In this Aug. 23, 2011, photo, former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards, 84, and his wife Trina Scott Edwards, 32, right, serve as honorary bartenders at Molly's On The Market Bar during a Press Club of New Orleans function in New Orleans. Edwin Washington Edwards, the high-living four-term governor whose three-decade dominance of Louisiana politics was all but overshadowed by scandal and an eight-year federal prison stretch, died Monday, July 12, 2021 . He was 93. Edwards died of respiratory problems with family and friends by his bedside, family spokesman Leo Honeycutt said. He had suffered bouts of ill health in recent years and entered hospice care this month at his home in Gonzales, near the Louisiana capital. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
NEW ORLEANS -- Edwin Washington Edwards, the high-living, quick-witted four-term governor who reshaped Louisiana's oil revenue and dominated the state's politics for decades, a run all but overshadowed by scandal and eight years in federal prison, died Monday. He was 93.
Edwards died of respiratory problems with family and friends by his bedside, family spokesman Leo Honeycutt said, days after entering hospice care at his home in Gonzales, near the Louisiana capital.
"I've made no bones that I have considered myself on borrowed time for 20 years and we each know that all this fun has to end at some point," Edwards said days before he died, according to his family's statement.
The "Cajun King" was known for delivering a steady supply of memorable one-liners as well as for his deft political instincts. Infamously, the lifelong Democrat once said that the only way he could lose to a particularly lackluster Republican was if he were "caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy."
A native of Louisiana's Acadiana region who swore his 1972 oath of office in French and English, Edwards enjoyed renewed popularity after emerging from prison in 2011 at age 83, with his flamboyant character intact.
The federal case that led to his May 2000 conviction involved him taking payoffs from interests seeking riverboat casino licenses during his final term in the 1990s. Edwards maintained the case was built on secretly taped and misinterpreted conversations and the lies of his former cronies, who made deals to avoid jail.
But the conviction and the numerous investigations and allegations were an unavoidable stain on his legacy.
"He had eloquence, creativity, a razor-sharp mind, executive abilities that many lacked, and leadership skills that many envied," Louisiana State University journalism professor Robert Mann said in an email Monday. "He had everything, and yet squandered it by devoting much of his time to enriching his friends. I've rarely seen a wider chasm between the promise for greatness and reality."
Silver-haired and gifted with an easy charm, Edwards dominated Louisiana politics in the late 20th century much as Huey P. Long had dominated its earlier years, sharing a populist appeal to the state's downtrodden and political fortunes that flowed in part from taxes on oil.
Edwards was born on Aug. 7, 1927, to a sharecropper and a midwife in Avoyelles Parish, in the region settled by 18th century French exiles from Nova Scotia who came to be known as Cajuns.
Raised a Roman Catholic, Edwards preached in the Church of the Nazarene as a teen and didn't drink or smoke. Despite his unabashed fondness for high-stakes gambling, dirty jokes and his reputation as a womanizer, he earned a following among Catholics and fundamentalists.
He had four children during a 40-year marriage to his high school sweetheart, the former Elaine Schwartzenburg, before they divorced in 1989. Five years later, at 66, he married 29-year-old Candy Picou in a ceremony at the governor's mansion. They divorced after he went to prison, but he found a third wife in Trina Grimes, then 32, a pen-pal who visited him behind bars.
They had a son, Eli, in 2013 -- Edwards' fifth child -- and starred in a short-lived reality TV show, "The Governor's Wife."
A lawyer, Edwards began his political career on the City Council in the town of Crowley in 1954 before moving on to the state Legislature, then Congress. He won the governor's office in 1972 with help from organized labor and Black voters realizing their civil rights-era strength.
He appointed more Black Americans to policy-making positions than any previous governor and spearheaded the adoption of a new constitution.
Edwards seized on an oil boom in 1974 to defeat energy interests and fill Louisiana's coffers, tying oil taxes to price, rather than volume. Changing the severance tax from 25 cents a barrel to 12.5% of value made Louisiana the most cash-rich state in the nation, said Honeycutt, his official biographer.
Constitutionally barred from a third consecutive term, he left office in 1980 only to return four years later, after easily defeating incumbent David C. Treen, the state's first Republican governor since Reconstruction.
When oil prices plummeted, Edwards pushed through $700 million in highly unpopular taxes, and his reputation for impropriety caught up with him.
In 1985, he was indicted on federal racketeering charges involving hospital and nursing home regulations. After being acquitted the next year, he bowed out of a 1987 runoff when he faced certain defeat against Democratic Rep. Buddy Roemer.
However, when Roemer suffered political setbacks -- voters rejected his tax overhaul package and disliked his switch to the Republican Party-- Edwards entered the race and won the runoff in a landslide against former Klansman David Duke by stoking fears that an ex-Nazi in the governor's mansion would bring economic ruin.
Edwards retired in 1996 before winding up under federal indictment. After prison, he attempted one more political comeback in 2014 but lost a runoff to a Republican in a south Louisiana congressional race.
Funeral arrangements are pending, according to the family, but there will be a public viewing in the Louisiana State Capitol's Memorial Hall, not far from where Huey Long is buried.
