Charlton Lyons
Encyclopedia
Charlton Havard Lyons, Sr., also known as Big Papa Lyons (September 3, 1894 – August 8, 1973), was a Shreveport
oilman who in 1964 waged the first determined Republican
bid for the Louisiana
governorship since Reconstruction. Lyons also made a strong but losing bid for the United States House of Representatives
in a special election held in 1961. At the time of his death, Lyons was considered "Louisiana's Mr. Republican".
in south Louisiana, to a middle-class couple, Ernest John Lyons and the former Joyce Bentley Havard. He was reared in Melville
in St. Landry Parish
on the banks of the Atchafalaya River
. The community was accessible not by railroad but by steamboat
. As a teenager, Lyons worked in a Melville soda fountain and during two summers as a water boy for a railroad gang. He attended Louisiana State University
in Baton Rouge
but completed his Bachelor of Arts
at Tulane University
in New Orleans
. In 1916, he earned a law
degree from Tulane and was admitted to the Louisiana bar. However, he lacked the funds at the time to establish his own law office.
On August 28, 1917, Lyons married his college sweetheart, the former Marjorie Gladys Hall, who graduated from Newcomb College, the then-female counterpart to Tulane. She was an aspiring actress. In the spring of 1917, Maurice Fromkes painted a portrait of Marjorie Hall displayed at the Marjorie Lyons Playhouse (established 1956) at Centenary College
in Shreveport. Mrs. Lyons was born on March 27, 1895, in Eagle Point
, Wisconsin
. The marriage ended on Marjorie's death on July 11, 1971.
From 1916-17, he was a teacher and an assistant principal at Glenmora High School in Glenmora
in southern Rapides Parish
. From 1917-18, Lyons was briefly the principal of Pollock High School
in the community of Pollock
in southeastern Grant Parish
. He then entered the United States Army
as a private near the end of World War I
. Marjorie Lyons taught at Pollock High while her husband was away.
The Lyonses relocated to Winnfield
, center of the Long dynasty, where the legendary Huey Pierce Long, Jr., was rising to prominence. There Lyons practiced law for several years. The couple then relocated in 1921 to Shreveport, where Lyons practiced law for an additional nine years. In 1930, however, he entered the oil business through his "C. H. Lyons Petroleum". By the 1950s, Lyons had become so successful in his field that he was named president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America. He was also a director of two other interest groups Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association and the National Association of Manufacturers
. He operated a 240 acre (0.9712464 km²) cattle ranch
west of Shreveport near Greenwood
in Caddo Parish
.
Lyons was appointed by United States Secretary of the Interior
Douglas McKay
to the National Petroleum Council
.
and later Grand Isle
, a former Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives and an Independent nominee for the U.S. Senate. One of the Lyons daughters-in-law was Shreveport socialite and philanthropist
Susybelle Lyons
, later divorce
d from Charlton, Jr., who is now married to the former Peggy McClure. Susybelle Lyons' father, W. Scott Wilkinson
, a prominent Shreveport attorney, served as a Democrat in the Louisiana House of Representatives
from 1920-1924.
Lyons was a member of the Masonic lodge
, American Legion
, Shreveport Country Club
, and the Kappa Alpha Order
and Phi Delta Phi
fraternities
. He was a member of the boards of both Tulane and Centenary. He was considered by friend and political rival alike as a man of great optimism and impeccable character. Virginia deGravelles
of Lafayette, the Louisiana Republican national committeewoman from 1964-1968, called him a "wonderful, compassionate man." Lyons was a vestryman of the Episcopalian Church though a trustee of Methodist-affiliated Centenary College.
during Eisenhower's visit to the newly-constructed Shreveport Regional Airport
. Lyons officially switched to the Republican Party in 1960, when he supported Richard M. Nixon for the presidency, rather than the Democrat John F. Kennedy
. At the time of his party switch, Lyons said, "I am not leaving the Democratic Party -- for it had already deserted me." He called the 1960 Democratic platform "socialism" and proclaimed that Kennedy/Johnson could not be the representative of the party of Thomas Jefferson
because Jefferson believed in limited government
. As a new member of the party, Lyons was soon named to succeed George W. Reese, Jr., of New Orleans
as the Louisiana Republican national committeeman when Reese became the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate that year against Allen J. Ellender
.
Lyons is best known for his trail-blzaing gubernatorial campaign waged in the winter of 1964. The Republican nominee posted billboards which declared that "Everybody Can Vote for Charlton Lyons," for he had to inform Louisiana's Democratic voters, then more than 98 percent of the registrants, that they had a choice in the general election
that year-—a phenomenon widely unknown in Louisiana between the Reconstruction Era and 1964. The party's 1960 nominee, Francis Grevemberg
, also a former Democrat, had finished with only 17 percent of the vote. Democratic
nominee John McKeithen
at first warned voters that they were required to vote for him as the Democratic nominee because their voting in a party primary carried with it a loyalty oath to the eventual nominee. Lyons, however, cited Section 671, Title 18 of Louisiana Revised Statutes which states that voters are free to support any candidate of their choice in a general election.
McKeithen noted that he, at 45, was a generation younger than the 69-year-old Lyons. It was a rare use of age as a campaign issue in Louisiana politics. The Democrat also claimed that the GOP consisted of "a handful of men who are attempting to take over this state government [and] are counting on your [Democrat voters] staying home on March 3."Lyons said that his gubernatorial candidacy was predicated on "preserving for the young people the same opportunities I had to start with nothing . . . and build success for themselves . . . "
Early in 1964, Ronald Reagan
, former host of CBS
's General Electric Theater
, came to Louisiana to campaign for Lyons. At the time, Reagan did not fly and came to Louisiana by train, a trip that required several days. He was accompanied by his wife, Nancy
. The stops for Lyons occurred ten months before Reagan delivered his October 27, 1964 address, "A Time for Choosing
", on national television to promote Barry Goldwater
's presidential bid against Lyndon B. Johnson
. The speech was credited with catapulting Reagan into the vanguard of national politics. Like Lyons, Reagan was a former Democrat who had switched party allegiance in 1962. Charlton Lyons, Jr., said he cannot recall how his father met Reagan but believes the two had been friends for several years before the 1964 campaign.
McKeithen was outraged over Reagan's visit and urged the actor
of film
and television
"to return to Hollywood and do something about the standing immorality and communism
that flourishes in that city." McKeithen predicted that Louisiana Democrats would "repel this second invasion by the carpetbagger
s." McKeithen portrayed Lyons as the beneficiary of "special interests" and "a group of millionaires." Lyons would "help the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer," wailed McKeithen. Lyons, however, denied that most of his supporters were even wealthy. "A Victory for Lyons Will Electrify the Nation", said one of the candidate's brochures. Two years later, Reagan was elected governor of California
and hence became a gubernatorial colleague of McKeithen's.
