Morley A . Hudson Morley Alvin Hudson ( March 31 , 1917 – June 15 , 2001 ) , was a Shreveport businessman , engineer , civic leader , and a pioneer of the modern Republican Party in Louisiana . Hudson was born in San Antonio , Texas , the son of Oscar Hudson and the former Ruth Morley . His maternal grandfather , Stephen Kay Morley , was a pharmacist in early Austin , Texas , who patented old - time remedies that were popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries . In youth , he was an Eagle Scout . Hudson graduated " cum laude " from Georgia Tech in Atlanta , Georgia , with a degree in mechanical engineering . From 1938 to 1940 , he played football for the Green Bay Packers under Coach Curly Lambeau . During World War II , he was a captain in the U . S . Army Infantry Reserves . When he relocated to Shreveport in 1945 , Hudson became president of the Hudson - Rush Company of Shreveport and Dallas , which specialized in industrial process equipment . He also was one of the original partners of Pelican Supply Company and McElroy Metals in Shreveport . In 1956 , Hudson ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the Caddo Parish School Board . First Republicans in legislature ( 1964 - 1968 ) . He and Taylor W . O ' Hearn ( 1907 – 1997 ) were the first two Republicans to have been elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives since Reconstruction . Hudson and O ' Hearn were joined in the Caddo Parish delegation by Democrats Algie D . Brown , Frank Fulco , and newcomer J . Bennett Johnston , Jr . , later a member of both the Louisiana State Senate and the United States Senate . Three Caddo Republican legislative candidates who lost in 1964 were Billy J . Guin , later a Shreveport city commissioner ; Edd Fielder Calhoun ( 1931 – 2012 ) , an insurance agent and civic figure originally from Oklahoma City , and Art Sour , who made his livelihood in the oil business . Sour lost again in 1968 but rebounded in 1972 to win a seat in the state House , which he subsequently held for twenty years . Hudson was a Louisiana delegate to the Republican national conventions held in San Francisco in 1964 and in Miami Beach in 1968 and 1972 . Hudson was the self - proclaimed Louisiana House " minority leader " between 1964 and 1968 because he had outpolled O ' Hearn in the balloting . In 1966 , he obtained passage of a bill to grant in - state college students the same right to vote absentee as permitted to out - of - state students . His record was primarily focused on fiscal and management reform of state government . Two other Republicans joined Hudson and O ' Hearn later in their term : Roderick L . " Rod " Miller of Lafayette in 1966 and Edward Clark Gaudin of Baton Rouge in 1967 . Miller was defeated in a bid for the Louisiana State Senate on February 6 , 1968 . Gaudin was defeated for reelection to the House in 1968 but returned to the legislature in 1972 and like Art Sour served for another twenty years . Running for lieutenant governor , 1972 . In 1972 , Hudson was a candidate for lieutenant governor on the Republican ticket with gubernatorial hopeful David C . Treen , then of Jefferson Parish . He spent some $ 40 , 000 on his race , with no assistance forthcoming from the Republican National Committee . Hudson polled only 218 , 169 votes ( 20 . 5 percent ) to 815 , 794 ( 76 . 8 percent ) for the successful Democrat , James E . " Jimmy " Fitzmorris , Jr . , of New Orleans , a former city councilman and an executive for Kansas City Southern Railroad . Hudson failed to win a single parish . He fared best in his home base of Caddo Parish , where he drew 43 . 6 percent . ( A third candidate in the race , Gertrude L . Taylor , also of Shreveport , nominee of George Wallace ' s former American Independent Party , received 2 . 7 percent of the vote . ) Treen , running for governor for the first time , polled 42 . 8 percent , more than twice the number of votes obtained by Hudson . While Caddo Parish supported Fitzmorris over Hudson , it gave majorities to three Republican statewide candidates , Treen for governor , Tom Stagg of Shreveport for attorney general against the Democrat William J . Guste , and for Robert L . Frye , a native of Webster Parish , who ran unsuccessfully for state education superintendent against the Democrat Louis J . Michot of Lafayette . In the lieutenant governor ' s campaign , Hudson wore a friend ' s red - white - and - blue shoes . According to the " Shreveport Times " , Hudson repeated the patriotic color scheme in a 1976 visit to the White House , wearing a red - white - and - blue tie that made him stand out among dozens of other people in gray suits , prompting U . S . President Gerald R . Ford , Jr . , to remark , " It ' s so good to see someone here in Washington with the bicentennial spirit ! " Supporting the mentally retarded . Hudson and his first wife , the former Lucy North ( July 17 , 1919 – January 15 , 1997 ) were the parents of a mentally - retarded daughter , also named Lucy North Hudson . He became a founding member of both the Shreveport and the Louisiana Association for Retarded Children , and he was a director of the National Association for Retarded Citizens . He was vice chairman of the Louisiana Governor ' s Commission for Employment of the Handicapped , and was appointed by President Ford to the 24 - member President ' s Committee on Mental Retardation . He delighted in playing Santa Claus at the White House Christmas party for handicapped children of the Washington , D . C . , area . He was a founder of the Evergreen Presbyterian Vocational School north of Minden in Webster Parish and the Evergreen House , the forerunner of what became Providence House in Shreveport . His favorite hobby was dancing . Death . In 1998 , Hudson married the former Catherine Loyd Franks ( 1919 - 2012 ) , a Shreveport native , a graduate of C . E . Byrd High School and Centenary and the widow of the Shreveport veterinarian , Dr . Robert Dean Franks , Sr . , who died in 1987 . At the time of his death in Shreveport from the effects of a brain tumor , Morley Hudson was residing in Waskom in eastern Harrison County , Texas , just west of the Louisiana border . In addition to his parents and two brothers , Hudson was preceded in death by his first wife and a son who died in infancy , Morley Alvin Hudson , Jr . , both of whom are interred at Forest Park Cemetery in Shreveport . In addition to his second wife , Hudson was survived by three daughters and a son - in - law , Nancy and Joe Ed Ketner , Courtney Morley Hudson , and grandsons Max , Alex and Nicholas Hudson , all of Shreveport , and Lucy North Hudson of Pineville ; stepchildren , Robert Franks , Jr . , and his wife , Vicki , of Shreveport , Susan F . Leake and her husband , Rucker , of St . Francisville in West Feliciana Parish , and Allen C . Franks and his wife , Cathy , of Mena , Arkansas , and their children and grandchildren . Memorial services were held at the First Presbyterian Church of Shreveport , where Hudson was an active member . He was cremated . Catherine Hudson , who was also an active Presbyterian , is interred at Forest Park Cemetery .