Information for this story was contributed by Melinda Deslatte of The Associated Press.
FILE - In this Oct. 22, 1980 file photo, an umbrella-carrying member of a Dixieland jazz band tips his hat to President Jimmy Carter as former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, second from right, applauds during a promenade through the ballroom at a New Orleans hotel, where Carter spoke. Edwards, the high-living four-term governor whose three-decade dominance of Louisiana politics was all but overshadowed by scandal and an eight-year federal prison stretch, died Monday, July 12, 2021, of respiratory problems. He was 93. (AP Photo/John Duricka, File)
FILE - In this Nov. 10, 1991 file photo, Republican gubernatorial candidate David Duke, right, talks to his opponent, Democratic former Gov. Edwin Edwards after the two men appeared together on NBC's "Meet the Press," in New Orleans. Edwin Washington Edwards, the high-living four-term governor whose three-decade dominance of Louisiana politics was all but overshadowed by scandal and an eight-year federal prison stretch, died Monday, July 12, 2021 . He was 93. Edwards died of respiratory problems with family and friends by his bedside, family spokesman Leo Honeycutt said. He had suffered bouts of ill health in recent years and entered hospice care this month at his home in Gonzales, near the Louisiana capital. (AP Photo/Tannen Maury, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 26, 1992, file photo, U.S. President George H. Bush confers with Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards, center, and a Louisiana National Guardsman in New Iberia, amid damage caused by Hurricane Andrew. Edwin Washington Edwards, the high-living four-term governor whose three-decade dominance of Louisiana politics was all but overshadowed by scandal and an eight-year federal prison stretch, died Monday, July 12, 2021 . He was 93. Edwards died of respiratory problems with family and friends by his bedside, family spokesman Leo Honeycutt said. He had suffered bouts of ill health in recent years and entered hospice care this month at his home in Gonzales, near the Louisiana capital. (AP Photo/Greg Gibson, File)
FILE - In this April 19, 2000, file photo, former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, left, joined by his wife Candy and his defense attorney Daniel Small, gives the thumbs up sign as they leave the federal courthouse in Baton Rouge, La. Edwin Washington Edwards, the high-living four-term governor whose three-decade dominance of Louisiana politics was all but overshadowed by scandal and an eight-year federal prison stretch, died Monday, July 12, 2021 . He was 93. Edwards died of respiratory problems with family and friends by his bedside, family spokesman Leo Honeycutt said. He had suffered bouts of ill health in recent years and entered hospice care this month at his home in Gonzales, near the Louisiana capital. (AP Photo/Bill Haber, File)
FILE - In this March 13, 1985 file photo, Tom Benson, left, and Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards smile as they announce that Benson just signed a deal purchasing the New Orleans Saints for $64 million at a press conference in New Orleans. Edwards, the high-living four-term governor whose three-decade dominance of Louisiana politics was all but overshadowed by scandal and an eight-year federal prison stretch, died Monday, July 12, 2021, of respiratory problems. He was 93. (AP Photo/Bill Haber, File)
FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2001 file photo, former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, standing with his wife, Candy, left, and daughter, Anna Edwards, listens to a question from the media, on the steps of the federal courthouse in Baton Rouge, La. Edwards, the high-living four-term governor whose three-decade dominance of Louisiana politics was all but overshadowed by scandal and an eight-year federal prison stretch, died Monday, July 12, 2021, of respiratory problems. He was 93. (AP Photo/Bill Haber, File)
FILE - Former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, left, celebrates his 90th birthday with his wife, Trina Edwards, at the Renaissance Hotel in Baton Rouge, La., in this Aug. 12, 2017, file photo. Edwin Washington Edwards, the high-living four-term governor whose three-decade dominance of Louisiana politics was all but overshadowed by scandal and an eight-year federal prison stretch, died Monday, July 12, 2021 . He was 93. Edwards died of respiratory problems with family and friends by his bedside, family spokesman Leo Honeycutt said. He had suffered bouts of ill health in recent years and entered hospice care this month at his home in Gonzales, near the Louisiana capital. (Hilary Scheinuk/The Advocate via AP)
FILE - In this July 29, 2011, file photo, former Governor Edwin Edwards, right, kisses his new bride, Trina Grimes Scott, after a ceremony in the French Quarter in New Orleans, La. Edwin Washington Edwards, the high-living four-term governor whose three-decade dominance of Louisiana politics was all but overshadowed by scandal and an eight-year federal prison stretch, died Monday, July 12, 2021 . He was 93. Edwards died of respiratory problems with family and friends by his bedside, family spokesman Leo Honeycutt said. He had suffered bouts of ill health in recent years and entered hospice care this month at his home in Gonzales, near the Louisiana capital. (AP Photo/Cheryl Gerber, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 21, 2002 file photo, former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards walks to his car outside the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, after talking with reporters before checking into the prison. Edwards, the high-living four-term governor whose three-decade dominance of Louisiana politics was all but overshadowed by scandal and an eight-year federal prison stretch, died Monday, July 12, 2021, of respiratory problems. He was 93. (AP Photo/Donna McWilliam, File)
