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Line 27: − '''Francis Edward Kennon, Jr.''', known as '''Ed Kennon''' (born August 31, 1938), is a wealthy [[real estate]] developer in [[Shreveport]], [[Louisiana]]. He was a [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission from 1972 to 1984, He is a nephew of the late [[Governor]] [[Robert F. Kennon]]. − A native of [[Minden, Louisiana|Minden]] in Webster Parish, he is the son of Francis Edward "F. E." Kennon, Sr. (1899–1945), and the former Clara Wallace (1913–1997), originally from [[Arkansas]]. F. E. and his brother, Webb Kennon, operated the former Kennon's Grocery in downtown Minden, a business begun by Ed Kennon's paternal grandfather Floyd Kennon (1871-1966). After Floyd's death, Clara continued to operate the store and did tax consulting for individual clients. The business was begun by Kennon's paternal grandfather, Floyd Kennon (1871–1966).+ − While heavily engaged in real estate development, Kennon ran in 1971 for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor of Louisiana, but the post went to another Democrats, James Edward Fitzmorris, Jr. a former member of the city council in [[New Orleans]]. In 1972, Kennon's political fortunes changed when he won election on the regulatory body, the Louisiana Public Service Commission. In a [[primary]] runoff contest, he unseated election the appointed incumbent, John Smoker Hunt, II (1928-2001), another scion of a prominent family, a nephew of former Governors [[Huey Long]] and [[Earl Long|Earl Kemp Long]] and a cousin of [[U.S. Senator]] [[Russell Long]], who initially won his office in a 1948 special election against Robert Kennon. Edward Kennon did not seek a third term on the PSC in 1984, and though he had mentioned that he might run for governor in 1995, he never again filed candidacy papers. He was succeeded on the PSC by the Democrat [[Don Owen|Donald Lynn "Don" Owen]], a former [[television]] anchor for KSLA-TV, the [[CBS]] affiliate in Shreveport.+ − In [[Bossier City]], Kennon developed the 600-residence Town Lake subdivision. His second wife was [[Jenny Moreland Kennon]], the widow of the [[National Basketball Association]] star player John Wade "Jackie" Moreland. When Kennon filed for divorce from Jenny, he married for a third time. He and the former Brenda Evans then had a daughter in 1986. Jenny Kennon, as she is still known, herself became a real estate developer herself through the company known as Lea Hall Associates. She has two children from her first marriage to Jackie Moreland.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mindenmemories.org/Jeannie%20Kennon.htm|title=Jenny Kennon|author=Billy Hathorn|publisher=Mindenmemories.org|accessdate=May 18, 2018}}</ref>+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
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Centenary College of Louisiana
Centenary College of Louisiana
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'''Francis Edward Kennon, Jr.''', known as '''Ed Kennon'' (born August 31, 1938), is a multi-millionaire [[Shreveport]] real-estate developer and a former member of the [[Louisiana]] Public Service Commission, the regulatory body for [[oil]], [[natural gas]], and utilities. A [[Democratic Party|Democrat]], Kennon represented north Louisiana on the PSC for two six-year terms from January 1, 1973, until December 31, 1984. During his tenure, the panel was enlarged from three to five members under a provision of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974. Kennon first represented thirty-three parishes in District 3 and then eighteen parishes in the smaller District 5. Kennon's uncle was [[Robert F. Kennon]], a [[conservative]] Democrat who served as governor of Louisiana from 1952 to 1956, sandwiched in between the two elected terms of [[Earl Long|Earl Kemp Long]]
==Background==
Kennon was born in [[Minden, Louisiana|Minden,]] in Webster Parish in the northwestern part of his state. His father, Francis Edward Kennon, Sr. (1899–1945), was known as F. E. Kennon; his mother, Clara Wallace Kennon (1913–1997), was a native of Arkansas. F. E. and his brother, Webb Kennon, operated the former Kennon's Grocery in downtown Minden, the first in Minden to have price tags on the merchandise. After Floyd's death, Clara continued to operate the store, for which she had long handled the financial obligations. She also did tax consulting for individual clients. The business was begun by Kennon's paternal grandfather, Floyd Kennon (1871–1966). Kennon has a younger brother, Michael Wayne "Mike" Kennon (born 1942).
After he graduated from [[Minden (Louisiana) High School|Minden High School]] in 1956, Ed Kennon attended the [[Methodist]]-affiliated Centenary College in Shreveport but did not graduate. Instead, he entered the concrete business in Minden with Frank Burnett Treat, Jr. (1923–1994) and built the Kennon Apartments there. Later he became a high-powered developer in Shreveport and adjoining [[Bossier City]]. He and his third wife are directors of the Tri-State Bank and Trust in Haughton in Bossier Parish. Kennon purchased the bank from the [[Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation]]. He owns the Tri-State Sand and Gravel Company, the developer of Lakewood, a 600-home subdivision in Bossier Parish. He also is the developer of Forest Hills in Bossier Parish.
==In the political arena==
Late in 1963, after Kennon's uncle failed to gain a Democratic runoff slot in a gubernatorial comeback attempt, Ed Kennon, as chairman of the Webster Parish Morrison for Governor Committee, in a public speech in Minden endorsed former [[New Orleans]] [[Mayor]] deLesseps Story "Chep" Morrison, Sr (1912-1964)., who was making a third bid for governor. (Robert Kennon sat out the runoff.) Despite Kennon's assistance, Morrison fared poorly in north Louisiana and lost the runoff to [[John J. McKeithen]], a folksy lawyer from tiny Columbia in Caldwell Parish south of [[Monroe, Louisiana|Monroe]]. Coincidentally, gubernatorial candidate McKeithen then held the PSC seat to which Kennon would be elected eight years later.