McKeithen resented having to face a Republican challenger after he survived two Democratic primaries. He called for an end to two Democratic primaries followed by a general election with Republicans. A similar reaction by 1971 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Edwin Edwards
evoked the state's switch to a nonpartisan blanket primary, which as of 2010 the state continues to use in state (but no longer federal) elections.
The Louisiana media gave wide coverage to the McKeithen-Lyons battle. Adras LaBorde
, managing editor of the Alexandria Daily Town Talk
,' took advantage of the state's first heated Democrat-Republican campaign for governor and covered the election widely in his column "The Talk of the Town". Both Shreveport papers, The Times and the now defunct Journal, owned by Douglas F. Attaway
and edited by the conservative journalist George W. Shannon
, covered nearly every aspect of the campaign. Both papers endorsed Lyons and later in the year Goldwater.
Lyons developed a cadre of young followers in the Republican Party. He designated George Joseph Despot
(1927-1991), another Shreveport oilman, and Certified Public Accountant
George A. Burton, Jr.
, as his gubernatorial campaign co-chairmen, mostly because it was Despot and Burton who pleaded with Lyons to enter the race. Burton, a lifelong Louisiana Republican, described Lyons in glowing terms: "a great American. . . a friend of impeccable integrity." Lloyd E. Lenard
, later a Republican member of the Caddo Parish Commission (formerly called Police Jury) from 1984-1996 and an author
, flew around the state with "Papa" Lyons, as he called him, and interviewed Lyons for radio
and newspaper
s.
-Miller presidential electors. McKeithen polled 469,589 votes (60.7 percent). The last of the States' Rights Party gubernatorial nominees in Louisiana history, Thomas S. Williams from the town of Ethel in East Feliciana Parish
, received 6,048 votes, or 1.8 percent.
Lyons polled majorities in five parishes, Caddo
, Bossier
, Claiborne
, Lincoln
, and De Soto
, all in north Louisiana. He polled more than 47 percent in East Baton Rouge
and Webster
parishes. In La Salle Parish
, which had supported Richard Nixon in 1960 and Taylor W. O'Hearn
for the U.S. Senate in 1962, Lyons drew less than 30 percent of the vote, a factor explained by the geographic location of La Salle near McKeithen's native Caldwell Parish
.
In victory, McKeithen was magnanimous toward his rival: "My opponent waged a tremendous campaign for a man of his age. I am glad I don't have to run against him again." The Shreveport Journal observed that the Republican vote was "not so much a vote against John McKeithen, who had already taken the district in Democratic balloting, as it was an expression of endearment for a man who is regarded as one of our most outstanding citizens."
Billy James Guin, Sr. (born 1927), later the Shreveport public utilities commissioner who had run for the state legislature from Caddo Parish on the Lyons ticket, described Lyons as "a good man who wanted to change the political complexion of Louisiana. He built the Republican Party in its present form. He was a great campaigner, and there was much grassroots fervor. When he began to make inroads, the sheriff
s and other Democratic officeholders proceeded to block his election."
Lyons' strength was reflective of that of former Little Rock
Mayor
Pratt C. Remmel
, the 1954 Republican gubernatorial nominee in neighboring Arkansas
. Remmel—-a decade before Lyons—-also polled 37 percent of the vote in his hard-fought race against the Democrat Orval Eugene Faubus
and won six of the state's seventy-five counties. Remmel paved the way for the election twelve years later of Winthrop Rockefeller
. Lyons was the forerunner for David C. Treen
, fifteen years later the first modern-day Republican to have been elected governor of Louisiana.
Boyce thereafter switched parties and became the campaign treasurer for the Lyons gubernatorial bid. He would serve as state party chairman from 1972-1976. In that campaign, McKeithen had accused Lyons of being pre-committed to the 1964 Republican presidential candidate, and he incorrectly predicted that the nominee would be, not Senator Goldwater, but then Governor
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller of New York
, considered the liberal
, internationalist
candidate. McKeithen said that he would keep his options open for the 1964 presidential election. As it turned out, he remained neutral in that race, but the state's two popular Democratic senators, Allen Ellender and Russell B. Long
, both supported the Johnson-Humphrey ticket.
No sooner had the gubernatorial race ended than Lyons resumed working for Goldwater's nomination as president. As state party chairman, Lyons headed the state delegation to the national convention held in San Francisco's Cow Palace
. At twenty-five, Morton Blackwell
of Baton Rouge was the youngest elected delegate to the 1964 convention. Lyons's party vice chairman was Harriet Belchic
, a Shreveport civic and political leader reared in Winnfield who was the first woman to have received both bachelor's and master's
degrees from LSU in the field of geology
. Her husband, Dr. George Belchic was also active in state Republican causes.
Lyons also recruited congressional candidates in 1964: David C. Treen
of New Orleans, in a second race against Hale Boggs
; William Stewart Walker
of Winnfield, in a challenge to Speedy O. Long
in the since defunct 8th district; Robert Angers
of Lafayette, who opposed Edwin E. Willis
of St. Martinville
in the 3rd district, and Floyd O. Crawford of Baton Rouge, making a race against James H. Morrison
. While Goldwater defeated Johnson in Louisiana and won some parishes by 5-1 margins or better, particularly in the northern tier, none of the congressional candidates fared better than Walker's 46 percent showing against Speedy Long.
of Shreveport.
In a campaign advertisement, the Republicans proclaimed that "A Vote for Charlton Lyons for Congress Is a Vote Against the New Frontier", the domestic program of U.S. President John F. Kennedy
. Lyons declared that the "election of a Republican from this district would have a profound impact upon the rest of the nation and upon Democratic congressmen in the South." He vowed if elected not to "trade votes" with colleagues so that each obtain could obtain passage of measures they prefer. "I think the trading of votes is one of the reasons this country is in such bad shape today. . . . When a central government becomes all powerful, a dictator
inevitably takes over."
Lyons was considered a trade protectionist. In an advertisement underwritten by his friend George Burton, Lyons opposed the "vast influx of imported products which are flooding the country" and causing unfair competition to American manufacturers.
Lyons made a much stronger showing in the northwest Louisiana district, but the seat went to Joe Waggonner
, from Plain Dealing in Bossier Parish
, a conservative Democrat who had once been president of the segregationist Louisiana Citizen's Council. Waggonner held the seat until he retired in 1979. Waggonner (1918-2007) had already announced that he would challenge Brooks for renomination in 1962 because of Brooks' vote in 1961 to enlarge the membership of the House Rules Committee. This permitted Speaker
Sam Rayburn
of Texas
to add new liberal representation to the panel which had long been chaired by the Virginia conservative Howard W. Smith
.
