Gilbert L. Dupré

Gilbert Louis Dupré, Sr. (September 20, 1858 – December 18, 1946), was a self-educated lawyer and politician in his native St. Landry Parish in South Louisiana, who maintained his legal office for many years in Opelousas and served as a state court judge and member of the Louisiana House of Representatives.

Biography

Dupré was born into an established French-American family, the son of Lucius Jacques Dupré (1822–1869) and the former Caroline Victoire Vanhille (1826–1896). His great-grandfather, Jacques Dupré, was a pioneer of St. Landry Parish who served as a National Republican governor of Louisiana from 1830 to 1831 and in the Louisiana State Senate during the 1830s and 1840s. Gilbert was only ten when his father, Lucius, who was a law graduate of the University of Virginia and a member of the former Confederate Congress, died. There was no money for Gilbert's education; so he was self-educated in the law while he worked first in the office of the St. Landry Parish clerk of court. He was admitted to the bar in 1880 and established his law office in Opelousas. In 1887, Dupré was a member of the Louisiana state militia and was on active duty at the time of a riot in Morgan City in St. Mary Parish. He was a member of the Masonic lodge, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Roman Catholic Church.

From 1888 to 1992 and again from 1913, to fill the seat vacated by A. H. Garland, who left the state, until 1932, Dupré was a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives. He served as a state district court judge by election from 1896 to 1900 and by appointment in 1914. He was elected judge in 1916, 1920, and 1924, while he also served in the part-time legislative post. Such dual office-holding is no longer permitted. Judge Dupré, as he was long known, was a member of the Louisiana Constitutional Convention of 1921. In his second stint in the legislature, his successors included his son-in-law, Felix Octave Pavy, a prominent St. Landry Parish physician.

The editor of the former New Orleans Item referred to Representative Dupré's steadfast opposition to tax increases:

There was a statesman in Tennessee who attributed his popularity to the fact that he had never voted for a tax or against an appropriation. We might almost say of Judge Dupré that we do not recall his ever having voted for a tax increase, salary increase, or for an increased appropriation.

The position of the twelfth man in opposition to eleven stubborn jurors is one which the judge is not afraid to take in a world which loves to have unanimous action and where kickers are generally made uncomfortable.

In 1881, Dupré married Julia B. Estilette (1860–1944) of Opelousas, the daughter of his law partner, E. D. Estilette. She was born in New Haven, Connecticut, where her father was attending Yale University. E. D. Estilette was a judge and in 1876 the Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives. The couple had four children, including twin daughters, a son, and a third daughter. Dupré outlived his wife by two years. They are interred along with other family members at the Myrtle Grove Cemetery in Opelousas.