Sold-out birthday bash
BATON ROUGE, La. — A more traditional person might call it crass, an ostentatious 90th birthday bash with a $250-perperson price tag to attend. But then, no one would call Louisiana’s four-term former governor, Edwin Edwards — the convicted felon with a wife five decades his junior, a 4-year-old son and a lifetime of making headlines — anything close to traditional.
The birthday festivities Saturday night at a posh Baton Rouge hotel sold out weeks in advance, with hundreds of elected officials, lobbyists and onlookers ponying up for tickets and a chance to watch what was expected to be pure spectacle, a throwback celebration remembering when Edwards was the Democratic king of Louisiana politics.
“A lot of people just feel personally close to him. No other governor has served four times. To me this is just a once-ina-lifetime historic event,” said Robert Gentry, the long-time Edwards friend organizing the celebration.
The ballroom was expected to be packed with more than 500 people, including Louisiana’s current governor, Democrat John Bel Edwards (no relation), Republican Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser and Republican Senate President John Alario.
And everyone was to home with a gift bag: photos of Edwards with his wife Trina and preschooler son Eli, a souvenir magazine and a commemorative poster.
“I just talked to a man who was practically begging for a ticket,” Gentry said. “I bet you we could have filled up the place three times.”
Edwards was the dominant figure in Louisiana politics for the second half of the 20th century, with charisma and power rivaled only by that other famous Louisiana legend from decades earlier, Huey Long.
Edwards sums up his 90 years succinctly and without bitterness: “It’s very wonderful to reach 90. I’ve had a great life, and while I’ve had my ups and downs over life, I have no complaints.”
He won his first office, a city council seat, in 1954, followed by elections to the state legislature and Congress before serving as governor for 16 years between 1972 and 1996. He was famous for deadpan one-liners delivered with a Cajun accent, deftly cutting one opponent by describing him as “so slow it takes him an hour and a half to watch ‘60 Minutes.’”