Editing Edwin Edwards (section)

==Early life and career==
Edwin Washington Edwards was born in rural [[Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana|Avoyelles Parish]], near [[Marksville, Louisiana|Marksville]], on August 7, 1927.<ref name = NYTObit>{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/12/us/politics/edwin-edwards-dead.html|title = Edwin Edwards, Flamboyant Louisiana Governor, Is Dead at 93|last = McFadden|first = Robert D.|authorlink = Robert D. McFadden|date = July 12, 2021|accessdate = July 12, 2021|work = [[The New York Times]]}}</ref> His father, Clarence Edwards, was a half-[[Louisiana Creole|French Creole]]<ref>{{cite web|date=2021-07-12|title=Former Gov. Edwin Edwards has died at 93|url=https://www.katc.com/news/covering-louisiana/former-gov-edwin-edwards-has-died-at-93|access-date=2021-07-12|website=KATC|language=en}}</ref> [[Presbyterian]] [[sharecropping|sharecropper]], while his mother, the former Agnès Brouillette, was a French-speaking [[Roman Catholic]]. Edwards' ancestors were among early Louisiana colonists from France who eventually settled in Avoyelles Parish, referred to as the original French Creoles.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.avoyelles.com |title=Avoyelles Family Name Origins |last1=DeCuir |first1=Randy |date=September 12, 1996 |access-date=May 17, 2015}}</ref> Edwards, like many 20th century politicians from Avoyelles, assumed that he had Cajun ancestry, when in fact he may have had none. His father was descended from a family in [[Kentucky]], who came to Louisiana during the [[American Civil War]]. His great-great-grandfather, William Edwards, was killed in Marksville at the beginning of the American Civil War because of his pro-Union sentiment.<ref name="William Edwards">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1862/07/13/news/funeral-lieut-dekay-disgraceful-exhibitions-rebel-sympathizers-resistance-cotton.html |title=The Funeral of Lieut. Dekay Disgraceful Exhibitions by the Rebel Sympathizers Resistance to Cotton-Burning-Shameful Outrages-Louisiana in the State of Anarchy. |date=July 13, 1862 |access-date=August 19, 2015 |work=The New York Times}}</ref>

The young Edwards had planned on a career as a preacher. As a young man, he did some preaching for the Marksville [[Church of the Nazarene]]. He served briefly in the [[U.S. Navy Air Corps]] near the end of [[World War II]]. After his return from the military, he graduated at the age of twenty-one from [[Louisiana State University Law Center]] and began practicing law in [[Crowley, Louisiana|Crowley]], the seat of [[Acadia Parish, Louisiana|Acadia Parish]]. He relocated there in 1949 after his sister, Audrey E. Isbell, who had moved there with her husband, told him there were few French-speaking attorneys in the southwestern Louisiana community.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Edwards entered politics through election to the Crowley City Council in 1954.<ref name=returnguv>{{cite web |url=http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/return-of-the-guv-20140711 |title=Return of the Guv |work=[[National Journal]] |author=Eric Benson |date=July 12, 2014 |access-date=September 4, 2014}}</ref> He was a member of the [[United States Democratic Party|Democratic Party]] which, in that era, had a monopoly on public offices in Louisiana, but which fell out of favor in the late 20th century. Edwards remained on the Crowley council until his election to the [[Louisiana State Senate]] in 1964; in that race he defeated, in a major political upset in the Democratic primary, the incumbent [[Bill Cleveland]], a Crowley businessman who had served for twenty years in both houses of the Louisiana legislature. Years later as governor, Edwards appointed Cleveland's daughter, Willie Mae Fulkerson (1924–2009), a former member of the Crowley City Council, to the Louisiana Board of Prisons.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.geesey-ferguson.com/memsol.cgi?user_id=786248|title=Willie Mae Cleveland Fulkerson Life Legacy|publisher=geesey-ferguson.com|date=September 15, 2009|access-date=March 6, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402170253/http://www.geesey-ferguson.com/memsol.cgi?user_id=786248|archive-date=April 2, 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>