Biographies: William Harry "Eva" Talbot, 1972, Winn, Lincoln Parishes, LA. Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** From: Winn Parish Enterprise News-American, LA. Tech Alumni News (Fall, 1972), Who's Who in the South and Southwest (1950), Wiley W. Hilburn, Jr. Dodson Native, "Eva" Talbot, Tech's Alumnus of the Year A New Orleans lawyer who was born in Dodson has been elected the Louisiana Tech University Alumnus of the Year. He is William Harry "Eva" Talbot, 71. Talbot's picture is on the cover of the Tech Alumni News for the fall quarter with a special story by Louisiana Tech News Bureau Director Wiley Hilburn, Jr., inside. The Talbot family moved from Dodson to Ruston in 1914. Because of the significance of the family in North Louisiana history, Hilburn's entire article is reprinted below. From the Louisiana Tech Alumni News, Fall, 1972. Eva Talbot Alumnus of The Year From: Who's Who in the South and Southwest. Published by A. N. Marquis Company, 1950: "Talbot, William Harry, lawyer; b. Dodson, La., April, 1901; Dr. B. H. Talbot and Katherine McBride; BS Louisiana Tech, Ruston, 1919; LL.B. Tulane University, 1923; m. Florence Fraley, June 1, 1931. Admitted to Louisiana Bar, 1923, in practice of law, New Orleans since 1923; independent oil operator since 1940. Member New Orleans, La., State Bar Association, Sigma Nu, Phi Delta Phi, Democrat (national committeeman); Baptist, Clubs: Louisiana Petroleum. Home: 1631 Dufossat St.,; office: 808 Whitney Bldg., New Orleans, La." Studied mechanical engineering, Louisiana Tech, graduated 1919. Entered Tulane in the fall of 1919. Played football at Tulane four years, captain of team in 1923. Graduated in law, 1923. Entered practice of law in New Orleans with firm of Janvier & Heller. Have been engaged in the practice of civil law for 49 years. Managed Jimmie Davis' campaign for Governor of Louisiana (first time) in 1944. Managed Earl Long's campaign in 1948. Both were elected. Was never on state payroll. Member of Sigma Nu fraternity at Tulane, was commander during senior year. Managed Second Alumni Fund Drive for Louisiana Tech. Born in Dodson, La., first boy born in Dodson. Dr. Talbot and his wife and five children, Edmond, Lillian, Harry, Horace, and Ralph moved to Ruston in 1914. All of them attended Louisiana Tech. The Talbots of Tech All six members of the Talbot family are members of the Louisiana Tech family. Miss Lillian Talbot of Ruston is a retired area superintendent of the State Department of Education who, during her career, was headquartered in the Tech College of Home Economics. Edmund E. "Ed" Talbot is a retired judge who resides in Covington, La. He also is a Tech graduate who was a football standout here. William Harry "Eva" Talbot, a Tech graduate, is the subject of the Alumni News cover feature. Benjamin Horace Talbot, Jr., also a Techster, died in1959. Dr. Ralph J. Talbot is a Monroe pediatrician. The Talbot "baby", Mrs. George Busbee, Mary Beth, also a Tech graduate is married to a Georgia legislator and lives in Albany, Ga. New Orleans His friends call him "Eva". But don't let that nickname fool you. Because William Harry "Eva" Talbot, at 71, is a big, broad-shouldered man who was a standout guard and tackle for the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs of 1918 and 1919. From that early beginning at the Tech of longtime President J. E. Keeny, Mr. Talbot has forged a singularly outstanding 49 year career of civil law, directed a pair of winning gubernatorial campaigns, and earned the gratitude of an American president. Among other things. Now he has been selected as Louisiana Tech's "Alumnus of the Year." And for this occasion Mr. Talbot agreed to a late morning interview in his eighth- story office in the Whitney Building, an altitude that offers a big-window view down blocks and blocks of Gravier Street. The French Quarter, from the Whitney Building's corner on St. Charles Street, isn't far away. On an elevator, the interviewer succumbs to a certain, rather uncomfortable, awe. Mr. Talbot's record, as outlined in his "Who's Who in the Southwest" chart is impressive. But we had been told repeatedly by people who knew Mr. Talbot that "you are going to like this guy." The Talbot offices, opening into a soft spectrum of browns, had an understated, worked-in elegance that bespoke without belaboring success. One felt comfortable there. The first contact with Mr. Talbot bore out this impression. The handshake was firm and the smile easy and disarming. He led us into a conference room and seated us around a blueprint-strewn desk. Mr. Talbot is still a busy man. In the talk that followed, Mr. Talbot gave the distinct impression of a man at ease with himself, with life, with people. Perfectly relaxed, he fielded questions about himself easily, often turning to inquiries about his achievements into the humorous asides characteristic of a man big enough to laugh at himself. Two pre-interview predictions offered by others about Mr. Talbot, that "you will like this guy" and that he would steer the conversation around and away for his professional accomplishments, were abundantly confirmed as we talked. When asked about his proudest accomplishment in a half-century of civil law, Mr. Talbot pushed some of the rolled-up blueprints aside and started talking about what turned out to be one of his favorite subjects, how nice people had been to him. "I like people," he said, more than once. "The law in great measure has meant meeting people." And he talks about, well, just loving life. "Every day has been a good day," says Mr. Talbot, "and every day