Lyons claimed that victory by Waggonner would be interpreted as support for Kennedy-Johnson policies. Waggonner claimed that the election of Lyons would mean increased importance being placed on black bloc voting through the establishment of a two-party system. In the special election, Lyons won his own Caddo Parish with 58.7 percent, but district-wide, the totals were 28,250 votes (45.5 percent) for Lyons and 33,892 (54.5 percent) for Waggonner. After the Lyons campaign of 1961, no other Republican opposed Waggonner, who was customarily reelected without opposition.
In 1988, a Republican, Jim McCrery
, a Shreveport native who grew up in Leesville
in Vernon Parish
, won the district in another special election created by the election of Congressman Buddy Roemer
of Bossier Parish, as governor. With relatively little difficulty McCrery remained in Congress until 2009, when he was succeeded by Republican John C. Fleming
.
, of Lafayette. Charles' wife, Virginia Wheadon deGravelles
, an Alexandria
native, had been the national committeewoman from 1964-1968.
In 1972, Lyons supported Republican gubernatorial candidate David Treen of suburban New Orleans even though Lyons's younger son, Hall Lyons, was running for governor on the American Independent Party
ticket, an organization founded in 1968 by Alabama
Governor George C. Wallace, Jr.. Hall Lyons withdrew from the race and endorsed Treen, who lost the general election to Democrat Edwin Washington Edwards. Unlike his son, Charlton Lyons had opposed Wallace, who had won Louisiana
in 1968. Charlton Lyons supported the Richard M. Nixon-Spiro T. Agnew elector slate, which fared poorly in the state. Lyons had also held most in the Louisiana delegation for Nixon at the 1968 Republican National Convention
in Miami Beach
, Florida
, despite Lyons's personal friendship with Ronald Reagan, who launched a brief presidential run on the Monday of the national convention.
Lyons died some eight months after David Treen had been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from the reconfigured Third Congressional District, which included parts of suburban New Orleans. Thus Lyons lived just long enough to witness the first glimpse of his dream of a two-party system
for traditionally Democratic Louisiana.
The Lyonses are interred in the family plot at Forest Park Cemetery off St. Vincent Avenue in Shreveport. Lyons' only sister, Sally, was married to Thomas M. "Tom" Logan. The Logans are buried at Forest Park across the street from the Lyons-Hall plot.
Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States....
oilman who in 1964 waged the first determined Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
bid for the Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
governorship since Reconstruction. Lyons also made a strong but losing bid for the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
in a special election held in 1961. At the time of his death, Lyons was considered "Louisiana's Mr. Republican".
From Abbeville to Shreveport
Lyons was born in AbbevilleAbbeville, Louisiana
Abbeville is a town in and the parish seat of Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, United States, 150 miles west of New Orleans. The population was 12,257 at the 2010 census...
in south Louisiana, to a middle-class couple, Ernest John Lyons and the former Joyce Bentley Havard. He was reared in Melville
Melville, Louisiana
Melville is a town in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,376 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Opelousas–Eunice Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Melville is located at ....
in St. Landry Parish
St. Landry Parish, Louisiana
St. Landry Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is at the heart of Acadian/Cajun culture and heritage in Louisiana. The parish seat is Opelousas. According to the 2010 census, the population of St. Landry Parish is 83,384.St...
on the banks of the Atchafalaya River
Atchafalaya River
The Atchafalaya River is a distributary of the Mississippi River and Red River in south central Louisiana in the United States. It flows south, just west of the Mississippi River....
. The community was accessible not by railroad but by steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
. As a teenager, Lyons worked in a Melville soda fountain and during two summers as a water boy for a railroad gang. He attended Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
in Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...
but completed his Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
at Tulane University
Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
in New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
. In 1916, he earned a law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
degree from Tulane and was admitted to the Louisiana bar. However, he lacked the funds at the time to establish his own law office.
Centenary College of Louisiana
Centenary College of Louisiana is a primarily undergraduate, liberal arts and sciences college in Shreveport, Louisiana. The college is one of the founding members of the Associated Colleges of the South, a pedagogical organization consisting of sixteen Southern liberal arts colleges...
in Shreveport. Mrs. Lyons was born on March 27, 1895, in Eagle Point
Eagle Point, Wisconsin
Eagle Point is a town in Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 3,049 at the 2000 census. The unincorporated community of Eagleton is located in the town.-Geography:...
, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
. The marriage ended on Marjorie's death on July 11, 1971.
From 1916-17, he was a teacher and an assistant principal at Glenmora High School in Glenmora
Glenmora, Louisiana
Glenmora is a town in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the Alexandria, Louisiana Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,558 at the 2000 census....
in southern Rapides Parish
Rapides Parish, Louisiana
-Military Installations:*Camp Beauregard *Esler Airfield *England Air Force Base *Camp Claiborne *Camp Livingston -Demographics:...
. From 1917-18, Lyons was briefly the principal of Pollock High School
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
in the community of Pollock
Pollock, Louisiana
Pollock is a town in Grant Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the Alexandria, Louisiana Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 376 at the 2000 census. Pollock and southern Grant Parish have been booming in recent years with residential and business growth...
in southeastern Grant Parish
Grant Parish, Louisiana
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 18,698 people, 7,073 households, and 5,276 families residing in the parish. The population density was 29 people per square mile . There were 8,531 housing units at an average density of 13 per square mile...
. He then entered the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
as a private near the end of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Marjorie Lyons taught at Pollock High while her husband was away.
The Lyonses relocated to Winnfield
Winnfield, Louisiana
Winnfield is a city in and the parish seat of Winn Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 5,749 at the 2000 census. It has long been associated with the Long faction of the Louisiana Democratic Party and was home to three governors of Louisiana.-Geography:Winnfield is located at ...
, center of the Long dynasty, where the legendary Huey Pierce Long, Jr., was rising to prominence. There Lyons practiced law for several years. The couple then relocated in 1921 to Shreveport, where Lyons practiced law for an additional nine years. In 1930, however, he entered the oil business through his "C. H. Lyons Petroleum". By the 1950s, Lyons had become so successful in his field that he was named president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America. He was also a director of two other interest groups Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association and the National Association of Manufacturers
National Association of Manufacturers
The National Association of Manufacturers is an advocacy group headquartered in Washington, D.C. with 10 additional offices across the country...
. He operated a 240 acre (0.9712464 km²) cattle ranch
Ranch
A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in the western United States and Canada, though...
west of Shreveport near Greenwood
Greenwood, Louisiana
Greenwood is a town in southern Caddo Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 2,458 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Shreveport-Bossier City Metropolitan Statistical Area.Greenwood was established in 1839...
in Caddo Parish
Caddo Parish, Louisiana
Caddo Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Shreveport; as of 2000, the population was 252,161...
