Former Louisiana Gov. Dave Treen dead at 81

• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Oct 29, 2009 - UPDATED: 8:15 p.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Former Louisiana Gov. Dave Treen, the state’s first Republican governor since Reconstruction, died at the age of 81.

Treen’s son, David C. Treen Jr., said the former governor died early Thursday of complications from a respiratory illness at East Jefferson General Hospital in Metairie. Treen had been in the hospital about two days, his son said.

Funeral arrangements are incomplete. But Gov. Bobby Jindal’s office announced plans for a memorial service Monday in the State Capitol followed by a public visitation. Jindal ordered flags at the Capitol to fly at half-staff.

Treen’s family scheduled services for Tuesday at St. Timothy on the Northshore United Methodist Church in Mandeville, where his wife, Dodie who died in 2005, is interred.

Visitation begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday and services start at 11 a.m. The public is invited.

Treen was the leader of the state’s Republican party during its early emergence in the 1970s after about a century of Democratic Party domination. He was the first congressman and the first governor elected as a Republican in decades.

But family and friends on Thursday remembered Treen as someone whose kindness spilled over into his politics.

Treen’s son in law, Lloyd Lunceford, recalled his first trip to Metairie in 1976 to meet the parents of Cynthia, the woman who would become his wife.

Treen arrived home, wearing a tuxedo, after having dinner with then-President Gerald R. Ford, Lunceford recalled.

Perhaps sensing the young man’s nervousness at meeting his girlfriend’s father, who also happened to be buddy of the president, Treen ran up stairs, changed into fuchsia-and-lime-green golf pants, then returned to chat up his daughter’s suitor.

“It became apparent that he had chosen to go the extra mile to put me at ease. That spoke to me about his thoughtfulness and humility,” Lunceford said. “I was privileged to call him friend, and I miss him dearly.”

In Washington, D.C., the U.S. House of Representatives held a moment of silence for Treen Thursday afternoon after addresses by Democratic U.S. Rep. Charles “Charlie” Melancon of Napoleonville and Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise of Metairie.

Louis Lambert of Prairieville, who lost the 1979 governor’s race that made Treen Louisiana’s first Republican governor in about a century, said Treen was the “grandfather” of the Republican Party in Louisiana.