Allen J. Ellender

Allen Joseph Ellender
U.S. Senator from Louisiana
In office January 1937 – July 27, 1972
Preceded by	Rose McConnell Long (interim for her husband, Huey Long)
Succeeded by	Elaine Edwards (interim for J. Bennett Johnston, Jr.)
Louisiana State Representative for Terrebonne Parish
In office 1924–1936
Preceded by	Two-member district: Reuben Chauvin Dr. M. V. Marmande
Succeeded by	Morris A. Lottinger, Sr.
Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives
In office 1932–1936
Preceded by	John B. Fournet
Succeeded by	Lorris Wimberly
Born	September 24, 1890 Montegut, Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana
Died	July 27, 1972 (aged 81) Bethesda, Maryland
Political party	Democrat
Spouse(s)	Helen Calhoun Donnelly Ellender (died 1949)
Alma mater	St. Aloysius College Tulane University Law School
Occupation	Lawyer
Religion	Non-practicing Roman Catholic
Military Service
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1918
Rank	Trainee
Unit	Student Army Training Corps
Battles/wars	World War I

Allen Joseph Ellender (September 24, 1890 – July 27, 1972) was a Democrat politician from Houma in Terrebonne Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. An original follower of Huey Long, Ellender was elected in 1936 as Long's permanent successor in the United States Senate, replacing Long's widow, Rose McConnell Long (1892–1970). Governor Oscar Kelly Allen (1882–1936) had won the party nomination for the Senate but died before he could be formally elected. In the second balloting, Ellender defeated U.S. Representative John Nicholas Sandlin, Sr. (1872–1957), a fellow Democrat from Minden in Webster Parish.

Early life and career

Ellender was a native of Terrebonne Parish in south Louisiana and a lawyer who graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans.

Louisiana state legislature

Prior to his Senate tenure, he served from 1924 to 1936 as a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Terrebonne Parish. He was the House Speaker from 1932 until 1936.

U.S. Senate

In the U.S. Senate, he was known for his support for school segregation through the signing in 1956 of the Southern Manifesto. Ellender was also an advocate of farm subsidies and the school lunch program, and he opposed the investigations into communist infiltration of the U.S. government conducted prior to 1954 by his Republican colleague, Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. Though Ellender later opposed the Vietnam War, he voted for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution of 1964. During his Senate tenure he was chairman of the Agriculture Committee and then the Appropriations Committee. He was considered a more conservative Democrat in comparison to his party colleagues, though held some liberal positions such as adamantly supporting President Lyndon B. Johnson's social programs.

Ellender served in the upper house of Congress from 1937 until his death in the summer of 1972. At the time he was campaigning for yet another term in the Senate. Ellender was succeeded by interim Senator Elaine Edwards, the first wife of then Governor Edwin Edwards. His permanent successor was his chief primary rival in 1972, former state Senator J. Bennett Johnston, Jr., of Shreveport, who held the U.S. Senate seat until his retirement in January 1997. Johnston had also been Edwin Edwards' rival for the 1971 Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

Following the 1946 Senate election in Mississippi where segregationist demagogue Theodore Bilbo intimidated and threatened blacks, most of whom then were not then voters, Senate Republicans, who just gained a bare majority in the election cycle, moved to block him from being seated. Ellender defended the racist voter suppression and attempted to dismiss the charges, and gridlock ensued. Bilbo, suffering from oral cancer after decades of inciting violence and promoting bigotry, never returned to the Senate and died in August 1947.

In 1948, when other Southern Democrats defected to the Dixiecrat presidential campaign of Strom Thurmond, Ellender remained loyal to Harry S. Truman. Although Thurmond was the official Democratic nominee in Louisiana, Truman's name was also added to the ballot by a special session of the state legislature.

In 1960, Ellender polled some 80 percent of the ballots cast in the general election against Republican George Reese of New Orleans. In 1966, he overwhelmed two Democrats, Joseph Davis "J. D." DeBlieu (1912–2005), on the left, and Troyce Guice, from the right.

During his last two years of office, Ellender was the Dean of the United States Senate. His long-term senatorial colleague was fellow Louisiana Democrat Russell Long, the older son of Huey Long.

Personal life

Ellender was baptized a Roman Catholic, later listing himself as a Presbyterian, though belonged to no church in his adult life.

One of his nieces, Bonnie Robichaux, married Bob Livingston of New Orleans, the Republican former U.S. representative for Louisiana's 1st congressional district, a post now held by Republican Steve Scalise.

See also

• Richard Russell Jr.
• U.S. "Party-switch" myth

External links

• Profile at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Obituary via The New York Times