.
Lyons was appointed by United States Secretary of the Interior
United States Secretary of the Interior
The United States Secretary of the Interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior.The US Department of the Interior should not be confused with the concept of Ministries of the Interior as used in other countries...
Douglas McKay
Douglas McKay
James Douglas McKay was an American businessman and politician from Oregon. A native of the state, he served in World War I before he became a successful businessman, mainly as a car dealership owner in the capital city of Salem. A Republican, he served as a city councilor and mayor of Salem...
to the National Petroleum Council
National Petroleum Council
The National Petroleum Council is an American advisory committee representing oil and natural gas industry views to the Secretary of Energy.The council was established in 1946 at the request of President Harry S. Truman to represent industry views on any matters relating to oil and natural gas...
.
Marriage and associations
Charlton and Marjorie Lyons had two sons: Charlton Havard Lyons, Jr. (born 1921), a Shreveport oilman, and Hall M. Lyons (1923-1998) of LafayetteLafayette, Louisiana
Lafayette is a city in and the parish seat of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, United States, on the Vermilion River. The population was 120,623 at the 2010 census...
and later Grand Isle
Grand Isle, Louisiana
Grand Isle is a town in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, located on a barrier island of the same name in the Gulf of Mexico. The island is at the mouth of Barataria Bay where it meets the gulf. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 1,541; during summers, the population sometimes increases to...
, a former Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives and an Independent nominee for the U.S. Senate. One of the Lyons daughters-in-law was Shreveport socialite and philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
Susybelle Lyons
Susybelle Lyons
Susybelle Wilkinson Lyons was a socialite and philanthropist in Shreveport, Louisiana, who was particularly active in the Young Women's Christian Association Family Violence Program. "When she saw films of what those women had to endure, it was very moving. She didn't cry easily...
, later divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
d from Charlton, Jr., who is now married to the former Peggy McClure. Susybelle Lyons' father, W. Scott Wilkinson
W. Scott Wilkinson
William Scott Wilkinson was an attorney from Shreveport, Louisiana, who served a single term as a Democrat from Caddo Parish in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1920–1924....
, a prominent Shreveport attorney, served as a Democrat in the Louisiana House of Representatives
Louisiana State Legislature
The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...
from 1920-1924.
Lyons was a member of the Masonic lodge
Masonic Lodge
This article is about the Masonic term for a membership group. For buildings named Masonic Lodge, see Masonic Lodge A Masonic Lodge, often termed a Private Lodge or Constituent Lodge, is the basic organisation of Freemasonry...
, American Legion
American Legion
The American Legion is a mutual-aid organization of veterans of the United States armed forces chartered by the United States Congress. It was founded to benefit those veterans who served during a wartime period as defined by Congress...
, Shreveport Country Club
Country club
A country club is a private club, often with a closed membership, that typically offers a variety of recreational sports facilities and is located in city outskirts or rural areas. Activities may include, for example, any of golf, tennis, swimming or polo...
, and the Kappa Alpha Order
Kappa Alpha Order
Kappa Alpha Order is a social fraternity and fraternal order. Kappa Alpha Order has 124 active chapters, 3 provisional chapters, and 2 commissions...
and Phi Delta Phi
Phi Delta Phi
Phi Delta Phi, ΦΔΦ, is the world's second largest legal fraternity. Phi Delta Phi is the second oldest legal organization in continuous existence in the United States and third oldest in North America...
fraternities
Fraternities and sororities
Fraternities and sororities are fraternal social organizations for undergraduate students. In Latin, the term refers mainly to such organizations at colleges and universities in the United States, although it is also applied to analogous European groups also known as corporations...
. He was a member of the boards of both Tulane and Centenary. He was considered by friend and political rival alike as a man of great optimism and impeccable character. Virginia deGravelles
Virginia deGravelles
Mary Virginia Wheadon deGravelles is a retiree from Lafayette who was the Louisiana Republican national committeewoman from 1964–1968, a position which constitutes automatic membership on the Republican National Committee. Her husband, Charles Camille deGravelles, Jr...
of Lafayette, the Louisiana Republican national committeewoman from 1964-1968, called him a "wonderful, compassionate man." Lyons was a vestryman of the Episcopalian Church though a trustee of Methodist-affiliated Centenary College.
"Everybody can vote for Charlton Lyons"
Lyons registered as a Democrat in 1915 at the age of twenty-one. In 1952, he had headed the "Democrats for Eisenhower" organization and welcomed future U.S. President Dwight D. EisenhowerDwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
during Eisenhower's visit to the newly-constructed Shreveport Regional Airport
Shreveport Regional Airport
Shreveport Regional Airport is a public use airport in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States. It is owned by the City of Shreveport and located four nautical miles southwest of its central business district....
. Lyons officially switched to the Republican Party in 1960, when he supported Richard M. Nixon for the presidency, rather than the Democrat John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
. At the time of his party switch, Lyons said, "I am not leaving the Democratic Party -- for it had already deserted me." He called the 1960 Democratic platform "socialism" and proclaimed that Kennedy/Johnson could not be the representative of the party of Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
because Jefferson believed in limited government
Limited government
Limited government is a government which anything more than minimal governmental intervention in personal liberties and the economy is generally disallowed by law, usually in a written constitution. It is written in the United States Constitution in Article 1, Section 8...
. As a new member of the party, Lyons was soon named to succeed George W. Reese, Jr., of New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
as the Louisiana Republican national committeeman when Reese became the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate that year against Allen J. Ellender
Allen J. Ellender
Allen Joseph Ellender was a popular U.S. senator from Houma, Louisiana , who served from 1937 until his death. He was a Democrat who was originally allied with the legendary Huey Pierce Long, Jr.. As Senator he compiled a generally conservative record, voting 77% of the time with the Conservative...
.
Lyons is best known for his trail-blzaing gubernatorial campaign waged in the winter of 1964. The Republican nominee posted billboards which declared that "Everybody Can Vote for Charlton Lyons," for he had to inform Louisiana's Democratic voters, then more than 98 percent of the registrants, that they had a choice in the general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
that year-—a phenomenon widely unknown in Louisiana between the Reconstruction Era and 1964. The party's 1960 nominee, Francis Grevemberg
Francis Grevemberg
Francis Carroll Grevemberg , was the superintendent of the Louisiana State Police from 1952 to 1955, best remembered for his fight against organized crime....
