Ralph Norman Bauer

Bauer was born in Patterson in St. Mary Parish to Theodore Bauer (1867-1919) and the former Ernestine Norman (1868-1944). He married the former Margaret Wooster, who was also a lawyer, and the couple adopted her distant cousin, Carl Packard Wiegmann, then twelve years of age. They renamed him Carl Wiegmann Bauer. From 1966 to 1976, Carl Bauer served in both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature from St. Mary Parish. A lawyer and businessman, Carl Bauer spent his later years as chief lobbyist for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.^[4]

Bauer was in law practice with his brother Theodore Bauer and near the end of his career with his son, Carl, as well.^[3] Norman Bauer Drive in Franklin, Louisiana, is named in his honor.

In the 1929 legislative session, freshman lawmakers Bauer and Cecil Morgan of Shreveport and second-term member Mason Spencer of Madison Parish, formed what was known as the "Dynamite Squad" to impeach Governor Huey Pierce Long, Jr., for a long list of abuses of power. Key Long supporters, including John Baptiste Fournet, Allen J. Ellender, and Lorris M. Wimberly in the House, and a phalanx of defenders in the Louisiana State Senate prevented conviction and removal from office.^[5]