{{Short description|American politician (1878–1946)}} {{Infobox officeholder | birth_name = Paul Narcisse Cyr | image = Paul N. Cyr.png | caption = | order = 33rd | state = | office = Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana | term_start = May 21, 1928 | term_end = 1931 | governor = [[Huey Long]] | predecessor = [[Philip H. Gilbert]] | successor = [[Alvin O. King]] | birth_date = {{birth date|1878|9|9}} | birth_place = [[Jeanerette, Louisiana]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1946|8|24|1878|9|9}} | death_place = | resting_place = | party = Democratic | profession = [[Dentist]]; [[geologist]]; banker | alma_mater = Atlanta Dental College; Louisiana State University | spouse = Florence Mary McGowen | children = 4 | footnotes = }}
'''Paul Narcisse Cyr''' (September 9, 1878 – August 24, 1946), nicknamed the "'''Wild Bull of Jeanerette'''", was an American politician, dentist, banker, and geologist, who served as the [[lieutenant governor of Louisiana]] from 1928 to 1931, unsuccessfully declared himself the [[governor of Louisiana]], and was first an ally, then an opponent of Governor [[Huey Long]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1946/08/25/archives/dr-paul-n-cyr-former-lieutenant-governor-of-louisiana-foe-of-huey.html|title=DR. PAUL N. CYR; Former Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, Foe of Huey Long|work=New York Times|date=25 August 1946}}</ref><ref name=stmarynow>{{cite news|url=https://www.stmarynow.com/news-local-state-columns/jim-bradshaw-dentist-took-huey-long-over-notorious-death-st-mary|title=Jim Bradshaw: Dentist took on Huey Long over notorious death in St. Mary|date=10 November 2017|work=St. Mary Now|last=Bradshaw|first=Jim}}</ref><ref name=lha>{{cite web|first=Louie McGowen|last=Cyr|url=https://www.lahistory.org/resources/dictionary-louisiana-biography/dictionary-louisiana-biography-c/|title=Dictionary C|work=Dictionary of Louisiana Biography|publisher=Louisiana Historical Association}}</ref>
==Career== Cyr was a dentist, serving as president of both the Louisiana Dental Society and the Louisiana Dental Examining Board.<ref name=lha/> He also co-founded the First National Bank of Jeanerette, where his daughter Emily later worked,<ref name=lha/><ref name=nola/> and worked as a geologist for [[Humble Oil]].<ref name=white/>{{rp|65}}
===Politics=== Cyr was chosen by Huey Long to be his running mate as Lieutenant Governor when Long ran for Governor of Louisiana in April 1928,<ref name=stmarynow/> partly because Long appreciated Cyr's muscular stature alongside him on the campaign trail<ref name=stmarynow/> and partly to secure the French-speaking vote.<ref name=hair/>{{rp|211}} They fell out in 1929 after Cyr opposed Long's death sentence on Cyr's friend Thomas Dreher, who with Ada Leboeuf had been convicted of murdering her husband.<ref name=stmarynow/> In March 1930, Cyr spoke out against Long on the [[Louisiana State Senate|state senate]] floor, accusing him of corruption in naming his brother as a tax collector and in leasing land to a Texan oil company.<ref name=white>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_0CKVuAldzEC&pg=PA65|title= Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long|first=Richard D.|last=White, Jr.|publisher=Random House Publishing Group|date=2009|isbn=9780307535764}}</ref>{{rp|65}}
Cyr declared himself Acting Governor whenever Long was out of the state. Long was elected to the [[United States Senate]] in [[1930 United States Senate election in Louisiana|1930]], but when Senator [[Joseph E. Ransdell|Joseph Ransdell]]'s term ended in March 1931, he refused to resign as Governor and take up his seat to avoid Cyr being appointed as his successor. Nevertheless, Cyr had himself sworn in as Governor by the clerk of [[Caddo Parish, Louisiana|Caddo Parish]] court in Shreveport on 14 October 1931. His term ended almost immediately: Long promptly sent in the [[Louisiana National Guard|National Guard]] to the [[Old Louisiana Governor's Mansion|Governor's mansion]] and the [[Louisiana State Capitol|state Capitol]] and drove armed with a pistol from New Orleans to Baton Rouge