will be a good day." We got the feeling then that William Harry Talbot had faced down many a challenge with this outlook of surviving life and liking it, that this was part of the story of his success, and then he said something that clinched it. "Once I lost $ 750,000 in an oil deal," he said putting a leg up against the table. But then came that slow, easy smile and he said, meaning it, that "I still enjoyed that deal, doing it." But Eva Talbot is the first co admit that his "best deal" came when he persuaded Miss Florence Fraley, a brown-eyed brunette beauty, to marry him. The vows were said in her hometown of Houston, Texas, on June 1, 1931. It had been Mr. and Mrs. William Harry Talbot ever since. We came back to the "Eva" tag. What about it? He explained that the nickname came on the football practice field. "I was awakened and the coach saw me running across the field and sail "look at Little Eva crossing the ice." His nickname stuck, but Mr. Talbot's football opponents might argue the clumsy bit. After his Tech career, winning a degree in mechanical engineering. Eva went on to play football at Tulane and earn a law diploma. Up there high above Gravier Street, he remembers those golden Saturday afternoons on the playing fields. "I weighed 185 pounds and had a lot of acne." What he doesn't say, but there it is in the record, is that he was good enough to captain the Tulane football team. Mr. Talbot also sidesteps questions about his contribution to Tech football, which was again substantial, and tells about a game in Henderson, Arkansas. What Eva Talbot remembers, though, is that he met some girls in Hope, Arkansas on the way back to Ruston and missed the train home. "I had to call my father to come get me," he says. The elder Talbot took that call for help in Ruston, but the Talbot family first sunk roots in Dodson, near Winnfield. Dodson was literally saw-milled out of a timber boom in those piney-uplands and Dr. Talbot settled there as physician for a lumber company. Dr. Talbot was something of a pioneer medical and otherwise, in those days when north central Louisiana was still a frontier of sorts. The Talbots dug the community's first deep well and William Harry was the community's first born male. But with five children to rear, Dr. Talbot decided to move to Ruston, as Eva Talbot tells it, "mainly because we could get better schooling." What was Eva Talbot like in those childhood and growing-up years in Dodson and Ruston? His sister, Miss Lillian Talbot of Ruston, says that he was and is much like the father in that "he wanted to take care of all of us." Eva Talbot telephones his sister unfailingly every Sunday night. Louisiana Tech was the school for all six Talbot children because, as Mr. Talbot said from his conference room chair, "it was a good school." He remembers President Keeny, a gym, 20 demerits for missing class, and mechanical engineering equipment that was sometimes, to hear Eva Talbot tell it with a grin, used to "survey" the girls' dormitory. And, some years later, what does Eva Talbot think of Tech today: He just leans back and beams. "I'm tickled to death with Tech...I tell everybody frankly...you get a real education there...a real education...And the progress, it's amazing." The admiration, on the Tech side, is mutual. "He (Talbot) is something," says Tech President F. Jay Taylor. "Of course he is one our most outstanding graduates. We're just proud to claim him. But he has helped in so many ways." A lot of people have liked and admired Eva Talbot. Including Governors Jimmie Davis and Earl K. Long. Both these men, Louisiana legends, chose him to run their campaigns. And "Little Eva," this time crossing the political ice, was a winner both times, with Davis in '44 and Long in '48. We asked William Harry Talbot about Davis and Long. It was as if a movie projector lit up behind his eyes; the memories, marching swiftly, were almost visible in that moment. "Jimmie," Mr. Talbot remembers, "was the best vote-getter." Then came the slow Talbot smile, as he said "Every woman thought he was singing that song to her." The he was talking softly about the late Earl Kemp Long. "Earl knew every precinct in the state of Louisiana. He didn't have Huey's glamor, but he was a better politician." Though Mr. Talbot managed the two premier Louisiana politicians to victories, his own independence and integrity was obvious in the interview, and on the record. "After they (Long and Davis) got into office, I sure didn't go along with a lot the did." Though deeply involved in politics for much of his life, Eva Talbot never served on a single state payroll. But Eva Talbot's political life transcends Baton Rouge. Eva remembers the Democratic National Convention of 1944. It was there in Chicago that William Harry Talbot, as Vice-Chairman of the Louisiana Delegation, singlehandedly forced a caucus showdown that triggered a south wide rush to the vice- presidential banner of a Missourian named Harry S. Truman. It wasn't so much that Eva Talbot liked Harry Truman. He was just dead-set against a man he considered a dangerous radical, then Vice-President Henry Wallace. But Mr. Truman, soon to be President Truman, did not forget Eva Talbot's contribution. "Big fellow, I'll never forget you," was what Harry S. Truman said to Eva Talbot. A lot of people, on down the corridor of a half century career and on into the present and future, won't forget this "big fellow." And at Tech, that "good school" where it all started, William Harry "Eva" Talbot will again be the big fellow, the university's honored Alumnus of the Year, come November.