Virginia deGravelles

Infobox Officeholder
name = Mary Virginia Wheadon deGravelles


image_size =
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birth_date = birth date and age|1915|12|4
birth_place = Alexandria, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, USA
death_date =
death_place =
occupation=Political activist
office=Louisiana Republican National Committeewoman
term_start=1964
term_end=1968
preceded=
succeeded=
religion =Episcopalian
spouse=Charles deGravelles (1913-2008; married 1935-his death)
children= Mary Alix deGravelles (deceased)
Charles Nations deGravelles
John W. deGravelles
Elizabeth Claire Cloninger
Virginia Ann McBride Norton
13 grandchildren
footnotes=(1) For a brief time in 1968, Virginia deGravelles and her husband, Charles deGravelles were simultaneous members of the Republican National Committee.

(2) In 1941, the deGravelleses were the first two white Republicans in Lafayette Parish . By the start of the 21st century, the parish had become one of the most Republican-oriented in the state.

(3) In 2007, Mrs. deGravelles and her husband Charles were inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.

Mary Virginia Wheadon deGravelles (born December 4, 1915) is a retiree from Lafayette who was the Louisiana Republican national committeewoman from 1964—1968, a position which constitutes automatic membership on the Republican National Committee. Her husband, Charles Camille deGravelles, Jr. (1913-2008), an oil and gas landman, was the state party chairman from 1968-1972 and is considered to have been one of the founders of the modern Louisiana GOP. In 1968, when Mrs. deGravelles (pronounced DE GRA VELLES) vacated the national committee position, her state party had only 28,427 registered members, barely 2 percent of the state's voters. [State of Louisiana, “Statement of Registered Voters as of October 5, 1968”, Baton Rouge: Louisiana Secretary of State]

For a brief time in 1968, both deGravelleses were on the Republican National Committee, a husband-wife combination that has not since repeated itself."Baton Rouge Morning Advocate", August 29, 2008, p. 1B:http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/27645194.html] .

Family and education

Virginia deGravelles was born in Alexandria, the seat of Rapides Parish and the largest city in Central Louisiana, to John Samuel Butler Wheadon and the former Anna Kilpatrick. Her father owned the former Rapides Hotel on Second Street. The building was torn down about 1960. Mrs. Anna Wheadon was a homemaker and a legal secretary. Virginia lived next door for a time to the family of Nauman Steele Scott, I. Nauman Scott, II (1916-2001), with whom she recalls having ridden tricycles together, became a Republican-appointed U.S. District Judge in the Western District of Louisiana, based in Alexandria. Virginia's grandfather was a sheriff, and her great-grandfather was a judge. She graduated from Bolton High School in Alexandria in 1931, then the only public high school available, and attended Northwestern State University (then Louisiana Normal School) in Natchitoches for two years. Thereafter, she transferred to Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where she received her degree in education and met Charles, who grew up in Thibodaux, the seat of Lafourche Parish.Statement of Virginia W. deGravelles, July 2006] i In 1960, Mrs. deGravelles completed graduate studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette."Who's Who in America", 1968-1969, p. 572]

On September 14, 1935, the couple eloped and were wed by a justice of the peace in Woodville in Wilkinson County, Mississippi. They had five children, twin sons (born 1949) and three daughters, one, Mary Alix deGravelles, deceased. The sons are Charles Nations deGravelles, a former Episcopal archdeacon, and John W. deGravelles, an attorney, both of Baton Rouge. The daughters are Elizabeth Claire Cloninger (husband Spike Cloninger), a writer of books and contemporary Christian music in Fairhope in Baldwin County near Mobile, and Virginia Ann McBride Norton of Bali, Indonesia. Son-in-law Ed Norton works for the Nature Conservancy on ecological, while Ann is a photographer with her own company, Photo Voice. In 2008, Mrs. deGravelles had thirteen grandchildren, sixteen great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.http://www.legacy.com/theadvocate/DeathNotices.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=116574984]

Republican politics

The deGravelleses became active in local, state, and national politics. In 1941, they became the first two whites in many years to register as Republicans in Lafayette Parish.The only declared Republicans then were a few African Americans, who were then frozen out of the pivotal Democratic primaries. She is hence among the small number of oldest living Republicans in the state of Louisiana. Francis Grevemberg of New Orleans, who is a year older than Mrs. deGravelles and was the Republican candidate for governor in 1960, did not join the party until 1959, the same year that former Lafayette Mayor Dud Lastrapes, as a 30-year-old, switched parties. In time, Republicans even came to dominate Lafayette Parish.

Early in 1964, the deGravelles supported Charlton Havard Lyons, Sr., an oilman from Shreveport in Caddo Parish in northwestern Louisiana, for the governorship. Lyons was the first GOP gubernatorial candidate since Reconstruction to wage an active campaign for the office. Grevemberg four years before Lyons was mostly ignored by voters and the media. Mrs. deGravelles recalls Lyons as "a wonderful, compassionate man," who pioneered the development of the two-party system in Louisiana. Charles deGravelles succeeded Lyons as state party chairman. Mrs. deGravelleses was a delegate to the 1964 Republican National Convention, which met in the Cow Palace in San Francisco to nominate then U.S. Senator Barry M. Goldwater for the American presidency, considered to have been a breakthrough by conservatives.

Organizations and honors

Mrs. deGravelles, who is Episcopalian, is a member of the Huguenot Society. She has been a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution for more than a half-century. She is also affiliated with the Louisiana Genealogical and Historical Society, and Kappa Delta sorority.

Charles and Virginia deGravelles won several joint awards, primarily for their two-party and Republican activities. They were honored by the conservative Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge (Pennsylvania) and by the Louisiana GOP for lifetime achievement. On January 27, 2007, the deGravelleses were inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield, traditional home of the Long political dynasty. They were the first couple honored together by the organization, which was established in 1993 to recognize Louisiana political powerhouses. [Website of Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield, Louisiana:http://www.cityofwinnfield.com/museum.html]

References