Camille Gravel - Friendship With The Kennedy Family

Friendship With The Kennedy Family

Former Louisiana state senator, gubernatorial candidate, secretary of state, and insurance commissioner James H. "Jim" Brown recalls how Gravel became friends with the Kennedys:

There is a marvelous story as to how Camille’s relationship with Kennedy infuriated then Governor Earl Long. The governor led a delegation that included Camille to the 1956 Democratic National Convention being held in Chicago. Kennedy was a candidate for vice president because the position had been thrown open by presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson. Earl Long supported Senator Estes Kefauver from Tennessee. The governor decided to leave the convention early, and gave instructions to Camille and Judge Edmund Reggie of Crowley and a future father-in-law of U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, to support Kefauver .

The Massachusetts delegation sat side by side with the Louisiana delegates, and Camille struck up a friendship with Kennedy. Despite Earl Long’s instructions, Camille supported Kennedy for vice president. Needless to say, the governor was infuriated. And so Camille damaged his relationship with the governor but made a lasting alliance with the man who would be president.

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