Obituaries of OCTOBER 1985 Thibodaux, Lafourche Parish, La. Daily Comet, Lafourche Parish, La. Submitted by: Chris Tidwell, 29 Aug 2014 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. ********************************************** The date preceding the obituary is the date of the newspaper, not the date of death. ============================================================================ Oct 14, 1985 Former Congressman dies Numa Montet Numa Francois Montet, former U.S. representative, state senator, assistant district attorney and prominent Thibodaux attorney for more than 50 years, died Saturday at the age of 93 after a week-long bout with pneumonia. Funeral services for Montet were set for 10 a.m. today at St. Joseph Co-Cathedral. Burial was to be at Assumption Catholic Cemetery in Plattenville. Montet's law and political career dates back to 1913 and spanned some of the most tumultuous days in Louisiana's political history, the heyday of Huey Long. Montet began his career as an ally of Long and ran for his congressional seat on the Long ticket. But they later had a falling out when Long moved from the governor's mansion to the U.S. Senate in 1932. Montet was born Sept. 19, 1892, in Assumption Parish. He attended Louisiana Normal College (now Northwestern State University) in Natchitoches and was graduated from Tulane Law School in 1913, in the same class as the late U.S. Sen. Allen J. Ellender of Houma. His political career was launched shortly after he obtained his law degree when he was elected to the state Senate where he served from 1916-1920. During those years, his law practice also flourished. He was said to have the largest civil and criminal law practice in the Thibodaux area by the late 1920s. In 1929 he won a seat in Congress representing Louisiana's Third Congressional District. He was then a supporter of the state's controversial governor Huey Long. But Montet would later become a member of the anti-Long faction of a half-dozen Louisiana congressmen who put their allegiance to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in writing, bucking Long's ambitions for the presidency. His son Marcus Monet, said his father spoke little of his relationship with Long. “He didn't really tell me much about it,” the younger Montet said. "In the last few months I was trying to edge him on because I really wanted to know."He said one thing his father did tell him: "When he and Huey Long finally had it out, he physically chased Huey around the library at LSU.”Montet was one of the political leaders present at the 1935 state Democratic caucus at the DeSoto Hotel in New Orleans at which loyalist Democrats attempted to pick a slate of State officers to oppose the Long ticket and support Roosevelt for re-election as president. By, that time, Long had cooled on Roosevelt as the national leader of the Democratic party and had begun talking of running for president against him. Marcus Montet said that leaders of the anti-Long coalition urged him to run for governor against Long's hand-picked candidate, but Montet declined. Montet served in Congress until 1937. He returned to public life in the 1950s when he served as assistant district attorney for the 17th Judicial District, then encompassing both Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes. He retired from his law practice in 1967. Upon his retirement he was honored by the Lafourche Bar Association for his many years of service to the profession. In addition to his membership in the parish and state bar associations, Montet was a member of the E.D. White High School Cardinal Club and the Young Men's Benevolent Association of Thibodaux. Marcus Montet said his father loved Thibodaux. "He had to go uptown all the time and make his rounds among all the public offices. He maintained the routine until he was stricken with pneumonia during the past week. U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin of Thibodaux, who now holds the 3rd Congressional Seat once held by Montet, said he learned from Montet."I bought out his law library when I got Out of law school," he said. Tauzin said the library contained information from Montet's tenure in Congress. "He was a pretty tough fellow," Tauzin recalled, "at least the outward appearance, being tough and gruff. But when you got to know him, he was a pretty nice fellow. He made a pretty tough (assistant) district attorney.""He was very gruff and straight-forward," Marcus Montet agreed. “You always knew where he stood." Montet is survived-by two sons, N. Forrest Montet of Atlanta and Marcus Montet of Thibodaux and one daughter, Laura Lee Montet-Mackie of New Orleans. He is also survived by seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild. He was preceded in death by his wives Angelle Morvant Montet and Virginia Blakeman Montet; two daughters Edwina and Willa Mae Montet, one granddaughter and a great-granddaughter. At his request, pall bearers were to be Clay Toups, Robert D. Morvant, Tommy Blanchard, Bobby Montet, Paul Lagraize and P. Michael Blakeman. Honorary pall bearers include retired Judge P. Davis Martinez, Benny Blakeman, Lester Soignet, Ruby Autin, Dewey Broussard, Ralph Clay and Leo Gros. In lieu of flowers, the family requested donations to the E.D. White Catholic High Endowment Fund in memory of Numa F. Montet.