Blanche Long
| Blanche Long | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Blanche Beulah Revere December 17, 1902 Covington St. Tammany Parish Louisiana, USA |
| Died | May 11, 1998 (aged 95) Metairie, Jefferson Parish Louisiana |
| Resting place | Lake Lawn Cemetery in Metairie, Louisiana |
| Residence | Baton Rouge, Louisiana |
| Nationality | American |
| Political party | Democrat |
| Spouse(s) | Earl Kemp Long (1932-1960, his death) |
| Children | No children |
| Parent(s) | Robert H. and Beulah Talley Revere |
| Notes | |
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William J. "Bill" Dodd, a former lieutenant governor and education superintendent, once said that Blanche Long was the best political player in Louisiana except for her husband, Earl Kemp Long, from whom she was separated at the time of his death.
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Blanche Beulah Revere Long (December 17, 1902 – May 11, 1998) was the First Lady of Louisiana from 1939–1940, 1948–1952, and 1956-1960. She was also a "partner in power" to her husband, Governor Earl Kemp Long. From 1956-1963, she was the Democratic national committeewoman from Louisiana. Thereafter, in 1963-1964, she was the campaign manager of Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Julian McKeithen, the presumed heir to Earl Long.
Mrs. Long was born in Covington in St. Tammany Parish, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, to Robert H. Revere and the former Beulah Talley. The Reveres were a lower middle class family, and Blanche was a public stenographer at the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans. She married Earl Long on August 17, 1932; they had no children. Mrs. Long was protective of her several sisters and her only brother — she helped him to obtain and maintain state employment in Baton Rouge.
According to former Lieutenant Governor and Superintendent of Education William J. "Bill" Dodd, Blanche Revere was "in her young years a true beauty. And she was just as intelligent as she was good-looking. In her political days, her personality came across as either soft and sweet or blue steel and cold, depending not so much on how she felt, but on what the situation demanded."
In his Peapatch Politics: The Earl Long Era in Louisiana Politics, Dodd, a keen observer of state political developments, declared "Miss Blanche," as most addressed her, "a major factor in Governor Earl Long's political life. . . . Miss Blanche knew as much about the mechanics of politics as her husband. In many ways she complemented Earl's qualities; together they made a unique political team. Miss Blanche, a better judge of people, recognized con artists and phonies more quickly than Earl. She also handled them better. . . . She saved Earl from many mistaken appraisals of people and subsequent errors in the treatment of them. Miss Blanche was motivated by as strong a desire to become the first lady of Louisiana as Earl was to become its governor."
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Wikipedia