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The Marksville mayor from 1958 to 1970, Laborde thereafter served five terms from 1972 to 1992 in the Louisiana House of Representatives.<ref name=listing>{{cite web|url=
http://house.louisiana.gov/H_PDFdocs/HouseMembership_History_CURRENT.pdf|title=Membership of the Louisiana House of Representatives, 1812-2020 (Avoyelles Parish|publisher=Louisiana House of Representatives|accessdate=November 3, 2019}}</ref><ref>The state legislative listing indicates that Laborde began his legislative service in 1968, but P. J. Laborde served from 1968 to 1972.</ref> He was a House [[Governor|gubernatorial]] floor leader, Speaker Pro Tempore from 1982 to 1984,<ref name=listing/> and in his last full term the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.<ref name=nyt>{{cite news|url= http://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/13/us/louisiana-governor-tells-of-quandary-over-bill-to-ban-abortion.html?pagewanted=apublisher=''The New York Timesll|author=Lisa Belkin|title=Louisiana Governor Tells of Quandry over Bill to Ban Abortion|date=July 13, 1990|accessdate=November 3, 2019}}</ref>
After his election without opposition to a sixth term in the 1991 nonpartisan blanket primary, Laborde resigned to become commissioner of administration in the fourth and final nonconsecutive term of his boyhood friend, [[Governor]] [[Edwin Edwards]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-11846336.html|title= Gov.-elect Edwards names Raymond Laborde Louisiana's Commissioner of Administration|accessdate=December 18, 2009; no longer on-line; website no longer operational.}}</ref>
==Personal life==
Laborde was born to Dr. Emeric M. LaBorde (1901–1969), a Marksville [[dentist]], and the former Minnie L. Neck (1899–1994). As students at Marksville High School, Laborde in 1943 defeated Edwin Edwards for senior class president.<ref name=adtt>{{cite web|url=http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070318/COMMUNITIES/703160358|author=Philip Timothy|title=Ex-governor Edwin Washington]] tops list of colorful parish politicians"|publisher=''The Alexandria Town Talk (Alexandria)|Alexandria Daily Town Talk]]'' |date=March 18, 2007|accessdate=December 19, 2009}}</ref> In his first year in the House as an Edwards floor leader in 1972, Laborde balked at Edwards' call for a $1 billion tax increase. "And, oh man, did I catch hell. When I got back home, Edwin had put the word out, and everyone was calling me. Let me tell you, it was mighty uncomfortable. I couldn't wait for him to call a special session, so I could get back there and get that tax passed," Laborde said in a 2007 interview with ''The Alexandria Daily Town Talk''.<ref name=adtt/>
After graduation from Marksville High School, Laborde enrolled at his father's ''alma mater,'' [[Roman Catholic]]-affiliated Loyola University in[[New Orleans]], where at the age of eighteen he played on the 1945–1946 Loyola national championship [[basketball]] team.<ref name=hoffame>{{cite web|url= httphttps://www.lapoliticalmuseum.com/inductees.php?viewID=51|title=Political Hall of Fame: Raymond J. Laborde|publisher=Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame|accessdate=December 19November 3, 20092019}}</ref> He graduated from Loyola in 1949 and then launched his Raymond's Department Store at 317 North Main Street in Marksville.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://giving.loyno.edu/s/1135/giving.aspx?sid=1135&gid=1&pgid=653|title=Alumni Donors, 1934–1949|publisher=giving.loyno.edu|accessdate=December 19, 2009}}</ref> He was later a captain in the Louisiana National Guard.<ref name=adtt/>
In 1951, Laborde married the former Nellie Sanchez. The couple has four children, Donald A. Laborde, Raymond Laborde, II, Charles Laborde, Minnie C. Lafargue, and Rachel Karam.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.avoyellestoday.com/content/laborde-bass|title=Laborde-Bass|publisher=Avoyellestoday.com|accessdate=December 19, 2009}}</ref>
In 1978, Laborde was named "Avoyellean of the Year".<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.angelfire.com/la/avoyelles/|title=Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana|publisher=angelfire.com|accessdate=December 19, 2009}}</ref> In 2003, he was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.<ref name=hoffame/>
He operated his Raymond's Department Store, which once had eight competitors downtown. The store, no longer in existence, was the oldest jobber of Dickies work wear in Louisiana and later specialized in school uniforms.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=Raymond%27s+Department+Store+in+Marksville&fb=1&gl=us&hq=Raymond%27s+Department+Store&hnear=Marksville&cid=6247615245347302389|title=Raymond’s Department Store|publisher=maps.google.com|accessdate=November3, 2019}}</ref>
