News: Long Raps Wife, Old Colleagues; Winn Par., Louisiana
Submitter: Shawn Martin
Source: Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas
Date: 01 Mar 2008
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Dallas Morning News, 6/29/1959
Long Raps Wife, Old Colleagues
   WINNFIELD, La. (AP)—Louisiana Gov. Earl K. Long loaded 
both barrels Sunday and took shots at his wife, old 
political colleagues and indicated a special session of the 
Legislature would be called.
   The tempestuous 63 year old governor held a 15 minute 
press conference on the back porch of “my pea patch farm.”
   He took his wife—missing from Louisiana since early this 
week—to task for her part in having him committed to two 
mental hospitals.
   “She’s gone to a resort to cool off” he said, “and she’s 
sorry she can’t come back to get more of my salary.”
   The governor didn’t indicate where his wife (Blanche) 
might be, or even if he knew where she was.
   “I would have divorced her long before now,” he said, 
dressed in pajamas and bathrobe, ringed by newsmen, “if I 
hadn’t been in politics.”
   But he said some politicians have been hurt by divorce 
and others have been helped by it “and I hope I am one of 
the.”
   He indicated a shakeup in the State Department of Public 
Welfare was upcoming, although he said he had heard different 
reports on the department’s director, Mrs. Mary Evelyn 
Dickerson Parker.
   He left little doubt that he would remove Theo Cangelosi, 
his long-time political friend and legal advisor, as chairman 
of the board of supervisors at Louisiana State University.
   “He doublecrossed me,” Long snapped, “he represented both 
me and my wife.  I’m going to get rid of him if I can.”
   Dr. Paul Pratt, Long’s attending physician, tried to limit 
the press conference, but he had trouble checking Long once 
the governor got started.
   “Mentally, I’m at my best,” he said, “but physically, I’m 
at my worst.”
   He criticized the state mental hospital at Mandeville where 
he spent eight days before his release last Friday.  Earlier, 
he spent 16 days at a Galveston, Texas, psychiatric clinic.
   “There’s more bunk at Mandeville than any one house can 
hold,” he said.  The governor indicated earlier he would take 
further action into the state hospitals department.  He fired 
two of the department’s top men Friday.