Edward James Gay

Who was Edward James Gay?

Edward James Gay III was a United States Senator from Louisiana. Born on Union Plantation in Iberville Parish, he attended Pantops Academy the Lawrenceville School, and Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, from which he did not graduate. He engaged in sugar production and the cultivation of various agricultural products. He was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1904 to 1918.

Gay was elected on November 5, 1918, as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Robert F. Broussard and served from November 6, 1918, to March 4, 1921; he declined to be a candidate for reelection in 1920 as he had lost his political power base due to the advent of John M. Parker. While in the Senate, he was chairman of the Committee on Coast and Insular Survey. Gay was president of a manufacturing company and of the Lake Long Drainage District in Iberville Parish; he died in New Orleans in 1952. Interment was in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans.

Edward James Gay, his grandfather, had been a United States Representative from Louisiana.