De Lesseps Story Morrison

From Free net encyclopedia

(Redirected from DeLesseps Story Morrison)

De Lesseps Story ("Chep") Morrison, Sr., was the mayor of New Orleans from 1946-1961 who failed in three hard-fought bids for the Louisiana Democratic gubernatorial nomination. He once referred to himself as a "Latin" not only because of his French cultural heritage but his attempts to increase trade and goodwill between New Orleans and Latin America.

Morrison was born in New Roads, Louisiana, (Pointe Coupee Parish) on January 18, 1912. He died on May 22, 1964. He was the reformer who cleaned up New Orleans city politics from the "Long" machine of Robert Maestri. Morrison pulled a major upset when he defeated Maestri in the Democratic mayoral primary held in January 1946. He was among many returning World War II veterans to gain political office during that period.

He also served as an appointee of President John F. Kennedy as the United States Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) between 1961 and 1963.

1 The 1955 gubernatorial primary: Earl Long wins
2 Losing to Davis and McKeithen
3 Toni Morrison
4 Tragedies of the Morrison family
5 References

[edit]

The 1955 gubernatorial primary: Earl Long wins

In the 1955 gubernatorial primary, Chep Morrison, former state police superintendent, Francis Grevemberg, and two other candidates lost out to former Governor Earl Kemp Long, who had served in the office from 1939-1940 and 1948-1952. In that campaign the ascerbic Long ridiculed Morrison, whom Long had opposed in the 1946 mayoral race, as a "city slicker" out of touch with residents of small towns and in rural areas and laughed at his unusual first name: "Ole De la Soups is the only man that can talk out of both sides of his mouth, whistle, and strut all at once."

[edit]

Losing to Davis and McKeithen

In January 1960, Morrison lost to popular former Governor Jimmie Davis, a well-known singer, who had first served from 1944-1948. In the runoff, Morrison polled 414,110 votes (45.5 percent) to Davis' 487,681 (54.1 percent).

In 1964, he lost to Public Service Commissioner John McKeithen. Each time, he was strongly opposed in the northern half of the state because of his perceived liberal views, particularly on race, and his Catholicism. In the latter two contests, Morrison secured an early lead from south Louisiana precincts in the vote counting and appeared headed to victory, but he fell short of a majority. He was therefore placed into a runoff with the second-place finisher and lost. A signal that his 1964 runoff bid would fail occurred when French-heritage Evangeline Parish, in the "northern" part of south Louisiana, supported McKeithen. McKeithen had pleaded with voters: "Won't you He'p me?". Morrison had used the slogan: "It's Up to You." The voters decided in favor of McKeithen, who polled 492,905 ballots (52.2 percent) to Morrison's 451,161 runoff votes (47.8 percent). Morrison gained 37,000 votes or 2.3 percentage points between the 1959 and the 1964 runoff elections, but the increase was insufficient.

[edit]

Toni Morrison

Morrison had another son, de Lesseps Story "Toni" Morrison, Jr. (born March 11, 1944), who served in the Louisiana legislature from 1974-1980. He ran for mayor himself in 1977 but lost to fellow Democrat Ernest Morial, the first in a long line of black mayors in New Orleans. In 1997, the legislature named a multi-layered interchange in honor of Toni Morrison (sometimes confused with a black author of the same name) because he was instrumental in getting funds appropriated to build the I-10 overpasses at Carrollton, now part of New Orleans, that were dedicated in 1977. Toni Morrison in his later years became a Republican, as Louisiana began to assemble a two-party system.

[edit]

Tragedies of the Morrison family

The Morrison family faced many tragedies. Seven-year-old John Randolph Waterman "Randy" Morrison (born September 24, 1956) died with his father in a plane crash in Ciudad Victoria, Mexico, on May 24, 1964. Morrison's death came just four months after his third attempt to win the Louisiana governorship. Morrison's wife, the former Corinne Waterman (born August 17, 1921) had died at the age of 37 on February 26, 1959, just a few months before Morrison launched his second gubernatorial bid. Toni Morrison died of cancer on August 21, 1996. Both Morrison, Sr., and Morrison, Jr., died at the age of 52. All four Morrisons are buried in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans.

Chep Morrison was inducted posthumously in 1995 into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.

[edit]