De Lesseps Story Morrison
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deLesseps Story Morrison Sr., also known as Chep Morrison (January 18, 1912 – May 22, 1964), was an American attorney and politician who was the 54th
mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
of
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
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; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
,
Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
, from 1946 to 1961. He then served as an appointee of
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John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...
as the
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between 1961 and 1963. New Orleans' peak population was reached during Morrison's mayoralty, when the 1960 Census recorded 627,525 inhabitants, a 10 percent increase from
1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 cr ...
. Morrison ran three primary campaigns for the Louisiana Democratic
gubernatorial A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political_regions, political region, ranking under the Head of State, head of state and in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of ...
nomination, but was unsuccessful. Louisiana's
African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
had been effectively disfranchised by the turn of the 20th century; their initial preference for the Republican "Party of Lincoln", coupled with white voters' overwhelming support in the
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for the
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, meant that the Democratic primary was the only competitive election in the state.


Early life and education

Morrison was born to Jacob Haight Morrison, II (1875–1929), a
district attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...
in Pointe Coupee Parish, and his wife, the former Anita Olivier, a New Orleans socialite, in New Roads, the Pointe Coupee parish seat of government. He was named after deLesseps Story, a respected New Orleans
judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...
to whom he was related on his mother's side; the family was related to Ferdinand de Lesseps and Sidney Story, an alderman for whom the New Orleans area of Storyville was named. Morrison spoke French fluently. In 1932, Morrison graduated from
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in Baton Rouge. In 1934, he completed his law degree from the
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.


Law and political career

Morrison moved to New Orleans, where he became an attorney with the
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agency, the
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. Thereafter, he became a law partner with his brother Jacob Morrison and Thomas Hale Boggs Sr., a future Democratic
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and
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.


Marriage and family

In 1942, Morrison married Corinne Waterman of New Orleans. They had three children together. Their oldest son, deLesseps Story Morrison Jr., known as "Toni", became a politician like his father and was a Louisiana state representative from 1974 to 1980.


Military service

After graduation from college he was commissioned in the Army Reserve as a
Second Lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...
in 1933.Army R, D & A. V4 1962-1963
/ref> During World War II, Morrison left the state legislature to join the United States Army. He was promoted to the rank of colonel, and became chief of staff of the occupation forces stationed in the city of
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, Germany. He received the Bronze Star, the
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and also served in England, France, and Belgium. In 1944, both he and Bill Dodd were reelected to the legislature ''in absentia'' by their constituents. He served on active duty from 1941 to 1946. He was also decorated with the Legion of Honour and the Belgian
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. After the war, Morrison returned to New Orleans to practice law. Continuing with the U.S. Army Reserve in 1946, he attained the rank of Major General.Army reserve magazine. v.6/10
/ref> His reserve career included serving as the commanding general of the 377th Transportation Command and later Deputy Chief of the Transportation Corps within the United States Department of the Army.


Election as mayor

Morrison was approached by a group of
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reformers in December 1945 to run for mayor in the election of 1946. The attractive and dynamic young veteran ran a campaign emphasizing the need to clean up the corruption of incumbent Mayor Robert Maestri, who had been affiliated with Huey Long and the Earl Long
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of Louisiana Democratic politics. Maestri's
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had dominated New Orleans for decades. Morrison pulled a major upset when he defeated Maestri in the first primary. Historian Pamela Tyler notes that outside of New Orleans Morrison's surprise victory was attributed to the role of women. The International Women's Organization, (IWO) under the leadership of July Breazeale Waters (1895–1989) registered voters, became poll watcher, canvassed, distributed literature and signs and got out the vote on election day on behalf of Morrison. One notable event planned by women that moved the electorate was the "March of Brooms" whose theme was, "A Clean Sweep with Morrison." The IWO and the
Broom Brigade A broom brigade was a type of military-style women's drill team that marched with brooms instead of rifles. Drilling was a popular form of exercise at the time, when participation in sports was largely restricted to men. They were popular in Amer ...
were key to Morrison's victory, with the Christian Science Monitor stating, "The women of New Orleans elected deLesseps S. Morrison." He was among many returning World War II veterans to gain political office during that period.