to oversee the operation. Cyr failed to order Adjutant General [[Raymond H. Fleming|Ray Fleming]] to stand down the National Guard and was threatened with arrest if he entered the state Capitol. Cyr sued, but the suit was dismissed in November and Long had sympathetic judges remove Cyr from both the governorship and as Lieutenant Governor, arguing that Cyr had vacated the latter post when he swore himself in as Governor: "He is no longer Lieutenant Governor, and he is now nothing". Long instead appointed state senate president [[Alvin O. King]] as Lieutenant Governor and hence his successor as Governor. Another attempt by Cyr to declare himself Governor at the [[Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center|Heidelberg Hotel]] in Baton Rouge in January 1932 also failed when he was evicted at Long's behest, and Cyr backed out of standing for Governor in the [[1932 Louisiana gubernatorial election|1932 election]] in favor of [[Dudley LeBlanc]], retiring from politics and returning to dentistry.<ref name=stmarynow/><ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aQPZAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA294|title=Louisiana: A History|chapter=The Time of the Kingfish, 1924-1935|first1=Bennett H.|last1=Wall|first2=John C.|last2=Rodrigue|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|page=294|date=28 January 2014|isbn=9781118619292}}</ref><ref name=hair>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hqkHIFpv4agC&pg=PT307|title=The Kingfish and His Realm: The Life and Times of Huey P. Long|first=William Ivy|last=Hair|publisher=LSU Press|date=1991|isbn=9780807145661}}</ref>{{rp|307}}<ref name=white/>{{rp|132–134}}
==Personal life== Cyr was born in [[Jeanerette, Louisiana|Jeanerette]] to a French-speaking Catholic family,<ref name=hair/>{{rp|211}} the son of Joseph C. Cyr and Emilie Julie Hoffherr.<ref name=lha/> Cyr said he began learning English, aged 10.<ref name=hair/>{{rp|211}}
Cyr attended [[Chamberlain Hunt Academy]] in Mississippi, [[Louisiana State University]], then [[Atlanta Dental College]].<ref name=lha/>
Cyr married Florence Mary McGowen on February 6, 1907 and they had two daughters and two sons, Marjorie Emily (born 1910), Emily Julie (born 1912), later Emily Cyr Bridges and owner of [[Albania Plantation House]],<ref name=stmarynow/><ref name=nola>{{cite web|url=https://obits.nola.com/amp/obituaries/nola/1458276|title=Emily Julie Cyr Bridges|work=nola.com}}</ref> Louie McGowen (born 1913), and Charles McGowen (born 1915).<ref name=lha/> Cyr owned the [[Steamboat House (New Iberia, Louisiana)|Steamboat House]] in New Iberia from 1937.<ref name="nrhpdoc">{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=79001066}}|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Steamboat House |publisher=[[National Park Service]]|author= |date= |access-date=July 5, 2018}} With {{NRHP url|id=79001066|photos=y|title=accompanying pictures}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20220814073249/https://casetext.com/case/state-v-long-47 State v. Long, Supreme Court of Louisiana, Feb 12, 1932, 140 So. 13 (La. 1932)], Cyr's 1932 case against Long
{{s-start}} {{s-ppo}} {{s-bef|before=[[Oramel H. Simpson]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nominee for [[Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana]]|years=1928}} {{s-aft|after=[[John B. Fournet]]}} {{s-off}} {{succession box | before = [[Philip H. Gilbert]] | title = [[Lieutenant Governors of Louisiana|Louisiana Lieutenant Governor]] | years = 1928–1931 | after = [[Alvin O. King]]}} {{s-end}} {{Lieutenant Governors of Louisiana}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cyr, Paul N.}} [[Category:1878 births]] [[Category:1946 deaths]] [[Category:Lieutenant governors of Louisiana]] [[Category:20th-century American dentists]] [[Category:People from Jeanerette, Louisiana]] [[Category:American geologists]] [[Category:Bankers from Louisiana]] [[Category:Louisiana Creole people]] [[Category:20th-century Louisiana politicians]] [[Category:Louisiana Democrats]] [[Category:Louisiana State University alumni]] [[Category:Health professionals from Louisiana]]