, also a former Democrat, had finished with only 17 percent of the vote. Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
nominee John McKeithen
John McKeithen
John Julian McKeithen was the 49th Governor of Louisiana, serving from 1964 to 1972. A Democrat from the town of Columbia, he was the first governor of his state in the twentieth century to serve two consecutive terms...
at first warned voters that they were required to vote for him as the Democratic nominee because their voting in a party primary carried with it a loyalty oath to the eventual nominee. Lyons, however, cited Section 671, Title 18 of Louisiana Revised Statutes which states that voters are free to support any candidate of their choice in a general election.
McKeithen noted that he, at 45, was a generation younger than the 69-year-old Lyons. It was a rare use of age as a campaign issue in Louisiana politics. The Democrat also claimed that the GOP consisted of "a handful of men who are attempting to take over this state government [and] are counting on your [Democrat voters] staying home on March 3."Lyons said that his gubernatorial candidacy was predicated on "preserving for the young people the same opportunities I had to start with nothing . . . and build success for themselves . . . "
Early in 1964, Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, former host of CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
's General Electric Theater
General Electric Theater
General Electric Theater is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald W. Reagan that was broadcast on CBS radio and television. The series was sponsored by General Electric's Department of Public Relations.-Radio:...
, came to Louisiana to campaign for Lyons. At the time, Reagan did not fly and came to Louisiana by train, a trip that required several days. He was accompanied by his wife, Nancy
Nancy Reagan
Nancy Davis Reagan is the widow of former United States President Ronald Reagan and was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989....
. The stops for Lyons occurred ten months before Reagan delivered his October 27, 1964 address, "A Time for Choosing
A Time for Choosing
A Time for Choosing, also known as The Speech, was a speech presented during the 1964 U.S. presidential election campaign by future president Ronald Reagan on behalf of Republican candidate Barry Goldwater....
", on national television to promote Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
's presidential bid against Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
. The speech was credited with catapulting Reagan into the vanguard of national politics. Like Lyons, Reagan was a former Democrat who had switched party allegiance in 1962. Charlton Lyons, Jr., said he cannot recall how his father met Reagan but believes the two had been friends for several years before the 1964 campaign.
McKeithen was outraged over Reagan's visit and urged the actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
of film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
"to return to Hollywood and do something about the standing immorality and communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
that flourishes in that city." McKeithen predicted that Louisiana Democrats would "repel this second invasion by the carpetbagger
Carpetbagger
Carpetbaggers was a pejorative term Southerners gave to Northerners who moved to the South during the Reconstruction era, between 1865 and 1877....
s." McKeithen portrayed Lyons as the beneficiary of "special interests" and "a group of millionaires." Lyons would "help the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer," wailed McKeithen. Lyons, however, denied that most of his supporters were even wealthy. "A Victory for Lyons Will Electrify the Nation", said one of the candidate's brochures. Two years later, Reagan was elected governor of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and hence became a gubernatorial colleague of McKeithen's.
McKeithen resented having to face a Republican challenger after he survived two Democratic primaries. He called for an end to two Democratic primaries followed by a general election with Republicans. A similar reaction by 1971 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Edwin Edwards
Edwin Edwards
Edwin Washington Edwards served as the Governor of Louisiana for four terms , twice as many terms as any other Louisiana chief executive has served. Edwards was also Louisiana's first Roman Catholic governor in the 20th century...
evoked the state's switch to a nonpartisan blanket primary, which as of 2010 the state continues to use in state (but no longer federal) elections.
The Louisiana media gave wide coverage to the McKeithen-Lyons battle. Adras LaBorde
Adras LaBorde
Adras Paul LaBorde, I , was a reporter, managing editor, and columnist for the Alexandria Daily Town Talk, the largest newspaper in central Louisiana. His career stretched from the mid-1940s into the early 1990s...
, managing editor of the Alexandria Daily Town Talk
The Town Talk (Alexandria)
The Town Talk, started as The Daily Town Talk in 1883 and later named the Alexandria Daily Town Talk, is the major newspaper of Central Louisiana. It is published by Gannett in Alexandria, the seat of Rapides Parish and the economic center of Central Louisiana.The daily newspaper has a circulation...
,' took advantage of the state's first heated Democrat-Republican campaign for governor and covered the election widely in his column "The Talk of the Town". Both Shreveport papers, The Times and the now defunct Journal, owned by Douglas F. Attaway
Douglas F. Attaway
Douglas F. "Doug" Attaway, Jr., was president and publisher of the defunct Shreveport Journal , a daily newspaper in northwest Louisiana. He was chairman of the board of KSLA-TV, the Shreveport, Louisisana CBS affiliate from 1966 until the channel was sold to Viacom in 1979...
and edited by the conservative journalist George W. Shannon
George W. Shannon
George Washington Shannon was a conservative Louisiana journalist.Shannon was born in El Dorado, the seat of Union County, in southern Arkansas. He began his career as a reporter and sports editor at the El Dorado News-Times, one of the Clyde E. Palmer newspapers...
, covered nearly every aspect of the campaign. Both papers endorsed Lyons and later in the year Goldwater.
Lyons developed a cadre of young followers in the Republican Party. He designated George Joseph Despot
George Despot
George Joseph Despot was a Shreveport businessman and a pioneer in the establishment of a competitive Republican Party in the U.S. state of Louisiana. He was the state Republican chairman from 1978-1985...
(1927-1991), another Shreveport oilman, and Certified Public Accountant
Certified Public Accountant
Certified Public Accountant is the statutory title of qualified accountants in the United States who have passed the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination and have met additional state education and experience requirements for certification as a CPA...
George A. Burton, Jr.
George A. Burton
George Aubrey Burton, Jr. , is a Certified Public Accountant and the last elected finance commissioner in Shreveport. Burton is the first Republican since Reconstruction to have been elected to municipal office in Shreveport, having served as finance commissioner from 1971-1978...
, as his gubernatorial campaign co-chairmen, mostly because it was Despot and Burton who pleaded with Lyons to enter the race. Burton, a lifelong Louisiana Republican, described Lyons in glowing terms: "a great American. . . a friend of impeccable integrity." Lloyd E. Lenard
Lloyd E. Lenard
Lloyd Edgar Lenard was an American businessman from Shreveport, and a former Caddo Parish commissioner, author, United States Navy officer, civic leader, and a pioneer in the establishment of the two-party system in his native Louisiana.-Family, education, military:Lenard was born to James Lenard...
, later a Republican member of the Caddo Parish Commission (formerly called Police Jury) from 1984-1996 and an author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, flew around the state with "Papa" Lyons, as he called him, and interviewed Lyons for radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
s.
