Changes
/* Opposition to Martin King holiday */
Once in the state Senate, Duval spoke eloquently and for long periods on nearly any topic brought before the body. Some called him the "Cicero of the Louisiana Senate." He was also helpful to colleagues in obtaining office space and other personal favors. In 2006, the state Senate posthumously honored him with the dedication of the Senate building known as "Duval Hall."
[[Robert G. Jones]], a [[Lake Charles]] stockbroker and the son of former Governor [[Sam Houston Jones]], served in the Senate with Duval from 1972 to 1976. According to Jones, Duval was "a very bright guy ... one of the most respected of all the senators." Jones said that he believed Morrison had tapped Duval as a running mate because of Duval's towering character and reputation, not because of political philosophical considerations.
In 1976, Duval was the co-chair of the [[Gerald Ford]]-[[Bob Dole]] campaign in Louisiana, which was defeated by the Democrat [[Jimmy Carter]] and [[Walter Mondale]] forces.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0036/pdd760925.pdf|title=Louisiana, September 25, 1976|publisher=fordlibrarymuseum.gov|accessdate=May 31, 2014}}</ref>
Duval's social conservatism also included opposition to the proposed [[Equal Rights Amendment]]. When the measure failed to gain ratification after an extended deadline in 1982, Duval recalled that "in the Sixties everybody was obsessed with their [sic] rights. Everybody worried about their [sic] rights. Rather than rights, people should talk more about their responsibility to their country."
In 1970, Duval told the Central Louisiana Press Club in [[Alexandria, Louisiana|Alexandria]] that he was considering entering the gubernatorial field because he said the state "needs a new look established on old values."<ref>'[Minden Press-Herald,'' September 23, 1970, p. 1.</ref> Ultimately, he did not file in a race won by [[U.S. Representative]] [[Edwin Edwards]].
After he left the state Senate, Duval's political contributions went mostly to [[Republican Party|Republicans]]. There is no indication, however, that he himself switched parties. Among recipients of his donations were the Ronald W. Reagan presidential campaign, the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, [[Republican Party|GOP]] Congressman William Henson Moore, III, of Baton Rouge, who ran for the [[U.S. Senate]] in 1986, and Democratic and later Republican Congressman Wilbert Joseph "Billy" Tauzin, Jr., of Lafourche Parish]]. Duval's contribution to Moore came in the spring of 1985.
Duval survived his wife, the former Betty Bowman (1914–1985), by five months. He was survived by a daughter, Dorothy Duval Nelson,, whose husband, Charles Waldemar Nelson (both born 1947), is the former president of the World Trade Center in New Orleans; two grandchildren; his brother, Stanwood Duval (1913–2001); a sister, Catherine Duval Dean (1916–1997) of [[Albuquerque]], [[New Mexico]]; a maternal aunt, Alice Richardson Butler (1910–1995), and a maternal uncle who was his junior in age, Frank D. Richardson (1916–1993), both of St. Joseph in Tensas Parish.
Claude and Betty Duval are interred at Magnolia Cemetery in Houma. Duval was [[Episcopalian]]. In addition, to the Senate office facility, Duval is honored through the "Senator Claude B. Duval Scholarship" given at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana.
