NOLA Life Stories: Jackie Clarkson & The Legacy Of Johnny Brechtel

WWNO - New Orleans Public Radio | By Thomas Walsh,

Mark Cave

Published January 28, 2016 at 6:00 AM EST

Jackie Clarkson poses outside of the Louisiana Supreme Court Building in the French Quarter.

Click here for a remembrance of Johnny Brechtel, as told by his daughter.

If you kept tabs on local politics over the past several decades, then Jackie Clarkson’s name isn’t lost on you. This staunch Democrat represented many of the city’s downtown neighborhoods from Bywater and Treme to the French Quarter and Algiers, her childhood home.

But what influenced her to pursue a life in politics? Mark Cave found out when he interviewed Ms. Clarkson for this edition ofNOLA Life Stories.

This interview was conducted for the Historic New Orleans' Collection's oral history initiative.

Louisiana News

Thomas Walsh

Thomas Walsh is an independent radio producer for WWNO. Each week he works to produce new editions of Louisiana Eats and All Things New Orleans, as well as Notes From New Orleans, The Farmer's Market Minute, and The Green Minute. Outside WWNO, Thomas is a volunteer disc jockey for WTUL, where he hosts a weekly live four-hour program broadcasting twentieth century classical music. Thomas has four years experience in audio engineering, and a BA from Trinity University in San Antonio where he double majored in communications and philosophy. Someday he will give away his entire collection of Grateful Dead concerts, which has swelled to unnecessary proportions in recent years.

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Mark Cave