37.5 percent was a record for a GOP candidate
Lyons lost to Democrat McKeithen in the March 3, 1964, general election, but his 297,753 ballots (37.5 percent), helped to pave the way for the victory in Louisiana that November of the GoldwaterBarry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
-Miller presidential electors. McKeithen polled 469,589 votes (60.7 percent). The last of the States' Rights Party gubernatorial nominees in Louisiana history, Thomas S. Williams from the town of Ethel in East Feliciana Parish
East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
East Feliciana Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Clinton. In 2000, the population was 21,360.East Feliciana Parish is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the Baton Rouge–Pierre Part Combined Statistical...
, received 6,048 votes, or 1.8 percent.
Lyons polled majorities in five parishes, Caddo
Caddo Parish, Louisiana
Caddo Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Shreveport; as of 2000, the population was 252,161...
, Bossier
Bossier Parish, Louisiana
Bossier Parish is named for Pierre Bossier, a 19th-century Louisiana state senator and U.S. representative from Natchitoches Parish.Bossier Parish was spared fighting on its soil during the American Civil War...
, Claiborne
Claiborne Parish, Louisiana
Claiborne Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Homer and as of 2000, the population is 16,851.-History:The parish is named for the first Louisiana governor, William C. C. Claiborne....
, Lincoln
Lincoln Parish, Louisiana
Lincoln Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Ruston. In 2004, its population was estimated to be 42,382...
, and De Soto
De Soto Parish, Louisiana
-Demographics:As of the census of 2010, there were 26,656 people, 9,691 households, and 6,967 families residing in the parish. The population density was 29 people per square mile . There were 11,204 housing units at an average density of 13 per square mile...
, all in north Louisiana. He polled more than 47 percent in East Baton Rouge
East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana
East Baton Rouge Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Baton Rouge, Louisiana's state capital. As of the 2010 census, the population was 440,171. The parish has a total area of , of which is land and is water. It is the most populous parish in the state...
and Webster
Webster Parish, Louisiana
Webster Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The seat of the parish is Minden. In 2010, its population was 41,207....
parishes. In La Salle Parish
La Salle Parish, Louisiana
La Salle Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of 2000, the population was 14,282. The parish seat is Jena.-Geography:The parish has a total area of , of which is land and is water....
, which had supported Richard Nixon in 1960 and Taylor W. O'Hearn
Taylor W. O'Hearn
Taylor Walters O'Hearn was a pioneer in the rebirth of the Republican Party in Louisiana during the mid-twentieth century. He and Morley A. Hudson, both of Shreveport in Caddo Parish, were the first two Republicans elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives since Reconstruction. The pair...
for the U.S. Senate in 1962, Lyons drew less than 30 percent of the vote, a factor explained by the geographic location of La Salle near McKeithen's native Caldwell Parish
Caldwell Parish, Louisiana
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 10,560 people, 3,941 households, and 2,817 families residing in the parish. The population density was 20 people per square mile . There were 5,035 housing units at an average density of 10 per square mile...
.
In victory, McKeithen was magnanimous toward his rival: "My opponent waged a tremendous campaign for a man of his age. I am glad I don't have to run against him again." The Shreveport Journal observed that the Republican vote was "not so much a vote against John McKeithen, who had already taken the district in Democratic balloting, as it was an expression of endearment for a man who is regarded as one of our most outstanding citizens."
Billy James Guin, Sr. (born 1927), later the Shreveport public utilities commissioner who had run for the state legislature from Caddo Parish on the Lyons ticket, described Lyons as "a good man who wanted to change the political complexion of Louisiana. He built the Republican Party in its present form. He was a great campaigner, and there was much grassroots fervor. When he began to make inroads, the sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
s and other Democratic officeholders proceeded to block his election."
Lyons' strength was reflective of that of former Little Rock
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
Pratt C. Remmel
Pratt C. Remmel
Pratt Cates Remmel, Sr. , was the only 20th century Republican elected on a partisan ballot to have served as mayor of Little Rock, Arkansas. He was elected to the first of two two-year terms in 1951, was reelected in 1953, and then defeated in 1955 by the Democrat Woodrow Wilson Mann, who like...
, the 1954 Republican gubernatorial nominee in neighboring Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
. Remmel—-a decade before Lyons—-also polled 37 percent of the vote in his hard-fought race against the Democrat Orval Eugene Faubus
Orval Faubus
Orval Eugene Faubus was the 36th Governor of Arkansas, serving from 1955 to 1967. He is best known for his 1957 stand against the desegregation of Little Rock public schools during the Little Rock Crisis, in which he defied a unanimous decision of the United States Supreme Court by ordering the...
and won six of the state's seventy-five counties. Remmel paved the way for the election twelve years later of Winthrop Rockefeller
Winthrop Rockefeller
Winthrop Rockefeller was a politician and philanthropist who served as the first Republican Governor of Arkansas since Reconstruction. He was a third-generation member of the Rockefeller family.-Early life:...
. Lyons was the forerunner for David C. Treen
David C. Treen
David Conner "Dave" Treen, Sr. , was an American attorney and politician from Mandeville, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana – the first Republican Governor of the U.S. state of Louisiana since Reconstruction. He was the first Republican in modern times to have served in the U.S...
, fifteen years later the first modern-day Republican to have been elected governor of Louisiana.
Supporting Barry Goldwater
In 1963, Charlton Lyons and the Baton Rouge businessman James H. Boyce, then a nominal Democrat, went with a group of mostly Republican conservatives to urge Goldwater to seek the presidency. Goldwater was at first reluctant to take on the challenge but nevertheless declared his candidacy early in 1964, when the Democrat Lyndon Johnson had been president for less than two months and the heavy favorite for a full term of his own.Boyce thereafter switched parties and became the campaign treasurer for the Lyons gubernatorial bid. He would serve as state party chairman from 1972-1976. In that campaign, McKeithen had accused Lyons of being pre-committed to the 1964 Republican presidential candidate, and he incorrectly predicted that the nominee would be, not Senator Goldwater, but then Governor
Governor of New York
The Governor of the State of New York is the chief executive of the State of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military and naval forces. The officeholder is afforded the courtesy title of His/Her...
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, considered the liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
, internationalist
Internationalist
Internationalist may refer to:* Internationalism , a movement to increase cooperation across national borders* Internationalist, socialists opposed to World War I* The Internationalist Review, an e-journal founded in Maastricht...
candidate. McKeithen said that he would keep his options open for the 1964 presidential election. As it turned out, he remained neutral in that race, but the state's two popular Democratic senators, Allen Ellender and Russell B. Long
Russell B. Long
Russell Billiu Long was an American Democratic politician and United States Senator from Louisiana from 1948 until 1987.-Early life:...
, both supported the Johnson-Humphrey ticket.
