Charles Elson Roemer II, also known as Charlie Roemer or Budgie Roemer (December 11, 1923 – July 7, 2012), was a farmer and businessman from Bossier City in northwestern Louisiana, who served as the commissioner of administration from 1972 to 1980 in the first two terms of Governor Edwin Washington Edwards. He was the father of Charles Elson "Buddy" Roemer III, who served as governor from 1988 to 1992, between the third and fourth Edwards terms.
Background
Roemer was a son of Charles Elson Roemer, known as Pete Roemer, and the former Maggie Crocker. After his father's death, he was reared on a farm by his stepfather and mother, Vernon and Maggie Mayer. During World War II, he volunteered for the United States Army Air Forces, forerunner of the United States Air Force. Thereafter, he attended Louisiana Tech University in Ruston and then graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. While attending LSU, he worked as a welder at the nearby Exxon refinery. He married his high school sweetheart, the former Juliet Adeline McDade (December 25, 1923 – January 29, 2016), who was two weeks his junior. A native of McDade in Bossier Parish, she survived her husband after seventy years of marriage. Adeline, as she was known, was a daughter of Ross Elias McDade Sr. (1877–1969) and McDade's second wife, the former Ethel Earle Elston (1890–1958). Coincidentally, Roemer's middle name, Elson, is one letter short of his mother-in-law's maiden name, Elston.
Charles and Adeline Roemer worked as a team on the farm. They introduced in conjunction with the LSU Red River Valley Experiment Station, Stardel cotton at their Scopena Plantation in Bossier Parish south of Bossier City. They cultivated hybrid seed corn, owned an International Harvester equipment dealership, and owned and operated two cotton gins. In addition to cotton and corn, Roemer grew soybeans, sunflowers, tomatoes, geese, and cattle. The Roemers owned a dozen airplanes, most used for crop dusting, and Roemer was himself a licensed pilot. The Roemers worked to organize Rural Electrification Administration cooperatives in both Louisiana and Texas. When Roemer was injured in an airplane accident in the early 1950s, Adeline took over management of Scopena. Thereafter, she continued to run the cotton gin and handled most of the agri-business accounts. A staunch Democrat, she was active in various social and civic causes over the years.
Jack Dillard, a long-term Shreveport farm reporter, described the senior Roemer as a personal mentor who taught him much about agriculture: "Mr. Roemer invited me to state and national agriculture sessions and meetings where we had front-row seats. I knew very little about the cotton business but learned a lot from him. He could go to Baton Rouge and back faster than anyone I know. He talked as we traveled and introduced me to the leadership at that time. The National Cotton Council was as close as the phone. His love for Scopena Plantation and Stardel Cotton was always in his thoughts. When he shifted into politics, our travels slowed; but he always had time to talk or give a tip on upcoming activities."
Political activities
By the 1960s, Roemer had become politically involved. On January 31, 1961, U.S. Representative Overton Brooks of Louisiana's 4th congressional district, based about Shreveport, voted with a narrow majority of 217–212 to increase the size of the House Rules Committee to permit Speaker Sam Rayburn of Texas to appoint newer, members to the panel, which determines the legislation brought to the House floor. Conservatives in both parties generally opposed this vote, which they termed "packing the Rules Committee." Because of this vote, Joe Waggonner of Bossier Parish announced that he would challenge Brooks in the August 1962 Democratic primary. Roemer was among the organizers of a civic group known as the Congressional Affairs League of Louisiana, created to express a vote of "No Confidence" in Representative Brooks. Brooks died in 1961, and Waggonner won a special election for the seat by defeating the Republican nominee, Charlton Lyons of Shreveport.