Edwards, Edwin W. (Edwin Washington), 1927-2021

<p>Democrat Edwin Washington Edwards, a politician who took pride in his Cajun heritage, casts a long shadow over the state’s political history. From his record sixteen years as Louisiana’s chief executive (1972−80, 1984−88, and 1992−96) to his ignominious eight years as an unrepentant jailed felon, Edwards’s influence on the state in the late twentieth century was unrivaled. Edwards’s flamboyant lifestyle as a high-rolling gambler and self-professed playboy, his wily ability to repeatedly evade malfeasance charges, and his unflappable charismatic populist appeal as a can-do politician prompted a wide range of emotions from his constituents—from adoration to disgust, and everything in between. He simultaneously shamed, entertained, and governed his fellow Louisianans and came to epitomize the stereotypical corrupt but colorful Louisiana politician. Edwards died at home in Gonzales, Louisiana, on July 12, 2021. He was 93.</p>

<p>Edwin Edwards was born on August 7, 1927, to Clarence Edwards, a half-Cajun Presbyterian sharecropper, and Agnès (Brouillette) Edwards, a French-speaking Cajun Catholic, in the community of Johnson, Louisiana, eight miles outside of Marksville. Edwards’s humble upbringing gave him compassion for the poor and unfortunate, while also fostering a countervailing taste for excess. As a teen, he briefly served as a Nazarene minister before returning to the Catholic Church.</p>

<p>Determined to make a name for himself, the ambitious Edwards briefly served in the US Navy Air Corps before heading to Louisiana State University at Shreveport to attend law school, from which he graduated in 1949 before opening a firm in the small town of Crowley.</p>

<p>Edwin Washington Edwards (August 7, 1927 – July 12, 2021) was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as the U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 7th congressional district from 1965 to 1972 and as the 50th Governor of Louisiana for four terms (1972–1980, 1984–1988 and 1992–1996), twice as many elected terms as any other Louisiana chief executive. He served a total of 16 years in office, the sixth-longest serving gubernatorial tenure in post-Constitutional U.S. history at 5,784 days.</p>

<p>A colorful, powerful, and legendary figure in Louisiana politics, Edwards, who has been dubbed the "very last of the line of New Deal Southern Democrats", was long dogged by charges of corruption. In 2001, he was found guilty of racketeering charges and sentenced to ten years in federal prison. Edwards began serving his sentence in October 2002 in Fort Worth, Texas, and was later transferred to the federal facility in Oakdale, Louisiana. He was released from federal prison in January 2011, having served eight years. He was released from probation in 2013. Without a pardon, Edwards remains ineligible to seek the governorship until 15 years have passed from the end of his sentence; barring that pardon, the first Louisiana gubernatorial election he would be eligible for is in 2027, when Edwards would be 100 years old.</p>

<p>In 2014, Edwards ran in the 2014 election to represent Louisiana's 6th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. He placed first in the jungle primary, but was defeated by Republican Garret Graves by nearly 25 points in the runoff election.</p>

EDWARDS, Edwin Washington, (Husband of Elaine Schwartzenburg Edwards), a Representative from Louisiana; born in Marksville, Avoyelles Parish, La., August 7, 1927; attended the public schools; LL.B., Louisiana State University, Shreveport, La., 1949; J.D., Louisiana State University, Shreveport, La., 1969; United States Naval Air Corps, 1945-1946; lawyer, private practice; member of the Crowley, La., city council, 1954-1962; member of the Louisiana state senate, 1964-1965; elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-ninth Congress, by special election, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of United States Representative T. Ashton Thompson; reelected to the three succeeding Congresses (October 2, 1965-May 9, 1972); Governor of Louisiana, 1972-1980, 1984-1988, 1992-1996; was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the One Hundred Fourteenth Congress in 2014; died on July 12, 2021, in Gonzales, La.