Morrison as mayor

As mayor, Morrison put together a strong public relations team, which helped him cultivate an image as a dynamic reformer and of the city as a progressive one. He gained widespread praise in the national press. Morrison marketed the city effectively, and was instrumental in creating the post-World War II image of New Orleans as a growing and progressive
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metropolis. His administration attracted significant private investment and welcomed the establishment of numerous oil industry and white-collar corporate offices in downtown New Orleans, as well as several sizable new industrial plants elsewhere. To emphasize his differences from his predecessor, whom he had characterized as dictatorial, Morrison worked to get a law passed to reduce the powers of the mayor. He created a new city planning commission and moved to make administration more efficient by firing many of Maestri's
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appointments (though some were replaced with Morrison's own supporters). Morrison downsized city operations by selling off most of the city's public markets. Most were torn down, which was regretted later as costing the city valuable community centers. He addressed a housing crisis by building veterans' housing operated by the Housing Authority of New Orleans, and engaged in more large-scale
urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...
than any other New Orleans mayor. Morrison's administration demolished low-income neighborhoods to build new or expand existing public housing projects, expropriated private property to construct the New Orleans Civic Center, the New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal, and several street-widening projects in the city's downtown. One of his most popular acts was to create the New Orleans Recreation Department (NORD), which included segregated facilities for whites and blacks (all public facilities were segregated in those years). He began an extensive citywide street improvement program financed though a bond issue, and located funding sufficient to construct numerous street overpasses and underpasses, eliminating most at-grade railway crossings within the city limits. Morrison acquiesced in New Orleans Public Service's dismantling of the city's extensive streetcar network in the 1950s. A proponent of increased international trade, Morrison lent his support to the construction of the International Trade Mar, a precursor to the city's World Trade Center. He traveled extensively in Latin America to promote trade with New Orleans. He became friends with dictators
Rafael Trujillo Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina ( , ; 24 October 189130 May 1961), nicknamed ''El Jefe'' (, "The Chief" or "The Boss"), was a Dominican dictator who ruled the Dominican Republic from February 1930 until his assassination in May 1961. He ser ...
and
Juan Perón Juan Domingo Perón (, , ; 8 October 1895 – 1 July 1974) was an Argentine Army general and politician. After serving in several government positions, including Minister of Labour and Vice President of a military dictatorship, he was elected P ...
. Morrison's wish to reinforce ties with Latin America was expressed in such urban renewal projects as having new central area circulators embellished with monuments to Central and South American historical figures. The widened
Basin Street Basin Street or Rue Bassin in French, is a street in New Orleans, Louisiana. It parallels Rampart Street one block lakeside, or inland, from the boundary of the French Quarter, running from Canal Street down 5 blocks past Saint Louis Cemetery. It c ...
was outfitted with monuments to
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, Benito Juárez, and Francisco Morazán. A statue of Bolívar was prominently sited and still stands at the corner of Canal and Basin streets. A new circulator in
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was renamed
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Avenue. Despite running on a platform stressing the elimination of the Old Regular machine, after his election Morrison quickly built his own political organization, the Crescent City Democratic Association. The CCDA began finding its supporters jobs in City Hall and in municipal construction contracts. In October 1946, Morrison broke a garbage collectors' strike by organizing volunteer scab labor to take over the duties of the strikers. Morrison's organization's power quickly eclipsed that of the Old Regulars, and he secured easy re-elections in 1950, 1954, and 1958. Morrison pushed for a new city charter in 1954, which replaced the at-large council commission system with a legislative city council combining five district-based and two at-large members. The system of municipal government established by the 1954 charter still operates in New Orleans. The charter limited the mayor to two consecutive four-year terms, but did not apply to Morrison, who was exempted by a grandfather clause.


Morrison, crime, and the NOPD

After assuming office in 1946, Morrison appointed Adair Watters superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) in an effort to eliminate corruption. But tensions developed when Watters moved to suppress gambling,
prostitution Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in Sex work, sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, n ...
, and other vice too zealously for Morrison's liking. Watters resigned in February 1949 because of Morrison's political interference with NOPD activities. Throughout most of the 1950s, scandals continued to be revealed concerning the involvement of the NOPD in graft and vice. In 1952, the Metropolitan Crime Commission of New Orleans was established as an independent monitor of the NOPD and the Morrison administration's approach to vice. State Police Colonel
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, later a two-time gubernatorial candidate, led a series of high-profile raids on New Orleans gambling establishments that embarrassed Morrison and the NOPD for its inactivity. Eventually, retired FBI Agent Aaron M. Kohn was sent from Chicago to investigate NOPD involvement in vice. Kohn later recalled:
After about a year, I began to realize something about the system down here. In Chicago, people were generally on one side of the fence or the other—honest or crooked. But in Louisiana, there just isn't any fence."
He soon complained that Morrison was obstructing his efforts. In 1955, Morrison forced the mayor to ask for Schuering's resignation.


