News:Long's Doctors Report; Winn Par., Louisiana
Submitter: Shawn Martin
Source: Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas
Date: 01 Mar 2008
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Dallas Morning News, 6/30/1959
Long’s Doctors Call His Troubles Nerves
By Jack Warner
   Covington, La. (UPI)—Gov. Earl K. Long’s psychiatrists 
diagnosed his ailment Monday night as a nervous breakdown 
brought on by overwork and aggravated by a stroke and heart 
trouble.
   Long, 63, sat in the motel room he is using for a 
temporary state capitol and listened to Dr. Robert Heath 
explain, for himself and two other psychiatrists, what was 
wrong with Long when he was committed to three mental wards.
   “You might as well sign that ‘EKL—out of exile,’” Long 
said as Dr. Heath finished.
   Long returned from a weekend at his farm in Winnfield, 
La., Monday, and after dining on catfish had the 
psychiatrists in to examine him.
   Dr. Heath said he and his colleagues had discovered that 
Long, 63, suffered a small stroke or series of strokes—a 
rupture of blood vessels in the brain.
   The strokes were so small that they produced no immediate 
dramatic effects or paralysis.
   “It is not uncommon to see strokes accompanied by 
accelerated emotional symptoms,” Dr. Heath said.
   “In lay terms, eliminating the additional complications 
of a stroke, this is commonly recognized as a nervous 
breakdown brought on by overwork.”
   (Long interrupted, “You can say it was over-enthusiasm.”)
   “Governor Long’s heart is still suffering from the after-
effects of the heart attack he had in 1950, and, should it 
fail under strain, as it has to a degree, there may be a 
transient increase in mental symptoms, due to impaired 
circulation in the brain.”
   “At present, the governor is rational; there is no 
intellectual impairment.  It is too early to make a final 
prognosis.
   “. . .We agre with the governor that he is in better 
health mentally than physically.
   “Listen to me, listen to me,” Long said, “If your wife 
disliked you or vice versa, it’s just like one, two, three, 
First one gets to the courthouse gets the other one in jail.”
   Long meant his wife Blanche, from whom he has filed for 
legal separation and whom he intends to divorce.  He blames 
her for having him put in the psychiatric ward of John 
Sealey Hospital in Galveston, Texas, May 30, and later in 
two other mental hospitals.
   When the psychiatrist mentioned stroke, long broke in 
with:  “I want you to know that I respect these men and 
they’re doing what they think best, but I highly disagree.  
I never had a stroke in all my life.”
   It took long nine hours Monday to make it in his official 
Cadillac from Winnfield to Covington, a total of about 200 
miles.  Long revealed that he stopped at Vidalia, La., on 
the Mississippi River, to make 22 telephone calls.