Former legislator ‘Pappy’ Triche dies

NAPOLEONVILLE — Former longtime Assumption Parish legislator and trial lawyer Risley Claiborne Charles “Pappy” Triche died Tuesday evening, his daughter said.

He was 84.

Jane Triche-Milazzo, a U.S. District judge in New Orleans, said her father had been ill the past few years after a stroke and died at home Tuesday.

A Napoleonville native, Triche was first appointed to the state House of Representatives by Gov. Earl Long in 1955 and served there until 1976, finishing part of his final term as Gov. Edwin Edwards’ floor leader, his family said.

The Democratic politician represented Assumption Parish most of his career but picked up Ascension Parish in his final term, from 1972 to 1976.

He resigned as floor leader in 1974 and failed in an election bid in 1975 to supplant then-Attorney General William Guste.

Triche-Milazzo noted her father also was the youngest mayor of Napoleonville.

In his later years, Triche, an LSU Law School graduate, represented one of the defendants in the federal Brilab corruption investigation in the early 1980s; the judge dismissed the charges agasint his client before the end of the trial.

He also was defense attorney for one of Edwards’ close allies in a federal corruption trial in the mid-1980s involving charges brought agains the former governor and his friends.

Triche and his family have remained active in politics and the Democratic Party, including Triche-Milazzo and Triche’s son, Martin “Marty” Triche, who is president of the Assumption Parish Police Jury.

Visitation is from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday at Landry’s Funeral Home in Napoleonville and 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Thursday at Assumption Catholic Church in Plattenville.

A funeral Mass starts at 11 a.m. with burial to follow.