Morrison and race

Early in his administration, Morrison supported the construction of a suburban-style black neighborhood named Pontchartrain Park, built public housing for low-income blacks, and spent money on street and
infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...
improvements in black neighborhoods. NORD built playgrounds,
swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...
s, and recreational centers for
African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
. These actions earned him the enmity of hard-line segregationists. In 1950, he oversaw the NOPD's hiring of its first black policeman since the advent of the
Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
era in the late 19th century. These measures aside, Morrison remained committed to segregation and was known to use racial slurs in private conversations. The facilities he built in black neighborhoods were segregated and received inferior funding compared to civic projects in white neighborhoods. Historian Adam Fairclough interprets Morrison's building programs for blacks as a way of "shoring up segregation" by defusing dissatisfaction with inferior facilities. Many black leaders found him sympathetic but unwilling to take more meaningful action to address their concerns. Morrison's approach to race relations increasingly fell behind the times as the Civil Rights Movement gained momentum. In his 1959 gubernatorial runoff contest, Morrison proclaimed his support for segregation and noted that New Orleans was at that time the least racially mixed of the large southern cities. He boasted that he had been sued by the
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over his segregationist policies in the city. New Orleans gained national attention in the fall of 1960 during the
New Orleans school desegregation crisis The New Orleans school desegregation crisis was a period of intense public resistance in New Orleans following the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in ''Brown v. Board of Education'' that racial segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. ...
as the city's school board implemented a federal
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order for its
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. Four black students entered two white schools, McDonogh No. 19 Elementary School and
William Frantz Elementary School William Frantz Elementary School is an American elementary school located at 3811 North Galvez Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, 70117. Along with McDonogh No. 19 Elementary School, it was involved in the New Orleans school desegregation crisis d ...
, in the city's
Ninth Ward The Ninth Ward or 9th Ward is a distinctive region of New Orleans, Louisiana, which is located in the easternmost downriver portion of the city. It is geographically the largest of the 17 Wards of New Orleans. On the south, the Ninth Ward is bound ...
, but were greeted outside with mobs of white women and youths screaming racial slurs and throwing bottles and refuse. While Morrison did not join Governor
Jimmie Davis James Houston Davis (September 11, 1899 – November 5, 2000) was an American politician, singer and songwriter of both sacred and popular songs. Davis was elected for two nonconsecutive terms from 1944 to 1948 and from 1960 to 1964 as the ...
' drive to prevent integration by shutting the schools down, he did nothing to prevent the intimidating segregationist demonstrations. The NOPD passively stood by while mobs heckled parents bringing their children to school, but at the same time, police arrested civil rights activists holding lunch counter sit-ins in the city.Citation Needed Morrison's lack of action stemmed from his political need to avoid alienating black supporters while publicly retaining a segregationist stance to satisfy whites. His position resulted in criticism from both sides; black New Orleanians and supporters of civil rights felt he had betrayed them, while hard-line segregationists accused him of supporting integration. Ultimately, his fence-straddling on civil rights contributed significantly to the fatigue and disenchantment with which the citizenry received his administration's actions in its final years – a sharp contrast with the comparatively ebullient 1950s. Morrison's leadership failures on civil rights did much to compromise his earlier achievements. This resulted in New Orleans being more poorly positioned socially and economically for the post-Civil Rights era than its (at that time) peer cities such as Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas.


Louisiana Gubernatorial Election of 1956

The current lieutenant governor, C. E. "Cap" Barham of
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, ran unsuccessfully with Morrison in a bid for a second term in the second-highest state office. The two proposed a "New look" for Louisiana politics. In his stump speeches, Morrison often reminded his listeners that all state programs came from taxes and not everything one might prefer could be adopted. Yet he usually mentioned projects important to local voters.


Gubernatorial election of 1960

Other Morrison ticket candidates lost too, including George W. Shannon for Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry, Fred Columbus Dent Sr., for register of state land, David Wallace Chennault, son of General Claire Chennault, for custodian of voting machines, Mrs. Marion Henderson of Colfax, Grant Parish for state comptroller, and R. W. "Tom" Farrar Jr., for state attorney general. In an appearance in
Shreveport Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population o ...
, Country music star Minnie Pearl campaigned for Morrison, rather than fellow entertainer Jimmie Davis. Morrison carried the endorsement of three of the four Louisiana
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chapters, with only the Lake Charles branch remaining neutral in the runoff election against Davis.


Gubernatorial election of 1964


Declining political fortunes

By his final term as mayor, Morrison's luster had faded somewhat. Some of his ideas, such as the unsuccessful 1959 proposal for a monorail, were met with widespread opposition. He moved surprisingly slowly to construct a passenger terminal for New Orleans' international airport; for its first thirteen years of operation New Orleanians departed from a glorified barn while its regional economic rivals invested in constructing modern facilities. Morrison failed to keep the Pelicans baseball team in New Orleans. The energy that had characterized his early years in office seemed thoroughly dissipated. Former political allies such as City Councilman and future Lieutenant Governor James Edward "Jimmy" Fitzmorris Jr., began to express their independence and positioned themselves for a future without Morrison. In the aftermath of the school integration crisis, Morrison's political future was uncertain. He was the first of many New Orleans mayors to try to amend the 1954 city charter to allow a third consecutive term as mayor, but did not succeed. Seeking a political base from which to stage another run for governor, he approached the
John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...
administration and was appointed Ambassador to the
Organization of American States The Organization of American States (OAS; es, Organización de los Estados Americanos, pt, Organização dos Estados Americanos, french: Organisation des États américains; ''OEA'') is an international organization that was founded on 30 April ...
on July 17, 1961. In a further sign of his declining political fortunes, his chosen candidate for mayor in the New Orleans election of 1962 – State Senator
Adrian G. Duplantier Adrian Guy Duplantier Sr. (March 5, 1929 – August 15, 2007) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. He served as a Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate, represent ...
– lost the Democratic runoff to Victor Schiro.


