Clyde Kimball

Clyde Walker Kimball was born on 11 July 1942 in New Roads, Louisiana, the son of Edna Erle Walker Kimball and Albert Eugene "AE" Kimball. He played football at Poydras High School in the late 1950s and graduated from Louisiana State University, where he was a member of Kappa Sigma. Stories from his youth included hitch hiking to Mexico, driving a 1957 Ford into False River and breaking his arm riding a bull in the LSU rodeo.

Kimball worked as a jewelry salesman, a parole and probation officer and an oil company man. In 1976 he was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives for the district covering Pointe Coupee and West Baton Rouge parishes, and he served four terms until 1992, under Governors Edwin Edwards, Dave Treen and Buddy Roemer. For eight of those years he chaired the House Natural Resources Committee.

With J.E. Jumonville Jr. he helped drive the proposals that led to the John James Audubon Bridge, completed in 2011. He was later appointed deputy secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries by Governor Edwards and again by Governor Mike Foster. He was also a founding member of People's Bank of Pointe Coupee, now Synergy Bank, chartered in 1981, and remained active with the bank for many years.

He married Catherine "Kitty" Dick six months after a blind date on a Mississippi River ferry. She later became Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court. They were married for 59 years and lived at Ventress in Pointe Coupee Parish. Their children are Kevin Hudson Kimball, a judge of the 18th Judicial District Court, Catherine Kimball Leggio and Lyria Kimball O'Brien. He was also survived by two sisters, seven grandchildren and a great grandson.

Clyde Kimball died on 2 October 2026, aged 84. His family's obituary thanked his carers, his doctors, the respiratory care team at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center and Pointe Coupee Hospice. The cause of death was not made public. Governor Jeff Landry ordered state and national flags flown at half staff over the State Capitol and all state buildings on 7 October 2026. He left his body to science, and the family planned a private celebration of life, asking for donations to Our Lady of the Lake Children's Hospital or a local charity.

He is remembered in Pointe Coupee for his 16 years in the legislature, his part in the Audubon Bridge and his role in founding a local bank so that people in the parish could more easily borrow. Friends recalled that if he promised something he did it, and the bank's Jody Thibaut called him a treasure to Pointe Coupee Parish.