Dennis Paul Hebert

Dennis Paul Hebert, Sr. (October 7, 1926 – September 11, 2015), was a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for District 73 in Tangipahoa and Livingston parishes, who served from 1972 to 1996.^[1] He was unseated by a narrow margin in the 1995 general election by the Republican Henry "Tank" Powell, 7,803 (50.8 percent) to 7,563 (49.2 percent). ^[2]

Biography

A native of Ponchatoula in Tangipahoa Parish, he was one of six children of Charles Bentley Hebert and the former Majorie Eschenberg. He resided in his later years in the capital city of Baton Rouge with his second wife, the former Ruth Glass Lincecum. As a representative, he was chairman of the Labor and Industrial Relations Committee and vice-chairman of the House Governmental Affairs Committee. He was a member of the Ponchatoula City Council from 1961 to 1972 and the Mayor Pro Tem from 1969 to 1972.^[3]

In his youth, he labored in the strawberry fields, graduated from Ponchatoula High School, where he played football and basketball, and attended Southeastern Louisiana University, then College, in Hammond. He was an amateur boxer and from 1948 to 1954 was employed by Louisiana Power and Light Company. He retired in 1983 from Shell Oil in Norco in St. Charles Parish with twenty-nine years of service to the company. He was affiliated with the Roman Catholic men's organization, the Knights of Columbus, Lions International, the Ponchatoula Fire Department, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the Childhood Brain Tumor Foundation, Baton Rouge Alzheimer's Association, the American Heart Association, and the Audubon Society. As a sports referee, he was a member of the Louisiana High School Athletic Officials Association and the National Baseball Congress Umpire Association. He was the 1961 "Ponchatoula Citizen of the Year", the 1997 Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival King, and the 1989 grand marshal of Krewe of Erin. He had an interest in ornithology, history, travel, and western films, even having appeared in several movies filmed within Louisiana.^[3]

In his last House reelection in 1991, Hebert defeated the Republican Steve Pugh, 8,876 (53.4 percent) to 7,748 (46.6 percent).^[4] Pugh subsequently was elected to the House sixteen years later in 2007 to succeed the then term-limited Henry "Tank" Powell, who ended Hebert's House tenure in 1995.^[5] In 1999, Hebert's son, Dennis "Bubba" Hebert, Jr., challenged Powell in the primary but lost, 4,258 votes (32 percent) to 9,037 (68 percent).^[6]

Hebert was first married to the late Evelyn Thibodaux Hebert and was the father of seven surviving children, Paulette Hebert Foster and husband, Kearney; Dennis Hebert, Jr., and wife, Doylene; Marcia Hebert Cooper and husband, Thomas; Carol Hebert; Andrea Hebert Wheat and husband, William; Nannette Ourso and husband, Stephen; and Patricia Hebert Landaiche, all of Ponchatoula. He had four step-children and thirty-eight grandchildren.^[3]

He is interred at Greenoaks Memorial Park in Baton Rouge.^[3]

References