On November 6, 1971, Kennon ran unsuccessfully in a 10-candidate Democratic field for lieutenant governor in an effort to succeed the retiring Clarence C. "Taddy" Aycock (1915-1987) of Franklin in St. Mary Parish in south Louisiana. Aycock instead ran for governor. Kennon finished third with 162,944 votes. Other candidates in the field included two bankers who served in the legislature, state Senator Jamar Adcock of Monroe and State Representative Percy Joseph "P.J." Mills of Shreveport, who finished narrowly behind Kennon in fourth place. Mills later headed Blue Cross Blue Shield in his native [[Baton Rouge]]. The party nomination and the general election went to former New Orleans City Councilman James E. "Jimmy" Fitzmorris, Jr., a former Morrison protégé. After he defeated Adcock in the party runoff election, Fitzmorris easily dispatched the Republican candidate, former State Representative Morley A. Hudson of Shreveport. Closed primaries ended in Louisiana in 1975, but they returned briefly in 2008 only for congressional races.
In the lieutenant governor's race, Kennon also had to compete with a second candidate from Webster Parish, outgoing State Representative Parey Pershing Branton, Sr. (1918-2010), of [[rural]] Shongaloo. Branton was allied with gubernatorial candidate John Gerald Schwegmann of Jefferson Parish in the New Orleans suburbs. Ironically, Schwegmann later became one of Kennon's colleagues on the Public Service Commission. Statewide, Branton polled only 53,295 votes, fewer than one third of the votes that Kennon amassed.
==Election to the Public Service Commission==
In the August 19, 1972, Democratic primary for the PSC, Kennon challenged incumbent John Smoke Hunt, II, a Monroe attorney and a nephew of former Governors [[Huey Long|Huey]] and Earl Long. Hunt's mother, Lucille Long Hunt (1898–1985), was a sister of the two governors. Also in the race was a Long kinsman named "Huey P. Long" (1929–2004), then of [[Pineville, Louisiana|Pineville]] in Rapides Parish. Hunt alleged that Kennon had recruited Long as a candidate to siphon away some of Hunt's pro-Long support.
In the primary, Kennon led with 122,573 votes (47.1 percent) to Hunt's 106,212 (40.8 percent). Long procured a critical 31,692 votes (12.2 percent). Kennon led in twenty-three parishes in the sprawling district, which then reached as far south as West Baton Rouge Parish. He won 58 percent in his own Webster Parish and also procured pluralities in Natchitoches, La Salle, DeSoto, Avoyelles, St. Landry, and the Long traditional stronghold of Winn. Hunt led in ten parishes, including Caddo, Bossier, Lincoln, Ouachita, and Jackson.
Kennon unseated Hunt in the September 30 party runoff election, 125,877 votes (58 percent) to 90,833 (42 percent). Kennon won twenty-nine parishes to Hunt's four. Hunt lost his native Lincoln Parish in the runoff by 176 votes and held his home base, Ouachita Parish, by a single vote, 15,502 to 15,501. Kennon was unopposed in the November 7 general election, as no [[Republican Party|Republican]] candidate qualified for the ballot.
On September 16, 1978, Kennon won his second term in the revised PSC seat for the 5th district. In the nonpartisan blanket primary, he polled 124,147 votes (71 percent) to 50,652 (29 percent) for intraparty rival Wayne Martin Pender (born March 14, 1940) of Monroe. Kennon won all eighteen parishes. Again, there was no Republican candidate for the seat, once held by Huey P. Long, Jr., himself.
Kennon joined the three-member PSC when he was thirty-four. The senior member and chairman, Ernest S. Clements, a Long protégé, was seventy-five and nearing the end of a long public career. The two presented a contrast in age and faction. Clements left the PSC at the end of 1974. With the five-member board, Kennon served with fellow Commissioners John F. Schwegmann (son of John G. Schwegmann), Nat B. Knight, Thomas E. "Tommy" Powell of Eunice in Evangeline Parish, and chairman Louis Lambert, Jr., of Baton Rouge, a former and future member of the Louisiana State Senate and a strong gubernatorial candidate in 1979. Kennon did not seek public office after his PSC term expired, but in 1994 he announced that he would run for governor in 1995. Instead he withdrew from gubernatorial consideration on August 2, 1994, and the seat eventually went to Democrat-turned-Republican [[Mike Foster|Murphy J. "Mike" Foster, Jr.]], of St. Mary Parish, the grandson of a 19th century namesake governor.
Kennon was succeeded on the PSC by fellow Democrat Donald Lynn "Don" Owen, a former KSLA-TV news anchorman from Shreveport. In 2004, Kennon crossed party lines to contribute to the successful Republican candidate for the United States Senate waged by [[David Vitter]] of suburban New Orleans.
==Personal life===
Kennon was first married to the former Mary Virginia Nehring (1942–2002), "Miss Minden" in 1960, by whom he had a son, John Edward Kennon (1967–2003). He adopted two children by Virginia's first marriage to Rodney McMichael: Rodney Kennon (married to the former Jymme Story) of Bossier City and Kelly Kennon Gillis (born 1964) of Haughton in Bossier Parish.
After Kennon and Virginia divorced, he married the former [[Jenny Moreland Kennon|Jeanette Claire "Jenny" Woodard]] (born 1939), the widow of professional basketball player Jackie Moreland, also a graduate of Minden High School. After seven years of marriage, Kennon divorced Jeanette. He then wed the former Brenda Evans (born 1958). They have a daughter, Kari Melissa Kennon (born 1986).
The Kennons reside in the fashionable Ellerbe Road area of southeast Shreveport.
In 2013, the office of Louisiana Secretary of State [[Tom Schedler]] listed Kennon as an [[Independent]] voter.
==References==
==References==