Louis J. Roussel, Jr.

Louis J. Roussel, Jr. (28 July 1906 – 20 October 2001), was a powerful businessman and political kingmaker from New Orleans, Louisiana.

He was known for his long-time financial support to the campaigns of Edwin Edwards, governor of Louisiana from 1972–1980, 1984–1988, and 1992–1996, and Bill Dodd, a former lieutenant governor (1948–1952) and state education superintendent (1964–1972), who failed in determined gubernatorial bids in 1952 and 1959. Roussel contributed a total of $500,000 to Dodd's campaigns and $600,000 alone to Edwards' failed 1987 race against Buddy Roemer, then a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana's 4th congressional district. Dodd's son, William Ford Dodd, was running unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in that same 1987 primary election.

Biography

Roussel (pronounced RUE SELL) was the son of Louis Roussel, Sr. (1876–1964) and the former Bertha Breaux. He married the former Lucy Cocchiara (August 21, 1909–March 16, 2002), with whom he had two children, Charmaine Roussel Morel (born 1934) and Louis "Louie" Roussel III (born 1946). His brother was Ervin Roussel, and his sister was Lillie Roussel Prejean (1911–2007), wife of Oscar J. Prejean (1909–1995) of Thibodaux in Lafourche Parish.

Roussel entered the job force in the 1930s as a bus driver in New Orleans but thereafter made a fortune in petroleum and banking. He even owned land in Keene, New Hampshire, which he purchased far below book value before the passage of the Williams Act, named for former U.S. Senator Harrison Williams, Jr., of New Jersey placed restrictions on such property transfers.

In his later years, Roussel supported some Republican candidates, as the GOP became more competitive in Louisiana, including the 1990 U.S. Senate hopeful, then State Senator Ben Bagert of New Orleans, who withdrew from the race against David Duke and J. Bennett Johnston, Jr., a contest ultimately won by Johnston, the Democratic nominee, and a former intraparty rival to Edwards.

In 1997 Roussel published his autobiography, Friends, Enemies, and Victims: The Autobiography of Louis J. Roussel, Jr.

Death

Roussel, who resided in Metairie in Jefferson Parish, died on October 20, 2001 at the age of ninety-five. Services were held on October 23 at the Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home Chapel. Interment was at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans. At the time of his death, Roussel had four grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Roussel is remembered through the Louis J. Roussel Performance Hall at Loyola University in New Orleans. The Louis J. Roussel, Jr. Laser Planetarium and MegaDome Cinema in Kenner in Jefferson Parish, which seats one hundred, is also named in his honor.

His son, Louie J. Roussell, III, a Metairie attorney, owned, with Ronnie Lamarque, Risen Star, the 1988 winner of the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. Risen Star finished third in the Kentucky Derby. Roussel, III, also owns the Kentucky-bred son of Risen Star, Star Standard.