Mary Evelyn Parker

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Mary Evelyn Dickerson Parker (born November 8, 1920) was the Democratic state treasurer of Louisiana from 1968-1987. Prior to her tenure as treasurer, she held several appointed positions in state government. She was an integral part of the Long political faction and a close friend and strategist for both Governor Earl Kemp Long (1895-1960) and his wife, Blanche Revere Long (1902-1998).

1 Early years and education
2 A real political player
3 Helping to elect McKeithen
4 Election as treasurer, 1968
5 Retirement
6 References

[edit] Early years and education

Mrs. Parker was born to Racia E. Dickerson and the former Addie Graham in Fullerton in Vernon Parish. She grew up in nearby Oakdale in Allen Parish. She attended Northwestern State University (then College) in Natchitoches on a scholarship recommended by one of her Oakdale High School teachers, William J. "Bill" Dodd, later the Louisiana lieutenant governor and superintendent of education. Miss Dickerson received her bachelor's degree in 1941. She was a social worker in Allen Parish from 1941-1943, while she also obtained a diploma in social work from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge in 1943.

During World War II, Miss Dickerson was the personnel administrator for the War Department's Camp Claiborne from 1943-1947. From 1947-1948, she was the editor of the Oakdale Journal.

[edit] A real political player

Dodd helped Miss Dickerson to obtain the position of executive director of the Louisiana Department of Commerce and Industry in 1948 in the Long administration. From 1948-1952, she was also the Democratic national committeewoman from Louisiana. Miss Dickerson was a delegate to the 1948 national party convention in Philadelphia.

In 1952, Miss Dickerson ran for the statewide position of register of the state land office, when the incumbent, Lucille May Grace stepped down to run unsuccessfully for governor. She ran on the Long ticket, with Carlos Spaht of Baton Rouge for governor and John McKeithen, a young lawyer from Columbia and an Earl Long floor leader in the legislature, seeking the position of lieutenant governor. Also running on the Long ticket was the choice for attorney general, Joseph A. Sims of Hammond. The Long candidates lost that year, and Miss Dickerson was defeated by the anti-Long choice, Ellen Bryan Moore.

Miss Grace, as a Long candidate, but one distrusted by Earl Long for his own reasons, returned in 1956 to unseat Mrs. Moore in the Democratic primary. She died in office a year later. Mrs. Moore returned to the post in 1960 and served until 1976, when the position cease to be elective.

Miss Dickerson married W. Bryant Parker of Baton Rouge on October 31, 1954. Sadly, the marriage lasted less than eleven years, for Mr. Parker died in May 1965. The Parkers had two daughters, Mary Bryant Parker and Ann Graham Parker. Mrs. Parker, widowed at 44, did not remarry.

During a period when she was not in political office, Mrs. Parker was a successful insurance agent from 1952 to 1956 and a member of the prestigious Million Dollar Roundtable.

Mrs. Parker was chairman of the White House Conference on Children and Youth in 1960. She headed the Board of Public Welfare from 1956-1963. She was also a president of the Louisiana Conference of Social Welfare. She was a member of the board of directors of the Women's Hospital in Baton Rouge and a trustee of Episcopal High School.

[edit] Helping to elect McKeithen

In the 1963-1964 gubernatorial race, Mrs. Parker was a key operative in the campaign to elect John McKeithen, then one of the state's three public service commissioners, as governor. McKeithen's campaign was managed by Blanche Long, and Mrs. Parker delivered speeches on the candidate's behalf. One of her high-powered speeches -- and Dodd had taught her speech at Oakdale High School -- televised across the state was called "All that Glitters Is Not Gold." The title referred to a line from Shakespeare, but it was really an effective attack on the "reform" record of McKeithen's intraparty opponent, former New Orleans Mayor deLesseps Story Morrison, Sr. In her stern, tough, no-nonsense demeanor, Mrs. Parker was in fact playing the role as "hatchet woman" for the McKeithen forces.

In the first McKeithen term, she was rewarded with a position in the Division of Administration.

Writes Dodd, in his memoirs entitled Peapatch Politics: The Earl Long Era in Louisiana Politics:

"As a teacher [in Oakdale High School], I had taught her how to speak; as a legislator, I had gotten her a scholarship that gave her a college education [Northwestern State]; and as lieutenant governor, I had found her a big job in our administration. She was a wonderful speaker and a good administrator, but she must have been a born ingrate." The latter remark referred to Mrs. Parker having twice undercut Dodd in his gubernatorial campaigns of 1952 and 1959.

[edit] Election as treasurer, 1968

In 1967, Mrs. Parker donned the hat of "efficient administrator" and ran with McKeithen's support for state treasurer. She retained the services of a fledgling press secretary and consultant named Raymond Strother: it was the first campaign that Strother, later one of the most successful campaign organizers in Louisiana and throughout the South, ever managed. Strother has worked almost exclusively for Democrats, including Texas Senator Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr. (1921-2006) and former Georgia Governor Roy Barnes, Jr..

Mrs. Parker was the first woman to be elected treasurer. She ran to succeed 32-year incumbent Andrew Patrick "Pat" Tugwell, Sr., who had announced his retirement. She was unopposed for the Democratic nomination. In the general election held on February 6, 1968, she defeated Republican nominee Allison Ray Kolb (1915-1973) of Baton Rouge. Kolb was the only Republican challenging any of the Democratic nominees for state constitutional offices that year, and his candidacy was not taken serious by voters. He had been auditor (when he was a Democrat) in the administration of former Governor Robert F. Kennon. Mrs. Parker won all 64 parishes: 337,234 (73.7 percent) to Kolb's 120,253 (26.3 percent). She polled at least 57 percent of the vote in all parishes except Lafayette and East Baton Rouge parishes.

[edit] Retirement

Mrs. Parker served until January 1, 1987, when she retired with nearly a year and a half left in her fifth term. Mary Landrieu, her fellow Democratic woman and then a state representative from New Orleans, was elected in 1987 to succeed her as treasurer. Mary Landrieu defeated a field of fellow Democratic candidates for the post, including former Congressman Anthony Claude "Buddy" Leach, Jr., a wealthy Leesville businessman, and her legislative colleague, Kevin Reilly of Baton Rouge.

On her retirement, Mrs. Parker received an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, Northwestern State University. In 1976, she was named Baton Rouge's "Woman of the Year. She was also listed in "Who's Who in America." In 1996, she was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield. She is a Baptist.