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'''Robert Lafayette Frye''' (January 9, 1927 – February 4, 2011) was an [[educator]] and [[politician]] in his native [[Louisiana]].
==Background==
Frye was born to Jennings Bryan Frye, Sr. (1896–1970), and the former Fannie Mae Coyle (1900–1994) in Shongaloo, south of Springhill in Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, where at the age of sixteen he graduated from Shongaloo High School. He enrolled at [[Louisiana State University]] in [[Baton Rouge]], from which he received in 1966 his [[Ph.D.]] in education. On October 6, 1945, Frye wed the former Bettye Elmore (also born 1927), and left for stateside service in the [[United States Army]] two months after the conclusion of [[World War II]].<ref name=obit>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theadvocate/obituary.aspx?n=robert-l-frye&pid=148361868|title=Robert L. Frye|publisher=''The Baton Rouge Morning Advocate'', February 6, 2011|accessdate=February 6, 2011}}</ref>
Frye had expected to face the two-term [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[incumbent]], [[Bill Dodd]], but Dodd was instead unseated in the party primary in 1971 by Louis Joseph Michot, Jr. (1922-2012) of [[Lafayette]],<ref>Coincidentally, Frye's middle name was "Lafayette", and his opponent, Louis J. Michot, was from [[Lafayette]], Louisiana.</ref> a [[business]]man, former state representative, and member of the State Board of Education. Promising "fresh new approaches, Frye ran against Michot on the [[Republican Party|GOP]] ticket headed by [[governor|gubernatorial]] standard-bearer [[David C. Treen]], then of Jefferson Parish in [[suburb]]an [[New Orleans]], who challenged the Democrat [[Edwin Edwards]]. Other Republicans running statewide in the February 1, 1972, [[general election]] were former State Representative Morley Alvin Hudson of [[Shreveport]], the nominee for lieutenant governor and Thomas Eaton Stagg, Jr. (1923-2015), also of Shreveport, the nominee for state attorney general. All of the statewide Republican candidates went down to defeat, but Treen led his party slate by polling 42.8 percent against Edwards, winner of the first of his four nonconsecutive terms in the office.<ref name=returns>Louisiana Secretary of State, February 1, 1972, general election returns</ref>
After Michot unseated Dodd, Frye telephoned him to offer congratulations. A few weeks later, Frye alleged that Michot, along with a brother, was operating a bar in Lafayette. Frye also claimed that Michot had offered him a high level job in a new Michot education department if Frye would withdraw from the general election contest.<ref name=mph>"Frye Released Papers Say Michot Unethical", ''Minden Press-Herald,'' January 27, 1972, p. 1.</ref> Michot denied the charges<ref name=mph/> and easily prevailed, 662,597 votes (63.5 percent) to Frye's 380,896 (36.5 percent).<ref name=returns/> At the time Frye challenged Michot, the Republican Party in Louisiana numbered fewer than 38,000 registrants in the state; Frye henced polled ten times the votes of his voter base. He lost his native Webster and Tangipahoa Parish, where he resided at the time of that campaign. Frye polled majorities in East Baton Rouge Parish and five north Louisiana parishes: Caddo, Ouachita, LaSalle, Lincoln and Winn, the former stronghold of the [[Huey Long|Long]] political political faction.<ref name=returns/><ref>Billy Hathorn, "The Republican Party in Louisiana, 1920-1980", ([[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]], [[Louisiana]]: [[Northwestern State University]], 1980), p. 203</ref>
==Death and family==
