Bolivar E. Kemp

Who was Bolivar E. Kemp?

Bolivar Edwards Kemp, Sr., was an attorney and a member of the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana's 6th congressional district.

In 1897, Kemp earned his legal degree from the Louisiana State University Law Center in Baton Rouge and began his law practice in Amite, the parish seat of Tangipahoa Parish, one of the Florida Parishes. In 1910, he was appointed a member of the influential LSU Board of Supervisors.

A Democrat, Kemp won the 1924 primary election for the 6th District seat and was unopposed in the general election. He ran unopposed in 1926, 1928, and 1930, and he defeated two primary opponents to win a fifth term in 1932. Kempt worked for passage of Mississippi River flood-control legislation, the Great Mississippi Flood having occurred in 1927.

On June 19, 1933, Bolivar Kemp died unexpectedly of a heart attack at his home in Amite three weeks after the similar death of his brother and law partner, William Breed Kemp, Jr. His seat ordinarily would have been filled through a special primary and general election. In early December 1933, Governor Oscar K.