![]() Trina Edwards says she discussed the move with David Edwards, the fourth child from the governor's first marriage, and he told her nobody was opposed. The Democrat served a record four terms as governor between 19. She says the decision was the best move for her and Eli, the ex-governor's 8-year-old son, and she plans to eventually have the ashes interred in a public place, possibly in gardens facing the state Capitol. " I just decided I wanted to bring him home," Trina said. She said this week that the former governor's ashes are now on her nightstand. She was his prison pen pal while he was serving time for corruption involving riverboat gambling licenses. Edwards' adult children are decades older than widow Trina Edwards, who married him in 2011, when she was 32 and he was 83. He says his father was among the "large group of Christians" who believe the souls of cremated people can't go to heaven. Our state has lost a giant, and we will miss him dearly.”įuneral arrangements are pending, according to the family, but there will be a public viewing in the Louisiana State Capitol’s Memorial Hall, just steps away from where Huey Long is buried.Stephen Edwards says his father, who served as a Navy pilot toward the end of World War II, had told him he wanted his final resting place to be Port Hudson National Cemetery. Louisiana’s current governor, John Bel Edwards, no relation, said: “Edwin was a larger than life figure known for his wit and charm, but he will be equally remembered for being a compassionate leader who cared for the plight of all Louisianans. This time, the charges stuck.Įulogies poured in as word of his death spread. Prosecutors said he took payoffs to influence the awarding of casino licenses. ![]() It’s important,” said a popular bumper sticker.Įdwards retired in 1996, but wound up, again, under federal indictment. Edwards and Duke earned spots in a runoff, which Edwards won in a landslide by stoking fears that an ex-Nazi in the governor’s mansion would bring economic ruin. His switch to the Republican Party didn’t help.Įdwards entered the 1991 race - which was open to members of all parties - as did former Klansman David Duke, also running as a Republican. According to his authorized biography, his father’s ancestors were Welsh his mother’s continental French but Edwards always considered himself a Cajun.īut Roemer suffered political setbacks during his four years, including voter rejection of a tax overhaul package. 7, 1927, to a sharecropper and a midwife in Avoyelles Parish, part of the region settled by 18th century French exiles from Nova Scotia who came to be known as Cajuns. But Edwards, a consummate dealmaker, had a cooler demeanor.Įdwards was born Aug. They shared a populist appeal to the state’s downtrodden, and political fortunes that flowed in part from taxes on oil. Silver-haired, handsome and gifted with a dry sense of humor and easy charm, Edwards dominated Louisiana politics in the late 20th century much as Huey P. Edwards maintained the case was built on misinterpreted, secretly taped conversations and the lies of former cronies who made deals to avoid jail. The federal case that led to his May 2000 conviction involved state riverboat casino licenses awarded during and after his fourth and final term in the 1990s. They had a son, Eli, in 2013 - Edwards’ fifth child - and starred in a short-lived reality TV show, “The Governor’s Wife.” He also attempted one more political comeback, losing a runoff to a Republican in a south Louisiana congressional race in 2014. ![]() ![]() “I would have walked into prison a happy man had I known how it was going to end,” he said at his lavish 90th birthday bash in August 2017. They met when she began visiting him in prison after they struck up a pen-pal relationship. ![]() His flamboyant character intact, he found a third wife in Trina Grimes, then 32. Infamously, the lifelong Democrat said once said that the only way he could lose a race against a particularly lackluster Republican was if he were “caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy.”Ī native of Louisiana’s Acadiana region who swore his 1972 oath of office in French and English, Edwards enjoyed renewed popularity after emerging from prison in 2011 at age 83. Earlier in the week, the former governor also said, “I’ve made no bones that I have considered myself on borrowed time for 20 years and we each know that all this fun has to end at some point.” For him, that time was shortly after daybreak this morning, the statement said.Įdwards, the “Cajun King,” was known for delivering a steady supply of memorable one-liners as well as for his deft political instincts. ![]()
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