No sooner had the gubernatorial race ended than Lyons resumed working for Goldwater's nomination as president. As state party chairman, Lyons headed the state delegation to the national convention held in San Francisco's Cow Palace
Cow Palace
Cow Palace is an indoor arena, in Daly City, California, situated on the city's border with neighboring San Francisco, notable as a sporting arena.-History:...
. At twenty-five, Morton Blackwell
Morton Blackwell
Morton C. Blackwell is an American Republican Party activist. He is president and founder of the Leadership Institute , a 5013 non-profit educational foundation that teaches political technology....
of Baton Rouge was the youngest elected delegate to the 1964 convention. Lyons's party vice chairman was Harriet Belchic
Harriet Belchic
Harriet Cameron Belchic was a Republican political activist from Shreveport, Louisiana, who was also the first woman ever granted both bachelor of science and master of science degrees in geology from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge...
, a Shreveport civic and political leader reared in Winnfield who was the first woman to have received both bachelor's and master's
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
degrees from LSU in the field of geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
. Her husband, Dr. George Belchic was also active in state Republican causes.
Lyons also recruited congressional candidates in 1964: David C. Treen
David C. Treen
David Conner "Dave" Treen, Sr. , was an American attorney and politician from Mandeville, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana – the first Republican Governor of the U.S. state of Louisiana since Reconstruction. He was the first Republican in modern times to have served in the U.S...
of New Orleans, in a second race against Hale Boggs
Hale Boggs
Thomas Hale Boggs Sr. , was an American Democratic politician and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Orleans, Louisiana...
; William Stewart Walker
William Stewart Walker
William Stewart Walker, usually known as Stewart Walker , was a lieutenant colonel from Winnfield, Louisiana who, during World War II as a United States Army major, rescued 380 of his fellow soldiers from behind enemy lines in Belgium in December 1944...
of Winnfield, in a challenge to Speedy O. Long
Speedy O. Long
Speedy Oteria Long was a Jena lawyer who was a Democratic U.S. Representative from central Louisiana between 1965 and 1973. Prior to his tenure in the since disbanded Eighth Congressional District, Speedy Long had been a member of the Louisiana state Senate...
in the since defunct 8th district; Robert Angers
Robert Angers
Robert John Angers, Jr. , was an American journalist, businessman, and conservative politician. A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography describes Angers as "a tireless and unselfish promoter of good government, the Acadiana region, and free enterprise."-Early years, education, military:Angers was born...
of Lafayette, who opposed Edwin E. Willis
Edwin E. Willis
Edwin Edward Willis was an American politician and attorney from the U.S. state of Louisiana who was affiliated with the Long political faction. A Democrat, he served in the Louisiana State Senate during 1948 and in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1969.-Early life:Willis...
of St. Martinville
St. Martinville, Louisiana
St. Martinville is a city in and the parish seat of St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on Bayou Teche, sixteen miles south of Breaux Bridge, eighteen miles southeast of Lafayette, and nine miles north of New Iberia. The population was 6,989 at the 2000 census. It is part of the...
in the 3rd district, and Floyd O. Crawford of Baton Rouge, making a race against James H. Morrison
James H. Morrison
James Hobson "Jimmy" Morrison, Sr. , was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from the Sixth Congressional District of Louisiana, who served from 1943 to 1967...
. While Goldwater defeated Johnson in Louisiana and won some parishes by 5-1 margins or better, particularly in the northern tier, none of the congressional candidates fared better than Walker's 46 percent showing against Speedy Long.
Lyons opposes Waggonner for Congress, 1961
Three years before his gubernatorial campaign, Lyons ran in a special election for the Fourth Congressional District seat based in the northwestern quadrant of the state. A vacancy developed with the death of long-term Democratic Representative Thomas Overton BrooksOverton Brooks
Thomas Overton Brooks was a Democratic U.S. representative from the Shreveport-based Fourth Congressional District of northwest Louisiana, having served for a quarter century beginning on January 3, 1937. Brooks was a nephew of U.S. Senator John Holmes Overton as well as a great-grandson of Walter...
of Shreveport.
In a campaign advertisement, the Republicans proclaimed that "A Vote for Charlton Lyons for Congress Is a Vote Against the New Frontier", the domestic program of U.S. President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
. Lyons declared that the "election of a Republican from this district would have a profound impact upon the rest of the nation and upon Democratic congressmen in the South." He vowed if elected not to "trade votes" with colleagues so that each obtain could obtain passage of measures they prefer. "I think the trading of votes is one of the reasons this country is in such bad shape today. . . . When a central government becomes all powerful, a dictator
Dictator
A dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
inevitably takes over."
Lyons was considered a trade protectionist. In an advertisement underwritten by his friend George Burton, Lyons opposed the "vast influx of imported products which are flooding the country" and causing unfair competition to American manufacturers.
Lyons made a much stronger showing in the northwest Louisiana district, but the seat went to Joe Waggonner
Joe Waggonner
Joseph David Waggonner, Jr. , better known as Joe D. Waggonner, was a Democratic U.S. Representative from Bossier Parish who represented the old 4th Congressional District of northwest Louisiana from December 1961 until January 1979. He was also a confidant of Republican U.S...
, from Plain Dealing in Bossier Parish
Bossier Parish, Louisiana
Bossier Parish is named for Pierre Bossier, a 19th-century Louisiana state senator and U.S. representative from Natchitoches Parish.Bossier Parish was spared fighting on its soil during the American Civil War...
, a conservative Democrat who had once been president of the segregationist Louisiana Citizen's Council. Waggonner held the seat until he retired in 1979. Waggonner (1918-2007) had already announced that he would challenge Brooks for renomination in 1962 because of Brooks' vote in 1961 to enlarge the membership of the House Rules Committee. This permitted Speaker
Speaker (politics)
The term speaker is a title often given to the presiding officer of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body. The speaker's official role is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, announce the results of votes, and the like. The speaker decides who may speak and has the...
Sam Rayburn
Sam Rayburn
Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn , often called "Mr. Sam," or "Mr. Democrat," was a Democratic lawmaker from Bonham, Texas, who served as the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives for seventeen years, the longest tenure in U.S. history.- Background :Rayburn was born in Roane County, Tennessee, and...
of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
to add new liberal representation to the panel which had long been chaired by the Virginia conservative Howard W. Smith
Howard W. Smith
Howard Worth Smith , Democratic U.S. Representative from Virginia, was a leader of the conservative coalition who supported both racial segregation and women's rights.-Early life and education:...
.
