Charlton Lyons 4395925 224051842 2008-07-07T02:36:45Z ImageRemovalBot 4851336 Removing deleted [[:Image:Lyons3.jpg|image]] {{Infobox Officeholder | name = [[Charlton Lyons|Charlton Havard Lyons, Sr.]] | image = | image_size = 150px | caption = <font size=2>[[Charlton Lyons]]<br> [[Louisiana]] [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] pioneer</font size=2> |office=State Chairman, [[Louisiana]] [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] |term_start=1964 |term_end=1968 |preceded= |succeeded=[[Charles C. deGravelles, Jr.]] | birth_date = {{birth date|1894|9|3}} | birth_place = [[Abbeville, Louisiana|Abbeville]], [[Vermilion Parish]], [[Louisiana]], [[United States|USA]] | death_date ={{death date and age|1973|8|8|1894|9|3}} | death_place = [[Shreveport, Louisiana|Shreveport]], [[Caddo Parish]], Louisiana | occupation = [[Businessman]] |spouse=Marjorie Hall Lyons (1895-1971, married 1917-her death) |children=Charlton Lyons, Sr. (born 1921 and Hall McCord Lyons (1923-1998) |parents=Ernest John Lyons and Joyce Bentley Havard Lyons |religion=[[Episcopal]] |party=[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] candidate for [[governor]] in 1964 and for the [[United States House of Representatives]] in 1961 |footnotes=(1) Lyons is usually considered "the father of the modern [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] in [[Louisiana]]." (2) Before he was his state's Republican chairman, Lyons made historic but unsuccessful races for [[governor]] and the [[United States House of Representatives]]. (3) The Marjorie Lyons Playhouse at [[Centenary College of Louisiana]] in [[Shreveport, Louisiana|Shreveport]] is named for Mrs. Lyons, herself an [[actress]]. (4) His C.H. Lyons [[Petroleum]] Company was his trademark, but Lyons also taught school for a time as a young man while he lived in [[Rapides Parish|Rapides]] and [[Grant Parish|Grant]] parishes. (5) Lyons was also a [[lawyer]] but practiced only briefly while living in [[Winnfield, Louisiana|Winnfield]], the ancestral of the [[Huey Long|Long]] political [[dynasty]]. }} '''Charlton Havard Lyons, Sr.''' ([[September 3]], [[1894]] &ndash; [[August 8]],[[1973]]), was a [[Shreveport, Louisiana|Shreveport]] [[oil]]man who in 1964 waged the first well-organized [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] bid for the [[Louisiana]] governorship since [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]]. Lyons also made a strong but losing bid for the [[United States House of Representatives]] in a [[special election]] in 1961. He is often considered the "father of the modern Republican Party in Louisiana." ==From Abbeville to Shreveport== Lyons was born in [[Abbeville, Louisiana|Abbeville]], the seat of [[Vermilion Parish, Louisiana|Vermilion Parish]] in south Louisiana, to Ernest John Lyons and the former Joyce Bentley Havard. He attended [[Louisiana State University]] in [[Baton Rouge, Louisiana|Baton Rouge]] but received his [[bachelor of arts]] from [[Tulane University]] in [[New Orleans]]. He also received a [[law]] degree from Tulane and was admitted to the Louisiana bar in 1916. On [[August 28]], [[1917]], Lyons married the former Marjorie Gladys Hall, who graduated from [[Newcomb College]], the then female version of Tulane. She was an aspiring [[actress]]. [[Image:Mar Lyons scan FINAL 8x10.jpg]] In the spring of 1917, Maurice Fromkes painted this portrait of Marjorie Hall, hair of burnished gold. She was born in [[Eagle Point, Wisconsin]], near [[Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin|Chippewa Falls]] in [[Chippewa County, Wisconsin|Chippewa County]], on [[March 27]], [[1895]], to Henry P. Hall and the former Laura O'Rourke. The marriage lasted until her death on [[July 11]], [[1971]]. From 1917-1918, Lyons was briefly the [[school principal|principal]] of Pollock [[High School]] in the community of [[Pollock, Louisiana|Pollock]] in southeastern [[Grant Parish, Louisiana|Grant Parish]]. He then entered the [[United States Army]] near the end of [[World War I]]. Marjorie taught at Pollock High while her husband was away. The Lyonses relocated to [[Winnfield, Louisiana|Winnfield]], center of the Long dynasty, at the time that the legendary [[Huey P. Long|Huey Pierce Long, Jr.]], was rising to prominence. There Lyons practiced law for several years.