J. D. de Blieux - Family and Legacy

Family and Legacy

DeBlieux closed his law practice in December 1997. He was predeceased by his wife of forty-six years, the former Dorothy Lepine (November 18, 1916 – December 30, 1993), and their adopted son, Paul Louis DeBlieux (September 11, 1952 – September 6, 1998), who died of renal failure five days before his 46th birthday.

In his last years, DeBliex moved to a convalescent home in Mer Rouge in Morehouse Parish, where he was tended by a sister, Alma D. Honeycutt (born 1923), a retired postmaster in Mer Rouge. DeBlieux died of Alzheimer's disease. DeBlieux was a distant cousin of Robert DeBlieux, who served as mayor of Natchitoches from 1976 to 1980. An active Roman Catholic who attended mass daily, DeBlieux was once cited for his spiritual convictions by Pope John Paul II.

DeBlieux was a former recipient of the "Racial Justice Award" given by the Baton Rouge chapter of the Young Women's Christian Association. On April 2, 2008, DeBlieux was, along with former Judge and 1952 gubernatorial candidate Carlos Spaht and former Register of the State Lands Ellen Bryan Moore, honored posthumously by the annual Louisiana Governor's Prayer Breakfast. DeBlieux's funeral mass was celebrated on March 16, 2005, at St. Joseph Cathedral in Baton Rouge. The DeBlieuxes are interred in Resthaven Gardens of Memory in Baton Rouge.

Camille F. Gravel, Jr., the Alexandria attorney who was a confidant of three governors and who himself died nine months after DeBlieux's death, referred to his friend, accordingly: "This may sound overblown, but there aren't enough ways for me to describe what a fine man J.D. DeBlieux . He had courage in his handling of public matters..." Gravel, who was with DeBlieux at the 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, recalled that two crosses were burned on DeBlieux's property in Baton Rouge during the desegregation crisis, but DeBlieux stood his ground.

Victor V. Bussie, former president of the Louisiana AFL-CIO, said that DeBlieux would not only vote for liberal measures before the Senate but "speak out, which was very unusual. Some others would vote that way but not carry the fight by speaking out. J.D. did both."

Smiley Anders, the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate columnist, wrote on DeBlieux's death that the former lawmaker was "a small man with glasses and a high voice. But in the state Senate in the 1950s, his was the lone voice crying out for racial justice. Today, it's hard to imagine the kind of courage required to take a stand for civil rights in those days. Segregationists ran the state, and bad things could happen to people who supported ... voting rights for African Americans. J.D.'s support of civil rights didn't help his political career, and no doubt didn't help his law practice. Being ahead of your time can be a costly business. His stubborn advocacy of equal rights for all Louisiana people caused the first crack in the solid wall of segregation. J.D. said what he believed needed to be said, at a time when few people wanted to hear it. His stand was not only right—it was heroic."