Mitch Landrieu: “I pay tribute this morning to a great American journalist from New Orleans, LA. Alec Gifford will be formally retiring…”

“I pay tribute this morning to a great American journalist from New Orleans, LA. Alec Gifford will be formally retiring from WDSU in New Orleans this December after an extraordinarily lengthy, fulfilling, and energetic career covering politics and a whole range of issues over decades, including hurricanes, storms and other disasters. He even hosted, believe it or not, a cooking show. Alec came from a family of journalists. His father covered Governor Huey Long for the Times-Picayune, and his grandfather published one of the first local French language newspapers. So his family tradition has deep roots in Louisiana and in New Orleans. After serving in the U.S. Navy, Alec came to WDSU in 1955. He introduced the people of Louisiana to a very young Senator at the time, John F. Kennedy, as he sought to become--and ultimately did--the President of the United States. Just as we have spent many hours on this floor in recent months and years discussing the share of royalties that Louisiana should get from energy production off of our coast--and I believed I was the first on the story--I was corrected by my staff that Alec Gifford was one of the first on the story four decades ago. He asked Senator Kennedy his position on how these royalties would be handled when he came in to campaign for the Presidency back then. And he also pressed him on the Nation's path toward an equal education for all of our children during that extraordinary historic interview.”