<ref>[http://lyonsbook.com/category/lyons-family/ Lyons Family « The Lyons Family<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> The couple thereafter relocated to Shreveport, and he entered the oil business as "C.H. Lyons Petroleum." By the 1950s, Lyons had become so successful in his field that he was named president of the [[interest group]], the Independent Petroleum Association of America. He was also a director of the [[Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association]], the National Petroleum Council, and the [[National Association of Manufacturers]]. In 1969, Lyons was honored as "Humanitarian of the Year at" the Abbeville [[Dairy]] Festival in the town of his birth. His civic-mindedness led him to establish the popular Marjorie Lyons Playhouse on the campus of [[Methodist]]-affiliated [[Centenary College of Louisiana|Centenary College]] in Shreveport, which is named for his wife. He was considered by friend and political rival alike as a man of great optimism and impeccable character. Charlton and Marjorie Lyons were [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopalians]]. They had two sons, Charlton Havard Lyons, Jr. (born 1921), a prominent Shreveport businessman and civic leader, and [[Hall M. Lyons]] of [[Lafayette, Louisiana|Lafayette]] and later [[Grand Isle, Louisiana|Grand Isle]] (1923-1998), a former Republican candidate for the [[U.S. House of Representatives]] and an Independent nominee for the [[U.S. Senate]]. His daughter-in-law was Shreveport socialite and [[philanthropist]] [[Susybelle Lyons]], later [[divorce]]d from Charlton, Jr. Lyons was a member of the Shreveport [[Country Club]], the [[Masonic lodge]], the [[American Legion]], and the [[Kappa Alpha]] and [[Phi Delta Phi]] [[Fraternities and sororities|fraternities]]. =="Everybody Can Vote for Charlton Lyons"== Lyons officially switched to the Republican Party in 1960, when he supported [[Richard M. Nixon]] for [[U.S. president]]. He is best known for his pathbreaking gubernatorial campaign waged in the winter of 1964. He posted billboards which delared that "Everybody Can Vote for Charlton Lyons," for he had to inform Louisiana's Democratic voters, then more than 98 percent of the registrants, that they actually had a choice in the [[general election]] that year, a phenomenon unknown prior to 1964. [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nominee [[John McKeithen]] (1918-1999) noted that he, at forty-five, was a generation younger than the 69-year-old Lyons. It was a rare use of age as an issue in Louisiana politics. [[Ronald Reagan]] came to Louisiana to campaign for Lyons: this was only a few months before Reagan delivered his [[October 27]], 1964 address, ''[[A Time for Choosing]]'', on national television to promote [[Barry Goldwater]]'s presidential bid, a speech credited with catapulting Reagan into the vanguard of national politics. Reagan, like Lyons, was a former Democrat who also had become disenchanted with the liberal drift of the party. McKeithen was outraged over Reagan's visit and urged the veteran [[actor]] of [[film]] and [[television]] "to return to Hollywood and do something about the standing [[immorality]] and [[communism]] that flourishes in that city." McKeithen predicted that Louisiana Democrats would "repel this second invasion by the [[carpetbagger]]s." Two years later, Reagan was elected governor of [[California]]. McKeithen pictured Lyons as the beneficiary of "special interests" and "a group of millionaires." Lyons would "help the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer," wailed McKeithen. Lyons, however, denied that most of his supporters were even wealthy. "A Victory for Lyons Will Electrify the Nation," said one of the candidate's brochures. McKeithen seemed to resent having to face a Republican challenger after he survived two Democratic primaries. He called for an end to two Democratic primaries to be followed by a general