‘Greatest Legacy of All’: Louisiana Pays Last Tribute to Edwin Edwards at State Capitol | State policy

One person remembered him as “a man of the people”.

Another said “he cared about people”.

Edwin Edwards was “the best governor we’ve ever had,” said Wilfred Naquin, who was first in line and wore an Edwards t-shirt for Congress and a Trump cap for the president.

Hundreds of people paid tribute on Saturday to Louisiana’s only four-term governor, who appeared in the center of Memorial Hall on the first floor of the State Capitol from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Visitors saw a series of photos of Edwards throughout his life as they walked around the half-open casket, with an American flag draped over the lower half.

Edwards, who died on Monday at the age of 93, was lying in a stained plywood casket made, at his request, by inmates at Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana, said Leo Honeycutt, Edwards’ official biographer and close friend. .

“He didn’t want a heavy bronze casket,” Honeycutt said. “He wanted something reminiscent of his roots as a tenant farmer. “

For the first 90 minutes, with a steady stream of people, Edwards’ widow Trina greeted visitors by standing in front of a giant photo of Edwards on her inauguration day for a third term on the steps of the Capitol.

Edwards’ older children and his first wife, Elaine – Anna, Stephen, Victoria and David – also greeted visitors. Also in attendance was Trina’s son with Edwards, seven-year-old Eli.

“Hello, baby,” Stephen told an old friend, flaunting his father’s camaraderie. “Thanks for coming.”

But after the initial scramble, visitors didn’t have to wait most of the day to enter the State Capitol in a development that surprised those who expected crowds.

Perhaps this is because Edwards last left office 25 years ago and then served 8.5 years in prison for corruption, although he found sympathizers everywhere he went in Louisiana thereafter.

One of them was Richard Larson, a former government employee. He pulled out his cell phone just after leaving the Capitol on Saturday to show a photo of himself and Edwards looking like best friends, although they had just met, during a Mardi Gras parade several years after his release from prison in 2011.

“He had an endearing personality,” Larson said.

Governor John Bel Edwards was one of the first to pay tribute to him, but President Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzales, who oversaw the Capitol arrangements, did not allow the press to see him.

U.S. Representative Troy Carter, a Democrat whose district includes both New Orleans and Baton Rouge, has stopped.

A number of politicians who served with Edwin Edwards showed up, including John Alario, who was twice his House Speaker, and Robert Adley, a conservative from northern Louisiana who frequently played with Edwards.

Adley had first won the State House election when he met Edwards in late 1979, along with other incoming lawmakers. Edwards was set to leave after two terms as governor.

“He called us for dinner and said he would be back in four years,” recalls Adley. “And of course he was.”

With their political differences – Adley was much more conservative – the two weren’t close when in office at the same time.

But in 2014, Adley offered a roast from Edwards that made the crowd laugh during a fundraiser for the Chennault Aviation and Military Museum in Monroe.

In an email the next day, Edwards told Adley he had always wondered why his wife Claudia had married him. “But last night I saw why she did it,” Edwards wrote, according to Adley. “We should have been best friends.”

They were close after that, Adley said on Saturday and added as he stood on the steps of the State Capitol: “Everyone who serves in this building leaves a legacy. He left the greatest legacy of all.

Marty Chabert, who worked for Edwards during his third term in the mid-1980s and served as a state senator under him during his fourth term a decade later, provided revealing insight into how Edwards worked. .

“You met him for five minutes,” said Chabert, then said yes or no. If it was no, then he would say, “How else can I help you?”

LaFreida Theard said she appreciated the fact that Edwards never belittled government employees, as some governors did.

“He made us feel valued,” she said and added, “He was a man of integrity, regardless of the criminal charges. We all have our flaws.”

Richard Flicker, a management consultant in Baton Rouge, recalled becoming an Edwards supporter during the 1991 governorship race when he faced David Duke, the former great wizard and anti-Semite of the Ku Klux Klan who served at the State House.

“I went from saying I would never vote for him to campaigning for him,” Flicker said. “And after he got out of prison, I bought his book. He has served his sentence. His sense of humor was still there. His charisma was still there.

From noon on Sunday, Edwards’ remains will be moved by horse-drawn carriage and honor guard through the streets of downtown Baton Rouge for just under a mile to the Old State Capitol. . The Southern University Marching Band will lead the way.

Edwards’ casket will then be transported to the old chamber of the House of Representatives for a funeral service for guests and family. Subsequently, he will be buried in a private ceremony at the Resthaven Gardens of Memory in Baton Rouge.