Fun Fact Friday with Special Collections
Fri, 01/12/2024 - 12:17pm
We are highlighting Collection 219, Dudley J. LeBlanc Collection.
LeBlanc was an entrepreneur. He started an ironing business in college, which by graduation (from SLII) was a flourishing tailor shop. He later sold tobacco, shoes, patent medicine, launched a very successful burial-insurance company and a headache-remedy company. He was probably most famous for the invention, distribution and promotion of HADACOL, a vitamin/mineral supplement.
LeBlanc was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1924. He was a member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission starting in 1926 and served as state senator, 1940-1944, 1948-1952, and 1964-1968. He ran for Governor twice but never won the elections.
LeBlanc was proud of his Cajun heritage and authored two books: The True Story of the Acadians (1927, revised 1932) and The Acadian Miracle (1966). He organized several pilgrimages to Acadia/Nova Scotia, taking young women dressed as Evangeline to represent the various communities in Acadiana.
For more information on Dudley LeBlanc come in for a visit.
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