election with Republicans, but the process of three elections was barely getting underway. The Louisiana media gave wide coverage to the McKeithen-Lyons battle. [[Adras LaBorde]], managing editor of the ''Alexandria Daily Town Talk,'' took advantage of the state's first heated Democrat-Republican campaign for governor and covered the election widely in his column "The Talk of the Town". Both Shreveport papers, ''The Times'' and the now defunct ''Journal'', owned by [[Douglas F. Attaway]], covered nearly every aspect of the campaign. ''Journal'' editor [[George W. Shannon]] endorsed Lyons, as he later in the year would Goldwater. Lyons developed a cadre of young followers in the Republican Party. He designated [[George Despot|George Joseph Despot]] (1927-1991), another Shreveport oilman, and [[Certified Public Accountant]] [[George A. Burton|George A. Burton, Jr.]], as his gubernatorial campaign co-chairmen, mostly because it was Despot and Burton who pleaded with Lyons to enter the race. Burton (born 1926), a lifelong Louisiana Republican, described Lyons in glowing terms: "a great American. . . a friend of impeccable integrity." [[Lloyd E. Lenard]], later a Republican member of the Caddo Parish Commission (formerly called Police Jury) from 1984-1996 and an [[author]], flew around the state with Lyons and interviewed him for [[radio]] and [[newspaper]]s.<ref>http://www.legacy.com/shreveporttimes/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=111398520</ref> ==37.5 percent was a record for a GOP candidate== Lyons lost to Democrat McKeithen in the March 3, 1964, general election, but his 297,753 ballots (37.5 percent), helped to pave the way for the victory in Louisiana that November of the [[Barry Goldwater|Goldwater]]-Miller presidential electors. McKeithen polled 469,589 votes (60.7 percent). (The last of the [[States' Rights Party]] [[gubernatorial]] nominees in Louisiana history, Thomas S. Williams from the town of Ethel in [[East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana|East Feliciana Parish]], received 6,048 votes, or 1.8 percent). Lyons polled majorities in five parishes, [[Caddo Parish, Louisiana|Caddo]], [[Bossier Parish, Louisiana|Bossier]], [[Claiborne Parish, Louisiana|Claiborne]], [[Lincoln Parish, Louisiana|Lincoln]], and [[De Soto Parish, Louisiana|De Soto]], all in north Louisiana. He polled more than 47 percent in [[East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana|East Baton Route Parish]] and in [[Webster Parish, Louisiana|Webster Parish]]. In [[La Salle Parish, Louisiana|La Salle Parish]], which had supported Richard Nixon in 1960 and [[Taylor W. O'Hearn]] for the [[U.S. Senate]] in 1962, Lyons drew less than 30 percent of the vote, a factor perhaps explained by the fact that the parish is located due south of McKeithen's [[Caldwell Parish, Louisiana|Caldwell Parish]]. In victory, the testy McKeithen was magnanimous toward his rival: "My opponent waged a tremendous campaign for a man of his age. I am glad I don't have to run against him again." The ''Shreveport Journal'', which endorsed Lyons, observed that the Republican vote was "not so much a vote against John McKeithen, who had already taken the district in Democratic balloting, as it was an expression of endearment for a man who is regarded as one of our most outstanding citizens." [[Billy J. Guin|Billy James Guin, Sr.]] (born 1927), later the Shreveport public [[utilities]] commissioner who had run for the state legislature from Caddo Parish on the Lyons ticket, described Lyons as "a good man who wanted to change the political complexion of Louisiana. He built the Republican Party in its present form. He was a great campaigner, and there was much grassroots fervor. When he began to make inroads, the [[sheriff]]s and other Democratic officeholders proceeded to block his election." Lyons' strength was reflective of that of former [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]] [[Mayor]] [[Pratt C. Remmel]], the 1954 Republican gubernatorial nominee in neighboring [[Arkansas]]. Remmel -- a decade before Lyons -- also polled 37 percent of the vote in his hard-fought