Buddy Roemer - Early Life, Education, and Early Career

Early Life, Education, and Early Career

Buddy Roemer was born on October 4, 1943, in Shreveport to Charles Elson "Budgie" Roemer, II (December 11, 1923 - July 2012) and the former Adeline McDade. Roemer's maternal grandfather, Ross McDade, married a sister of former Shreveport Mayor James C. Gardner's maternal grandmother. Gardner knew Roemer's grandfather as "Uncle Ross". However, McDade's wife died, and he remarried, from which union came Adeline Roemer. Roemer and Gardner were not close politically.

Roemer was reared on the Scopena plantation near Bossier City. He attended public schools and graduated as valedictorian of Bossier High School in 1960. He graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics in 1964 and received an MBA in finance from Harvard Business School in 1967.

After college, Roemer returned to Louisiana to work in his father’s computer business and later founded two banks. He was elected in 1972 as a delegate to the Louisiana Constitutional Convention held in 1973. Among the Shreveport-area delegates who served with Roemer was his future gubernatorial advisor Robert G. Pugh, future U.S. District Judge Tom Stagg, and former Louisiana State Representative Frank Fulco.

Roemer's father had been Edwin Washington Edwards' campaign manager in 1971, and became commissioner of administration during Edwards' first term as governor. Buddy Roemer worked on the Edwards campaign as a regional leader and later started a political consulting firm.