Jimmy Dimos, who helped bring Louisiana back from the brink of bankruptcy as then-Gov. Buddy Roemer’s speaker of the House, died Thursday in Monroe. He was 84.
The cause of death was cardiac arrest, said Dale Dimos, his wife of 58 years.
In all, Dimos spent 24 years in the House followed by eight years as a trial judge for Ouachita and Morehouse parishes.
In 2017, he was inducted into the Louisiana Political Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Justice Hall of Fame.
Dimos was born Dimitrije Dimitrijevski in what is now Northern Macedonia and landed in the United States at age 12 without knowing a word of English. By then it was 1951, and World War II and Communist rule in what was then Yugoslavia had kept him apart from his father for a decade. His father had moved to Monroe before the war to open a restaurant and then couldn’t get home.
Dimos attended a middle school and received tutoring in English, quickly becoming proficient. He later graduated from the University of Louisiana at Monroe and then Tulane Law School.
Within a year of finishing law school, he was working in the Monroe office of the law firm headed by Gov. John McKeithen. A decade later, he formed his own law firm, handling a mixture of cases but becoming known for his work as a trial attorney.
In the meantime, Dimos was active with local political groups. In 1975, he ran for an open House seat and won. Over the next dozen years, Dimos could be counted on to vote against taxes and for spending cuts.
In 1987, Roemer defeated Gov. Edwin Edwards with the pledge to take Louisiana in a sharply different direction, as the state teetered on the edge of insolvency after the oil bust decimated Louisiana’s economy and the state’s finances.
Roemer and Dimos had a nodding acquaintance through the Junior Chamber of Commerce, a nationwide civic group.
Then-Rep. John Alario, D-Westwego, had been Edwards’ speaker and wanted to keep the job. He and Roemer had become good friends as delegates to the 1973 convention that rewrote Louisiana’s constitution. But Roemer chose Dimos.
“When they sat down to discuss the job, Jimmy was unassuming, honest, direct and humble,” said Len Sanderson, a top Roemer aide. “There was a level of trust and respect. He thought Jimmy was his own man and would be loyal to him.”
Roemer and Dimos worked closely together to pass measures to borrow money and cut spending to allow the state to pay its bills.
“He was very congenial,” said Alario. “Nobody had any friction with Jimmy, even though there was friction with Buddy.”
By 1991, the efforts by Roemer, Dimos and others had helped stabilize the state’s finances. But Roemer that year lost his re-election bid to Edwards.
Dimos remained in the House until he was elected as a judge in 1999. After not running for re-election in 2007, he returned to practicing law until a stroke in 2018 forced him to retire.
Besides Dale, Dimos’ survivors include his son and three daughters.
The funeral is scheduled at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at Grace Episcopal Church in Monroe under the direction of Mulhearn Funeral Home. Burial will follow at Riverview Cemetery in Monroe. Visitation is scheduled from 5-7 p.m. Monday at Mulhearn.
Dimos considered his four years as speaker to be the highlight of his public service. The chair at his law office, he noted to visitors, was the one he had used as speaker.
