Bud Rip

RIP

'Bud Rip' Ripoll Jr., 9th Ward institution
Thursday, September 21, 2006
By John Pope
Staff writer

Edward "Bud Rip" Ripoll Jr., an ebullient son of the 9th Ward whose bar bearing his name became a cornerstone of life in downtown New Orleans, died Sunday at NorthShore Regional Medical Center. He was 82.

Mr. Ripoll, who frequently sang behind the bar he tended 12 hours a day, was everybody's pal, friends and relatives said. He played host to politicians seeking office -- their framed pictures lined the walls -- and he even served a term in the state House of Representatives. He welcomed people who wanted to hoist a few as they bewailed the Saints' misfortunes, and he even bought a round for the women who had been picketing the bar at Burgundy and Piety streets.

The protest occurred more than 30 years ago because Mr. Ripoll didn't admit women, saying he wanted to spare them from offensive language. But he was, above all, a good host, so he invited them inside.

When one asked to use the restroom, he said, "If you can do it in a urinal, be my guest," said Leslie Falgout, Mr. Ripoll's son-in-law.

Mr. Ripoll acquired his nickname in childhood from a relative everyone called Uncle Pauper, said Bonnie Ripoll-Falgout, Mr. Ripoll's daughter.

"He told my daddy years ago, 'Bud Rip, will you ever amount to anything?' " Ripoll-Falgout said. "Obviously, he did."

A graduate of Francis T. Nicholls High School who was a Marine during World War II, Mr. Ripoll was a longshoreman and steel worker before signing on at Huerstel's, another 9th Ward institution.

He stayed there until 1960, when his mother-in-law lent him the money to buy the bar "because she'd know which barroom he was in," Ripoll-Falgout said.

But friends and family members said there was more to Mr. Ripoll than pouring drinks and hobnobbing with politicians.

He was a charter member of the Downtown Irish Club, which stages an annual St. Patrick's parade that winds through the 9th Ward, and he sponsored an American Legion baseball team.

To pay for repairs to St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, Mr. Ripoll organized a golf tournament that became a yearly ritual. Once the church work was done, money from the tournament went to families of police officers killed in the line of duty during the preceding year, Ripoll-Falgout said.

And every December, he collected money from local bars to pay for Christmas baskets of food for needy 9th Ward residents.

"There were cans of food and a turkey in each one," Ripoll-Falgout said. "But he sent around friends first to make sure the people were really needy."

He also had a series of unsuccessful political races, one for the 1st City Court clerkship and three times for the state Legislature.

On his fourth attempt, in 1983, Mr. Ripoll, a conservative Republican, won.

His explanation was simple: In previous races, he was listed on the ballot as Edward Conrad Ripoll Jr., but before his 1983 campaign, he had his name legally changed to Edward "Bud Rip" Ripoll Jr.

Even though Mr. Ripoll was the only member of his political party to accompany Gov. Edwin Edwards on his gala 1984 trip to France to retire his gubernatorial campaign debts, one of Mr. Ripoll's first votes was against a tax bill Edwards favored.

When the governor asked why he voted that way, he replied: "It took me 16 years to become a representative. I'm not going to vote for the first tax bill that comes up."

Some of his more creative legislation fared poorly. One bill would have imposed a tax on the paper used to roll marijuana cigarettes. Even though marijuana was illegal and, therefore, untaxable, "my daddy decided we can at least get money off the paper," Ripoll-Falgout said. "It didn't pass."

Another bill was the flip side of laws banning bars within 300 feet of a house of worship. Mr. Ripoll's bill would have prohibited the leasing or contribution of a church or synagogue within 300 feet of a tavern.

Even though Mr. Ripoll said the measure was designed to eliminate "a fly-by-night church" in his district, opposition was swift and fierce, and Mr. Ripoll asked that it be deferred.

"I don't want people to think I'm in favor of gambling and beer and against God," he said.

That was in 1987. Later that year, he lost his bid for re-election, and he went back to tending bar.

He and his family moved to Arabi in 1994, and he sold Bud Rip's in 1996 to Linda and Kenneth "Turtle" Kennair. The bar's name stayed.

Mr. Ripoll and his family fled St. Bernard Parish before Hurricane Katrina hit, and they wound up in St. Tammany Parish.

By this time, he was in declining health from a variety of illnesses, but he marched in this year's Downtown Irish Club parade, "much to my chagrin," his daughter said.

"He had a walker," she said, "and there were police all around him to make sure he didn't fall. He walked four blocks to Markey's Bar, and he walked back too. Now I'm thrilled that he did it. At the time, I was a nervous wreck."

Shortly after her father died, Ripoll-Falgout returned to Bud Rip's. At the corner spot where Mr. Ripoll always liked to sit, she found an open bottle of beer on a napkin.

"The little barmaid would not let anybody sit there," Ripoll-Falgout said. "I said, 'Who's sitting there?' and she said, 'You know who's sitting there.' I knew before she said it. I was so touched."

The beer, incidentally, was a Budweiser.

"What else is Bud Rip going to drink?" she said.

In addition to Ripoll-Falgout, survivors include a brother, Rodney Ripoll of Mandeville; three sisters, Lu Prevost of Houston, Audrey Springer of Covington and Sally Wineski of Baton Rouge; three grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held Monday at noon at Lamana-Panno-Fallo Funeral Home, 1717 Veterans Memorial Blvd. Visitation will begin at 10 a.m. Burial will be in St. Vincent de Paul Cemetery No. 3.

Mr. Ripoll was cremated. His daughter said his ashes will go into a brass urn inscribed with his nickname, the years of his birth and death, and the words: "This Bud's for You."

Edward "Bud Rip" Ripoll Jr.