Retired Judge J. Larry Vidrine selected to serve as Colonel Cotton

A life-long resident of Ville Platte who has served as a member of the Louisiana Legislature and as a district judge for Evangeline Parish was tabbed to serve as Colonel Cotton for the 65th Louisiana Cotton Festival.
Judge John Larry Vidrine calls it an honor to be selected and said, “It’s nice to be recognized by the local citizenry.”
For Judge Vidrine, the Louisiana Cotton Festival is all about tradition. “As I appreciate it, we’re closing in on 70-years of the Cotton Festival,” he said. “It started out in the mid-1950s, and it’s our history. I’m a little surprised since we don’t grow much cotton in Evangeline Parish anymore, but it represents what was the past when cotton was big.”
Judge Vidrine’s earliest memories of the Louisiana Cotton Festival was going to the fair that was located on the grounds of the old Evangeline Parish Courthouse. “I remember my favorite ride was called the Tilt-A-Whirl,” she stated. “It was near the southeast corner of the courthouse where the 4-H building would be now.”
“I can remember standing in line and riding it over and over again until I got so dizzy that I couldn’t walk,” he continued.
He also remembers going to the first running of the Grand Parade of Cotton. “I was about 12-years-old, and it was probably the first major parade that I had ever seen in my life,” said Judge Vidrine.”
He then shared his memories of the Louisiana Tournoi that is run after the parade. “My dad took me to see the Tournoi, and that was an amazing thing,” Judge Vidrine expressed. “Then, we had a horse that we grew up with. The horse could run pretty well, and it was a Palomino type horse. Addie Fontenot, we called him ‘Cowboy,’ rode him in the Tournoi. I think he won the speed time with it. He did not win the Tournoi championship, but he won the speed division on a horse that I used to play with.”
Decades after riding the Tilt-A-Whirl on the grounds of the old courthouse, Judge Vidrine was elected as district judge of the 13th Judicial Court for Evangeline Parish, Division “A,” in 2002 to fill an open seat when Judge Preston Aucoin retired. Judge Vidrine first sought the bench in 1990 when he ran against Judge Aucoin and retired himself in 2014.
His time in politics began previously when Judge Don McGee resigned in 1974. “Emile Coreil was state representative and Judge Burton Foret was city court judge here at the time,” explained Judge Vidrine. “Judge Foret wanted to be district judge, and Emile Coreil and him struck a deal and went see Governor Edwin Edwards. Governor Edwards appointed Burton to the district court, and Emile Coreil left the legislature and came be city court judge.”
He continued, “That created a vacancy in the House of Representatives. I was a year and a half out of law school, and I jumped into the race. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I won it. I was re-elected a year and a half later and served another term until 1980 when I did not seek re-election.”
Now, as Colonel Cotton, Judge Vidrine will become part of the Louisiana Cotton Festival’s history that he grew up witnessing here in Ville Platte. He invites everybody from Ville Platte and Evangeline Parish to attend this year’s festival that begins Tuesday with the Contradanse and ends Sunday with the running of the Grand Parade of Cotton at noon and the Tournoi at 2:00 p.m. at the Evangeline Parish Industrial Park.