J. Emile Verret

Who was J. Emile Verret?

J. Emile Verret was the Democratic lieutenant governor of Louisiana from 1944 to 1948, having served under the first of the two nonconsecutive gubernatorial terms of James Houston "Jimmie" Davis. Verret defeated former Governor Earl Kemp Long in the party's runoff election for the second-ranking office in state government. He and Clarence C. "Taddy" Aycock of Franklin in St. Mary Parish both denied Long victory in races for lieutenant governor: Verret in 1944 and Aycock in 1959. Earl Long had been elected lieutenant governor in 1936 and succeeded to the governorship for a year in 1939. Long was defeated for a full gubernatorial term in 1940 but staged impressive comebacks to win the top office in 1948 and 1956.

Verret was born in Iberia Parish and educated in local schools. He graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 1905. He also attended Soule Business College in New Orleans. He returned to New Iberia and opened a general store. He was also an independent insurance agent from 1928 until his death. His wife was the former Katherine Markham.

In politics, Verret was first elected to the Iberia Parish School Board in 1912 and was the board president from 1914–1943, when he ran for lieutenant governor. Many found it unusual that a candidate whose only elective office had been on a school board could defeat a legendary Long to gain the state's second highest office. Verret ran second to Long in the first primary but defeated him in the second balloting, when anti-Long elements coalesced behind him. Also in the running was freshman State Senator Frank Burton Ellis of Covington in St. Tammany Parish, later a short-term U.S. District Court judge in New Orleans, appointed by U.S. President John F. Kennedy