Edward Ripoll

Ripoll was one of five children of the late Edward Ripoll Sr., and the former Mary Forster.[3] He graduated from Francis T. Nicholls High School in New Orleans. He joined the United States Marine Corp with service in World War II from 1944 to 1945. He was affiliated with the American Legion and was an honorary member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.[4]

Ripoll worked as a longshoreman and steelworker and was employed until 1960[2] at Huerstel's Bar and Restaurant at the intersection of St. Claude Avenue and Independence Street, since a convenience store.[5] Ripoll then opened his own bar at 900 Piety Street at the intersection with Burgundy Street.[2]

In 1983, Ripoll challenged incumbent Democratic representative Edward S. Bopp, a lawyer and former pharmacist, who led a four-candidate field with 5,631 votes (37.3 percent). Ripoll claimed the second position in the general election with 3,426 votes (22.7 percent). Trailing in third place by 61 votes was another Democrat, later Republican, businessman Kenneth L. Odinet Sr., of Arabi in St. Bernard Parish. Finishing fourth was former U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 1st congressional district, Richard Alvin Tonry, with 2,693 votes (17.8 percent). Tonry had been forced from office in a scandal in 1977. In the second round of balloting, Ripoll unseated Bopp, 5,266 votes (53.1 percent) to 4,649 (46.9 percent).[6]

In the House, Ripoll served on the Judiciary and the Municipal, Parochial, and Cultural Affairs committees. He was unseated after one term by Democrat Kenneth Odinet, who had also run in 1983. Odinet received 6,160 votes (59.1 percent) to Ripoll's 4,269 (40.9 percent).[7]

Of Irish extraction, Ripoll was a member of the Downtown Irish Club, which stages St. Patrick's Day parades. He organized a golf tournament to help with repairs to St. Vincent de Paul Roman Catholic Church in New Orleans and to assist surviving families of police officers killed in the line of duty. He collected funds from New Orleans bars to pay for Christmas baskets for needy children in the economically-depressed Ninth Ward. Ripoll sold the bar in 1994 and moved with his family to Arabi.[2]

He died in Slidell in suburban St. Tammany Parish at the age of 82.[2][3]