Drauzin Angelle

Drauzin Angelle (December 25, 1871 – December 19, 1958) was an American farmer and a politician from St. Martin Parish in south U.S. state of Louisiana. As the chief deputy sheriff from 1924 until his death, Angelle became a Democratic power broker in his largely rural sugar-producing parish.^[2]

Born in the Fifth Ward of St. Martin Parish to Jean-Baptiste Angelle and the former Arthemise Dupuis (pronounced DEW PWEE), he was twice married. With the former Aminth Guidry, he had a daughter, Mozella. He then wed the former Agnes Guidry Dupuis on March 27, 1894, and they had eight children.^[2]

Their only son was Robert Joseph "Bob" Angelle, who would serve in the 1920s as mayor of Breaux Bridge in St. Martin Parish and thereafter in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1934-1964. Bob Angelle was also the Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1957-1960. One of their seven daughters, Agnes A. Hardy, a schoolteacher and principal from Cecilia, was the mother of future Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana Paul Hardy, the first Republican to hold the second-ranking post in state government, having served from 1988 to 1992.^[1] Lieutenant Governor Paul Hardy was hence a grandson of Drauzin Angelle and a nephew of Speaker Bob Angelle. Hardy's brother, Florent Hardy, Jr., Ph.D., has served as Louisiana's State Archivist since 2000.

Drauzin Angelle's only elected position was as a constable of the Fifth Ward, a position that he held from 1914 to 1924, when he became the chief deputy under Sheriff Wade O. Martin, Sr., and continued in that capacity after Martin was elected in 1932 to the Louisiana Public Service Commission. Angelle hence remained chief deputy under a number of sheriffs. The sheriffs ran for reelection every four years along with the governor's race, but Angelle as the power behind the sheriff remained chief deputy throughout three decades. Angelle was known as the organizer of "The Old Faction" and the "Father of the Fifth Ward".^[2]

Angelle was tied to the Long faction of Louisiana politics, as was Sheriff Martin.^[2] However, in the late 1950s, following the death of Wade O. Martin, Sr., Wade O. Martin, Jr., the Louisiana Secretary of State, quarreled with Governor Earl Kemp Long, who obtained legislative passage of bills to strip Martin, Jr., of much of the jurisdiction of his office. Drauzin Angelle died during the time of this Long-Martin rivalry. Later, Wade O. Martin, Jr., like Paul Hardy, switched his partisan affiliation from Democrat to Republican.

Angelle is interred at St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery in Cecilia, a town in northern St. Martin Parish.^[2]

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