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Today in New Orleans History |
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December 29
While a student at Jesuit High
School, he wrote prep-school sports reports for his future employer, the New Orleans Times-Picayune. A 1924 Tulane
graduate, he was the first sports editor of the Tulane
Hullabaloo. Hébert pursued a career in public relations for Loyola University and
journalism for the Times-Picayune and the New Orleans States newspapers. As a front-page columnist and
political editor, he covered the candidacy and election of Governor Huey P. Long. Hébert's coverage of the Louisiana Hayride scandals of 1939 — which put a spotlight on corruption among followers of the Long political family — contributed to the eventual convictions of
Governor Richard W. Leche and James Monroe Smith, President of Louisiana
State University. The Times-Picayune won the Delta Sigma Chi plaque for "courage in journalism",
largely as a result of Hébert's work. Hébert's work also led to his election in 1940 to the 77th United States Congress. He served in the United States House of Representatives
until the end of the 94th United States Congress, having
chosen not to seek a nineteenth term in 1976. Hébert opposed
school desegregation and signed the Southern Manifesto in opposition to the United
States Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision
which moved against de jure segregation in seventeen states and
the District of Columbia. He was the chairman
of the United States House Committee on Armed Services from
1971–1975 but was removed from the chairmanship in a revolt of the increasingly young and liberal House Democratic Caucus against
the seniority system. Many of the younger Democrats
were not pleased when he addressed the new members from the Watergate
Class of 1974 as "boys and girls". They considered him too amenable to the Pentagon. Hébert is responsible for founding the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. Hébert died on December 29, 1979 in New Orleans and is buried in Lake Lawn Park Mausoleum. (Wiki)
December 29, 1939 WPA workers will grade and landscape the forty acres of land on which the
laboratory is located at 2100 Robert E. Lee Boulevard, construct curbs, gutters, walks & roadways (which had an eighteen
inch sand fill topped with six inches of shell and two inches of asphalt), and extend drainage facilities. Project
plans also called for the extension of 6,000 feet of water lines. The project was expected to require four months to complete
and is estimated to cost a total of $98,000. It was here that local scientists
developed wash-n-wear cotton, the predecessor of Permanent Press. Text and photo from the
New Orleans Public Library. |
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The Southern Regional Research Laboratory as viewed on April 23, 1941. The cornerstone had been set on December
29, 1939 in the 40 acre building site This area had formerly abutted the grounds of Spanish Fort amusement park and resort.
