14] for about $30 million each, far less than their replacement costs.^[15]

Laborde died on January 17, 2016, at the age of 88. A funeral mass was held on January 20, at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Marksville, with interment at St. Joseph Cemetery No. 1.^[9]

References