race against the Democrat [[Orval Faubus|Orval Eugene Faubus]] and won six of the state's seventy-five counties. Remmel paved the way twelve years later for the election of [[Winthrop Rockefeller]], much as Lyons was the forerunner fifteen years later for [[David C. Treen]], the first modern-day Republican elected governor of Louisiana. ==Supporting Barry Goldwater== In 1963, Charlton Lyons and Baton Rouge businessman [[James H. Boyce]], who was himself still a nominal Democrat, went with a group of mostly Republican conservatives to urge Goldwater to seek the presidency. Goldwater was at first reluctant to take on the challenge but nevertheless declared his candidacy early in 1964, when the Democrat [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] had been president for less than two months and the favorite for a full term of his own. Boyce thereafter switched parties and became the campaign treasurer for the Lyons gubernatorial bid. (He would serve as state party chairman from 1972-1976.) In that campaign, McKeithen had accused Lyons of being precommitted to the 1964 Republican presidential candidate, and he incorrectly predicted that the nominee would be, not Senator Goldwater, but then New York Governor [[Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller]], considered the [[liberal]], [[internationalist]] candidate. McKeithen said that he would keep his options open for the 1964 presidential election. As it turned out, he remained neutral in that race, but the state's two popular Democratic senators, [[Allen Ellender]] and [[Russell B. Long]], both supported the Lyndon Johnson-[[Hubert Humphrey]] ticket. No sooner had the gubernatorial race ended than Lyons resumed working for Goldwater's nomination as president. After the gubernatorial campaign, Lyons became the state GOP party chairman and led the state delegation to the national convention held in [[San Francisco]]'s [[Cow Palace]]. His vice chairman was [[Harriet Belchic]], a Shreveport civic and political leader who was also the first woman to have received both bachelor's and [[master's degree|master's]] degrees from LSU in the field of [[geology]]. Lyons worked to persuade several leading Louisiana Democrats to support Goldwater, including former Governors [[Sam Jones|Sam Houston Jones]] and [[Robert F. Kennon]] and Lieutenant Governor [[Clarence C. Aycock|Clarence C. "Taddy" Aycock]] of [[Franklin, Louisiana|Franklin]] in [[St. Mary Parish, Louisiana|St. Mary Parish]]. Goldwater defeated LBJ in Louisiana and won some parishes by 5-1 margins or better, particularly in the northern tier of parishes. ==Lyons opposes Waggonner for Congress, 1961== Three years before his gubernatorial campaign, Lyons ran in a special election for the Louisiana Fourth Congressional District seat. A vacancy developed with the death of longterm Democratic Representative [[Overton Brooks|Thomas Overton Brooks]] of Shreveport. In the 1960 general election, Brooks had defeated Republican [[Fred C. McClanahan|Fred C. McClanahan, Jr.]], (1918-2007) of Shreveport by a wide margin, 48,286 (74.2 percent) to 16,827 (25.8 percent). Lyons made a much stronger showing in the northwest Louisiana district, but the seat went to [[Joe Waggonner]], from Plain Dealing in [[Bossier Parish, Louisiana|Bossier Parish]], a conservative Democrat who had once been president of the [[segregationist]] Louisiana Citizen's Council. Waggonner held the seat until he retired in 1979. Waggonner (1918-2007) had already announced that he would have challenged Brooks for renomination in 1962 because of Brooks' vote in 1961 to enlarge the membership of the House Rules Committee so as to permit [[Speaker (politics)|Speaker]] [[Sam Rayburn]] of [[Texas]] to add new liberal representation to the panel that had long been chaired by the [[Virginia]] conservative [[Howard W. Smith]]. Lyons claimed that victory by Waggonner would be interpreted as support for policies of President [[John F. Kennedy]] and Vice President Johnson, while Waggonner claimed that the election of Lyons would mean increased importance being placed on black bloc voting through the establishment of