Conway LeBleu

Glenn^[1] Conway LeBleu, known as Conway LeBleu (October 4, 1918 – 2007),^[2] was a Democrat who served six terms from 1964 to 1988 in the Louisiana House of Representatives for District 36 in southwestern Louisiana, encompassing Calcasieu and Cameron parishes.^[3]

Background

A native of Lake Charles, the seat of government of Calcasieu Parish, LeBleu graduated in 1935 from the former Lake Charles High School, now Lake Charles Boston High School, and joined a geophysical crew for Shell Oil. He was also a warehouse worker for Mobil Oil until 1942, when he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, forerunner of the Air Force. He served during World War II in the Pacific Theater of Operations and in Korea until his honorable discharge in 1946.^[4]

After the war, LeBleu attended McNeese State University, then McNeese Junior College in Lake Charles, and Colorado State University, then Colorado A&M University, in Fort Collins, Colorado. He graduated in 1950 from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture.^[4]

Career

LeBleu and his wife, the former Virgie McCall, married in 1950 and established their residence in Cameron Parish, where he was a member of the Cattleman's Association, the Farm Bureau, and the Optimist Club. He was active in the Sabine River Authority, the administrative agency for the Toledo Bend Reservoir project. He was a member of the Louisiana Intracoastal Seaway Association, the Cameron Waterworks Board, and the Cameron Parish Police Jury, the parish governing body akin to the county commission in most other states.^[4]

In 1964, LeBleu was elected to the state House to succeed Alvin Dyson, the three-term member from Cameron Parish.^[3] LeBleu served under three Governors, John McKeithen, Edwin Edwards, and David C. Treen. He worked to establish the Ellender Ferry Bridge and to upgrade evacuation routes from lower Cameron Parish. He also promoted tourism and sport fishing along the Gulf Coast.^[4] LeBleu was posthumously inducted in 2014 into the Southwest District Livestock Show and Rodeo because of his work in securing funding when the Burton Coliseum in Lake Charles, the home of the show, faced the possibility of closing. His efforts kept the structure in use for several years until a local maintenance tax was passed. LeBleu supported the livestock show and rodeo further by donating prize money and awards.^[5]

In his last House election, LeBleu defeated an Independent opponent, Michael Tritico, 11,764 (74.9 percent) to 3,943 (25.1 percent).^[6]

Family and legacy

Conway Charles LeBleu (1962–1993), presumably a son of Conway and Virgie LeBleu, or a grandson or possibly a nephew of Conway LeBleu, was one of four agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who were killed in the raid of the Branch Davidian compound headed by David Koresh in Waco, Texas, in a search for illegal weapons. More than eighty of the Branch Davidians died in a federal raid in April 1993 after a two-month standoff. Conway Charles LeBleu, who was killed on the first day of the crisis on February 28, is interred at Consolata Cemetery in Lake Charles.^[7]

LeBleu's archival material is located at McNeese State University. The Conway LeBleu Memorial Bridge, also called the Gibbstown Bridge, over the Louisiana Intracoastal Waterway is named in his honor.^[8]

LeBleu's place and date of death and resting place are unavailable.^[2]

References