Shreveport Native Long to Be Buried in Baton Rouge Tuesday

Shreveport, LA, Times ^ | Hill, John

[Theodore R.]

BATON ROUGE - Former U.S. Sen. Russell B. Long's family is bringing him back home to Baton Rouge for a funeral Tuesday at the Methodist church to which he belonged since childhood.

Long, 84, developed difficulties at his Watergate Apartment Friday night and was pronounced dead soon after being taken to George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C. about five blocks away.

[Ditter]

We watched the movie Blaze last night. What was the relationship been Sen. Long & Gov. Long? Brothers?

[Theodore R.]

Russell B. Long was the nephew of the late Governor Earl Kemp Long and the son of Huey Pierce Long, Jr., who served as both governor and senator. Russell's mother, Rose McConnell Long, also served as a senator for a short time after the assassination of her husband Huey. Earl Long had no children. Russell's cousins included former Congressmen Gillis Long, D-LA, and Speedy Long, D-LA, and former Public Service Commissioner John S. Hunt, III, D-LA. People in LA still believe that the Longs saved the state from utter ruin in the 1920's, 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. By the 1960, Russell Long had united the pro-Long and anti-Long Democrats into one cohesive unit at the state, but not necessarily the national, level.