Richard Leche

Richard Webster Leche, Sr.
44th Governor of Louisiana
In office May 12, 1936 – June 26, 1939
Preceded by	James A. Noe
Succeeded by	Earl Kemp Long
Born	May 17, 1898 New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Died	February 22, 1965 (aged 66) New Orleans, Louisiana.
Resting place	Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans
Political party	Democrat
Spouse(s)	Elton Reynolds Leche
Children	Richard Leche, Jr. Charles Eustace Leche Parents: Eustache and Stella Eloise Richard Leche
Alma mater	Warren Easton High School Tulane University Loyola University New Orleans Law School
Profession	Attorney
Military Service
Service/branch	United States Army
Battles/wars	World War I (non-combat)

Richard Webster Leche, Sr. (May 17, 1898 – February 22, 1965), was an attorney, judge, and Democrat politician from his native New Orleans, Louisiana, who was elected in 1936 as his state's 44th governor. He served for three years, when in 1939, he resigned the governorship. He was convicted on federal charges regarding the misuse of federal funds, and he became the first of two governors to be imprisoned for crimes committed while they were governor.

Background

Leche was the son of a salesman, Eustace Leche, and a teacher, the former Stella Eloise Richard, possibly pronounced REE CHARD. He graduated from Warren Easton High School and in 1916 enrolled in Tulane University. Soon he enlisted with the United States Army during World War I. After he briefly moved to Chicago to sell automobile parts. Then he returned to Louisiana and graduated from the Roman Catholic-affiliated Loyola University New Orleans Law School. After his bar exam, he launched his legal practice in 1923.

In 1928, when Huey Pierce Long, Jr., was elected governor, Leche was an unsuccessful primary candidate for the state Senate. In 1930, he was named to direct Long's campaign for the United States Senate against the incumbent Democrat Joseph Eugene Ransdell of East Carroll Parish. Upon is election to the Senate in 1932, Huey Long selected Leche as the secretary to Oscar Kelly Allen (1882-1936), who had succeeded Long as governor but soon died in the office. In 1934, Senator Long appointed Leche to a state appellate court judge in New Orleans.

Leche as governor

After Huey Long was assassinated in September 1935, the Long organization was left without a leader and without a candidate for the 1936 gubernatorial election. From that deadlock, Leche was supported as a compromise candidate. Despite his political obscurity, Leche defeated with pro-Long faction backing the anti-Long candidate Cleveland Dear (1888-1950), a U.S. Representative from Alexandria, with the aid of the still-powerful Long machine. Leche polled 67 percent of the primary vote, and the anti-Long forces seemed beyond recovery.

Governor Leche presented vowed to continue Long's program of road-building, the expansion of educational and hospital facilities, and free school textbooks. He proposed a tax on soft drinks, a $2,000 homestead exemption (now $75,000) extended to the surviving spouses and widows, keeping public payrolls at the maximum to reduce unemployment, and establishment of a state department of industry and commerce.

Within four years, however, the corruption of the Leche administration led to the election of a "reform" candidate, Sam Houston Jones of Lake Charles in Calcasieu Parish.

While Leche continued Long's program of road-building, free textbooks, and expansion of hospital and educational facilities, he and his administration were far less committed to wealth redistribution and social programs. He ceased attacks on the oil industry, granted tax exemptions to new business and industry, and enacted a regressive sales tax. These policies brought Leche support from the the business community and the newspapers, both of which were long-time Long foes.

Shortly after his inauguration, Leche said that he had taken no "vow of poverty," and corrupt practices became the standard of his administration. The "Louisiana Hayride" scandal soon impacted even Louisiana State University; its president, James Monroe Smith, a native of Jackson Parish, was forced from his lucrative position.

To accommodate the second term of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Leche promised to cease using Long's "Share Our Wealth" mantra and to support the New Deal. In return, Roosevelt dropped the investigation of the Long machine on tax evasion charges and restored federal patronage to Louisiana. The resulting flow of federal funds, accompanied with widespread graft and corruption, became dubbed the "Second Louisiana Purchase," a reference to Thomas Jefferson's doubling the size of the nation in 1803. Some of the federal funds from the Public Works Administration were used to construct new buildings at LSU and to expand New Orleans's Charity Hospital, the flagship project of Huey Long. Before the end of his abbreviated term, Leche and several cronies, including Superintendent of Construction George A. Caldwell (1892-1966), were indicted, and Leche was forced to resign just as the summer of 1939 began. He was succeeded for a year by then Lieutenant Governor Earl Kemp Long, Huey's younger brother.

Later years

After his resignation, Leche was convicted in 1940 of using the mails to defraud through a scheme to sell trucks to the Louisiana Highway Department. Other charges included the use of stolen Works Progress Administration resources to build expensive houses for Leche and his cronies.

Leche and his wife, the former Elton Reynolds (1903-1999), had two sons, Richard, Jr. (1929-2020) and Charles Eustace Leche, who survives his parents and brother. Richard, Jr., graduated in 1946 from the first ever class at Covington High School in suburban St. Tammany Parish.