The sad news comes that Gene Lebrun, age 84, died on Sunday, July 23. Lebrun, a Rapid City attorney, served in the State House from 1971-74. A Democrat, he served as Speaker of the House in 1973-74, when the House of Representatives had 35 Democrats and 35 Republicans. State law specified that, in such a case, the party holding the Governor’s Office would organize the House, so the party of Democratic Governor Dick Kneip controlled.
Lebrun is the most recent Democrat to be Speaker of the House, and the only Democratic speaker since the Great Depression; prior to Lebrun, the Democrats last controlled the State House in 1935. At age 33, was also the second-youngest Speaker in state history. (James M. Lawson of Aberdeen was 30 when he served as Speaker in 1893.)
In addition to his legislative service, Gene Lebrun was a pillar of the South Dakota legal community; his name graces the venerable law firm of Lynn, Jackson, Shultz & Lebrun. He was also a longtime member of the Uniform Law Commission.
I came to know Gene through his wife, Pat, when I served with her on the South Dakota Board of Regents. Pat also has a distinguished record of public service; she spent eighteen years on the Board of Regents, and has served as a member of the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority board (which oversees the Sanford Underground Lab) since its creation in 2004. Both Gene and Pat have been inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame, and I enjoyed seeing them most recently last year’s induction events.
Born of the Fourth of July, Gene was also an enthusiastic reader of political biographies, and I will always appreciate that he was the first to make me aware of American Political Biography Press, a publisher that reprints out-of-print biographies of political figures.
Lee Strubinger wrote an excellent remembrance of Lebrun for South Dakota Public Broadcasting, in which he notes Lebrun’s role in the modernization of the South Dakota State Legislature in the 1970s. Seth Tupper wrote a longer article about Lebrun’s role in legislative modernization for SDPB in 2021, which also includes video interview with Lebrun and with veteran newsman Terry Woster. Tom Lawrence has written a nice remembrance of Lebrun at South Dakota Standard, and Terry Woster’s weekly column in The Mitchell Republic also remembers Lebrun.
Lebrun’s obituary is excellent and is posted here.
Lebrun’s death is the latest in a string of high-profile Democratic figures in the state. State Senator Red Allen, a 1994 candidate for governor, died just in May 2022. Governor Harvey Wollman, the state’s only living Democratic governor, died in October 2022. Senator Abourezk and 2006 gubernatorial nominee Jack Billion died in February 2023. Randy Seiler, the SD Democratic Party chairman, died suddenly in April. And Jim Beddow, the 1994 Democratic nominee for governor, died in June 2023.
With Lebrun’s passing and the loss last year of Harvey Wollman, very few Democratic legislators remain with us who had the opportunity to lead in a legislative majority. Still with us are Lars Herseth, who was President Pro Tempore when Democrats controlled the Senate in 1993-94, and Lawrence Piersol, who served as House Majority Leader alongside Speaker Lebrun in 1973-74.
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