Lyons claimed that victory by Waggonner would be interpreted as support for Kennedy-Johnson policies. Waggonner claimed that the election of Lyons would mean increased importance being placed on black bloc voting through the establishment of a two-party system. In the special election, Lyons won his own Caddo Parish with 58.7 percent, but district-wide, the totals were 28,250 votes (45.5 percent) for Lyons and 33,892 (54.5 percent) for Waggonner. After the Lyons campaign of 1961, no other Republican opposed Waggonner, who was customarily reelected without opposition.
In 1988, a Republican, Jim McCrery
Jim McCrery
James Otis "Jim" McCrery, III , is an American lawyer who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1988 to 2009; he represented the 4th District of Louisiana, based in the northwestern quadrant of the state.McCrery was a ranking member on the House Ways and...
, a Shreveport native who grew up in Leesville
Leesville, Louisiana
Leesville is a city in and the parish seat of Vernon Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 6,753 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Fort Polk South Micropolitan Statistical Area. The city is home to the Fort Polk U.S. Army installation...
in Vernon Parish
Vernon Parish, Louisiana
Vernon Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Leesville and as of 2000, the population was 52,531....
, won the district in another special election created by the election of Congressman Buddy Roemer
Buddy Roemer
Charles Elson "Buddy" Roemer III is an American politician who served as the 52nd Governor of Louisiana, from 1988 to 1992. He was elected as a Democrat but switched to the Republican Party on March 11, 1991...
of Bossier Parish, as governor. With relatively little difficulty McCrery remained in Congress until 2009, when he was succeeded by Republican John C. Fleming
John C. Fleming
John Calvin Fleming, Jr. is a Minden, Louisiana physician, the author of the book Preventing Addiction, and the Republican U.S. representative from Louisiana's 4th congressional district...
.
Lyons passes the GOP baton to Treen
Lyons had stepped down as party chairman in 1968 and was succeeded by his friend and fellow oilman Charles deGravelles, Jr.Charles deGravelles
Charles Camille deGravelles, Jr., known as Charlie deGravelles , was a Lafayette oil and gas landman who was a pioneer in the development of the Republican Party in the formerly historically Democratic state of Louisiana. Known as the “Mr...
, of Lafayette. Charles' wife, Virginia Wheadon deGravelles
Virginia deGravelles
Mary Virginia Wheadon deGravelles is a retiree from Lafayette who was the Louisiana Republican national committeewoman from 1964–1968, a position which constitutes automatic membership on the Republican National Committee. Her husband, Charles Camille deGravelles, Jr...
, an Alexandria
Alexandria, Louisiana
Alexandria is a city in and the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes....
native, had been the national committeewoman from 1964-1968.
In 1972, Lyons supported Republican gubernatorial candidate David Treen of suburban New Orleans even though Lyons's younger son, Hall Lyons, was running for governor on the American Independent Party
American Independent Party
The American Independent Party is a right-wing political party of the United States that was established in 1967 by Bill and Eileen Shearer. In 1968, the American Independent Party nominated George C. Wallace as its presidential candidate and retired Air Force General Curtis E. LeMay as the vice...
ticket, an organization founded in 1968 by Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
Governor George C. Wallace, Jr.. Hall Lyons withdrew from the race and endorsed Treen, who lost the general election to Democrat Edwin Washington Edwards. Unlike his son, Charlton Lyons had opposed Wallace, who had won Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
in 1968. Charlton Lyons supported the Richard M. Nixon-Spiro T. Agnew elector slate, which fared poorly in the state. Lyons had also held most in the Louisiana delegation for Nixon at the 1968 Republican National Convention
1968 Republican National Convention
The 1968 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States was held in at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Dade County, Florida, from August 5 to August 8, 1968....
in Miami Beach
Miami Beach, Florida
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on a barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter which separates the Beach from Miami city proper...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, despite Lyons's personal friendship with Ronald Reagan, who launched a brief presidential run on the Monday of the national convention.
The death of Lyons
Two-party system
A two-party system is a system where two major political parties dominate voting in nearly all elections at every level of government and, as a result, all or nearly all elected offices are members of one of the two major parties...
for traditionally Democratic Louisiana.
The Lyonses are interred in the family plot at Forest Park Cemetery off St. Vincent Avenue in Shreveport. Lyons' only sister, Sally, was married to Thomas M. "Tom" Logan. The Logans are buried at Forest Park across the street from the Lyons-Hall plot.
Honors and legacy
- Late in his life, Lyons received the "Humanitarian of the Year" award at the Abbeville Dairy Festival, his original hometown.
- In 1953, the Community Chest of Shreveport presented Lyons with the Medalion Award for Distinguished Community Service.
- In 1959, the Optimist Club honored Lyons as "Mr. Shreveport."
- The Charlton Lyons papers (covering 1942-1973) are held at the archives of Louisiana State UniversityLouisiana State UniversityLouisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
. Long interested in Louisiana history, Lyons was a member of the North Louisiana Historical AssociationNorth Louisiana Historical AssociationThe North Louisiana Historical Association was organized in 1952 to in its own words "encourage an appreciation and understanding of the history of North Louisiana."-History:...
.
- He established the Marjorie Lyons Theater at Centenary CollegeCentenary College of LouisianaCentenary College of Louisiana is a primarily undergraduate, liberal arts and sciences college in Shreveport, Louisiana. The college is one of the founding members of the Associated Colleges of the South, a pedagogical organization consisting of sixteen Southern liberal arts colleges...
in Shreveport in memory of his wife and her theater interests.
- On January 30, 2010, Lyons, along with former Republican state chairman William "Billy" Nungesser, was posthumously inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of FameLouisiana Political Museum and Hall of FameThe Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield, Louisiana, highlights the careers of more than a hundred of the state’s leading politicians and political journalists. Because three governors, Huey P. Long, Jr., Oscar K...
in Winnfield, where he practiced law as a young man.
External links
- "Charlton H. Lyons," A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, Vol. 1 (1988), pp. 528-529
- http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/mbayham/2002/mb_1125p.shtml
- http://www.centenary.edu/news/1997/July/funnygif.html
- http://www.ou.edu/special/albertctr/archives/WickershamInventory/Wick09.htm
- http://capitolwatch.reallouisiana.com/html/A75E1178-828D-4719-8077-E42A0AA2B4C3.shtml
- http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/guidedisplay.pl?index=G000267
- http://capitolwatch.reallouisiana.com/html/A75E1178-828D-4719-8077-E42A0AA2B4C3.shtml
- Shreveport Journal, March 3-4, 1964
- Perry H. HowardPerry H. HowardPerry Holbrook Howard was a sociologist known for his research in the field of Louisiana politics. He was a long-term professor at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, from which he received his Ph.D. in 1954. A native of Maine, Howard served for three years in the United States Navy in the...
, Political Tendencies in Louisiana, LSU Press, 1971 - Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, March 6, 1964