a two-party system. In the special election, Lyons won his own Caddo Parish with 58.7 percent, but district-wide the totals were 28,250 votes (45.5 percent) for Lyons and 33,892 (54.5 percent) for Waggonner. After the Lyons campaign of 1961, no other Republican opposed Waggonner, who was customarily reelected without opposition. In 1988, a Republican, [[Jim McCrery]], a Shreveport native who grew up in [[Leesville, Louisiana|Leesville]] in [[Vernon Parish, Louisiana|Vernon Parish]], won the district in another special election created by the election of Congressman [[Buddy Roemer]], as governor. McCrery has since held the seat with relatively little difficulty. ==Lyons passes the GOP baton to Treen== Lyons had stepped down as party chairman in 1968 and was succeeded by his friend and fellow oilman [[Charles and Virginia de Gravelles|Charles Camille de Gravelles, Jr.]], of Lafayette. Charles' wife, [[Charles and Virginia de Gravelles|Virginia Wheadon de Gravelles]] had been the national committeewoman from 1964-1968 and was a great admirer of Charlton Lyons. In 1972, Lyons supported Republican gubernatorial candidate David Treen of suburban [[New Orleans]], even though Lyons' son, Hall Lyons, was running for governor on the [[American Independent Party]] ticket, an organization founded in 1968 by Alabama Governor [[George C. Wallace|George C. Wallace, Jr]], (1963-1967; 1971-1979; 1983-1987). Hall Lyons withdrew from the race and endorsed Treen, who in turn lost the general election to Democrat [[Edwin Washington Edwards]]. In 1966, Hall Lyons had run for Congress in the Lafayette-based district, but he lost to veteran [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] [[Edwin Willis|Edwin E. Willis]] (1904-1972), a supporter of President Johnson. Unlike his son, Charlton Lyons had opposed Wallace, who had won [[Louisiana]] in 1968. Charlton Lyons supported the [[Richard M. Nixon]]-[[Spiro T. Agnew]] elector slate, which fared poorly in the state. ==The death of Lyons== Lyons died some eight months after Treen had been elected to the U.S. House from the reconfigured Third Congressional District, which included parts of suburban [[New Orleans]]. He hence lived just long enough to witness the first glimpse of his dream of a [[two-party system]] for traditionally Democratic Louisiana. His papers (covering 1942-1973) are at LSU. The Lyonses are buried in the family plot in Forest Park Cemetery in Shreveport. Lyons' only sister, Sally, was married to Thomas M. "Tom" Logan. The Logans are also buried at Forest Park across the street from the Lyons-Hall plot. ==References== <references/> *"Charlton H. Lyons," ''A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography'', Vol. 1 (1988), pp. 528-529 *http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/mbayham/2002/mb_1125p.shtml *http://www.centenary.edu/news/1997/July/funnygif.html *http://www.ou.edu/special/albertctr/archives/WickershamInventory/Wick09.htm *http://capitolwatch.reallouisiana.com/html/A75E1178-828D-4719-8077-E42A0AA2B4C3.shtml *http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/guidedisplay.pl?index=G000267 *http://capitolwatch.reallouisiana.com/html/A75E1178-828D-4719-8077-E42A0AA2B4C3.shtml *<i>Shreveport Journal<i>, March 3-4, 1964 *Perry Howard, ''Political Tendencies in Louisiana'', LSU Press, 1971 *''Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report'', March 6, 1964 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lyons, Charlton}} [[Category:1894 births]] [[Category:1973 deaths]] [[Category:American philanthropists]] [[Category:American businesspeople]] [[Category:Caddo Parish, Louisiana]] [[Category:Louisiana lawyers]] [[Category:Louisiana politicians]] [[Category:Louisiana Republicans]] [[Category:Tulane University alumni]] [[Category:People from Shreveport, Louisiana]] [[Category:Vermilion Parish, Louisiana]] [[Category:People from Louisiana]] [[Category:Candidates for Governor of Louisiana]] [[Category:Conservatives]] [[Category:Louisiana State Republican chairmen]] [[Category:American oil industrialists]] [[Category:Grant Parish, Louisiana]] [[Category:Winn Parish, Louisiana]]