Robert F. Kennon - Bill Dodd's Eulogy of Kennon

Bill Dodd's Eulogy of Kennon

One of Kennon's 1951 primary opponents, Bill Dodd, offered this eulogy in the form of a letter to the editor of the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate on the passing of Kennon:

"As a personal friend and colleague of one whose death deserves more than a routine news story and a short obituary, I am writing this letter in the hope that its contents will be made available to the citizens of Louisiana.

"Recently, Louisiana lost one of its greatest citizens, Robert F. "Bob" Kennon. He was the kind of person most often mentioned in sermons as a role model for those seeking perfection in their daily lives. Also he was the kind of politician professors of government describe as a good public official.

"In both his personal and public life, he proved that the preachers and the political science professors were right.

"At LSU, he was an honor student, colonel of the cadet corps, and a varsity football player. As a young lawyer, he was successful in his practice of law, which led him into politics, {and} he became mayor of Minden, a district attorney, a District Court of Appeals judge, and a Supreme Court judge.

"When World War II came, though married and the father of young children, he volunteered into the U.S. Army and served with distinction, at home and overseas in Europe.

"Bob Kennon was elected governor of Louisiana in 1952. During his tenure as governor, he reenacted Civil Service for state employees, put voting machines in every voting precinct (which ended vote stealing forever) and took slot machines and gambling out of Louisiana.

"Instead of running up deficits, Governor Kennon ended each fiscal year with a surplus and was the only governor I can recall who actually reduced taxes.

"For his four years, there were not only no scandals in state government, but there were no hints of wrongdoing by the governor or his department heads.

"From 1952 until he went out of office {1956}, Governor Kennon, his lovely and gracious wife, and three fine sons lived in the Governor's Manson and made it a real home for the first family as well as a model for the whole state.

"Governor Kennon's appointments were men and women of the highest moral standards and possessed of excellent government experience. Like their governor, they regarded their public offices as public trusts.

"Governor Kennon was never tried and acquitted of wrongdoing because he didn't break the law or do anything suggesting he ever acted illegally or even unethically. He never spent any time with AA or in a CDU for he didn't drink alcohol and didn't snort cocaine. And when he took trips on boats, he went fishing or to a hunting camp with his boys and not to a hideaway like Bimini. His family was exemplary and made no waves that called for suppressing hospital or police records or anything else.

"Perhaps the fact that Kennon was honest and efficient and ran the state and his life according to the laws of God and man, he missed out on the press coverage that goes to those who have to be rehabilitated and forgiven for their unethical and illegal conduct; coverage that often praises those rascals for their courage and fortitude to face the public after disgracing themselves and their friends who elected them.

"Whatever the reason for Governor Kennon's lack of recognition for having been a model father, soldier, judge, and governor, the cold base record shows that he was exactly the kind of man the public, the preachers, and the press say they want but seldom get in the governor's office.

"Bob Kennon was, with all his success, a humble man and, if living, he would not want credit for what he did. He regarded his going a good job as his duty, and Bob was a man who always did his duty. . . ."