My father, Edmund M. Reggie, grew up in the small Cajun town of Crowley, La. After he was elected judge at 24 years old, he became a political insider and champion of civil rights in Louisiana.
Dad first met Senator John F. Kennedy at the 1956 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Three years later, he introduced Jack and Jackie at the International Rice Festival in Crowley. The Kennedys were a big hit at the festival. But the real show stopper was Jackie; she chose to make her speech in French, and the crowd went wild.
Dad remained close to the Kennedys, managing both J.F.K.’s and Bobby's presidential campaigns in Louisiana. And in 1992, something we never expected took place when my sister Vicki married the youngest brother, Ted. In retrospect, it was entirely logical. Dad and his son-in-law Ted talked politics incessantly and strategized constantly.
Dad's interest in politics and the process never abated. He insisted that his children be civically engaged. Even in the last week of his life, he was watching cable news nonstop, cheering and jeering from his bed. As fate would have it, he was buried on the 50th anniversary of J.F.K.'s assassination.
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