Five-term mayor of Houston
Louie Welch, 89, a former five-term mayor of Houston remembered for his service to the city and a remark caught on a TV microphone that ended his lengthy political career, died Sunday of lung cancer in the Texas city.
Welch’s political career began in 1949 when he was elected to the Houston City Council. He was a council member for eight years, from 1950 until 1952 and from 1956 to 1962.
After unsuccessful mayoral bids in 1952 and 1954, Welch was elected mayor in 1963.
In 1973, he did not run for reelection, joining what was then the Houston Chamber of Commerce. But he returned in 1985 in an attempt to take the mayor’s job from Kathy Whitmire.
He lost the race after saying on an open television microphone that one way to stop the spread of AIDS was to “shoot the queers.” He made the remark without realizing the microphone was on.
Some gays responded with T-shirts that sported the slogan: “Don’t shoot, Louie!”
A native of Lockney, Texas, Welch graduated from what is now Abilene Christian University. According to an obituary in Monday’s Houston Chronicle, he moved to Houston in the mid-1940s and went into the auto parts business. He later become involved with real estate and other investments.
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