Death

Four months after his final election defeat, Morrison and his son, Randy, died on May 22, 1964, in a plane crash in
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.


The Morrison family

Morrison married Corinne on October 3, 1942. Mrs. Morrison (born August 17, 1921) died at the age of thirty-seven on February 26, 1959, just a few months before her husband launched his second gubernatorial bid. The Morrisons' seven-year-old son, John Randolph Waterman "Randy" Morrison (born September 24, 1956), died with his father in the 1964 plane crash. The Morrisons' daughter, Corinne Ann Morrison (born 1947), became an attorney and practiced in New Orleans. Their elder son, deLesseps Story Morrison Jr. (1944–1996), who like his father was elected to the state house, ran unsuccessfully for mayor in the
1977 New Orleans mayoral election The New Orleans mayoral election of 1977 resulted in the election of Ernest Morial as the first African-American mayor of New Orleans. Background Elections in Louisiana—with the exception of U.S. presidential elections—follow a variation ...
. DeLesseps Jr. died of lung cancer on August 21, 1996. Both father and son died at age 52. All four Morrisons are buried at Metairie Cemetery in
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
. After his wife's death, Morrison was frequently seen in the company of Hungarian-born actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, who expressed a special fondness for New Orleans, which she considered "the most European" of American cities.
Jimmy Fitzmorris James Edward Fitzmorris Jr. (November 15, 1921 – June 30, 2021) was an American politician who served on the New Orleans City Council from 1954 to 1966 and as Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana The lieutenant governor of Louisiana (french: Lie ...
, later lieutenant governor of Louisiana, recalled that "The ladies loved him. Chep was sort of an outgoing personality, had a contagious smile, and was able to captivate a lot of people. Most people that met Chep couldn't help but like him." Morrison later dismissed the notion that his interest in Gabor was serious though Jimmie Davis questioned the relationship in the 1959 gubernatorial race. In 1963, Gabor wed businessman
Herbert Hutner Herbert Loeb Hutner (December 21, 1908 – December 7, 2008) was an American private investment banker, attorney and philanthropist. Early life Hutner was born on December 21, 1908, in New York City.The Associated PressHerbert L. Hutner, Arts Ad ...
while Morrison was making his third unsuccessful run for governor a year before his own death. Gabor, who married nine times, lived until 2016. In 1995, the senior deLesseps Morrison was inducted posthumously into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in
Winnfield Winnfield is a small city in, and the parish seat of, Winn Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 5,749 at the 2000 census, and 4,840 in 2010. Three governors of the state of Louisiana were from Winnfield.
, the home base of the Longs.Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame entry
, cityofwinnfield.com; accessed September 16, 2014.


See also

* Timeline of New Orleans, 1940s–1960s


Citations


Notes


References

*
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, ''Readings in Louisiana Politics'' (1975) includes a study of Morrison's three failed gubernatorial campaigns. * "DeLesseps Story Morrison", ''A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography'', publication of the Louisiana Historical Association (1988), p. 585 * Fairclough, Adam. ''Race and Democracy: The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana, 1915–1972''. University of Georgia Press, 1995. * Gardner, James C. ''Jim Gardner and Shreveport, Vol. II''. Shreveport: Ritz Publications, 2006, pp. 43–44. * Haas, Edward F. ''DeLesseps S. Morrison and the Image of Reform: New Orleans Politics, 1946–60.'' Louisiana State University Press, 1974. *


Links


Profile
nutrias.org; accessed September 18, 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Morrison, deLesseps Story 1912 births 1964 deaths Businesspeople from Louisiana United States Army personnel of World War II Louisiana State University alumni Louisiana State University Law Center alumni Louisiana lawyers Mayors of New Orleans Democratic Party members of the Louisiana House of Representatives National Recovery Administration People from New Roads, Louisiana Permanent Representatives of the United States to the Organization of American States United States Army generals Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Mexico Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1964 20th-century American lawyers Burials at Metairie Cemetery Catholics from Louisiana 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American businesspeople Recipients of the Legion of Merit Recipients of the Legion of Honour