Career

Tapper was first elected to the House in 1960, with the incoming Jimmie Davis administration. He was unseated in 1964 by fellow Democrat Sammy Nunez. However, he returned to the House in a special election in 1969.

In his second stint from 1969 to 1972, Tapper served from a combined Saint Bernard and Plaquemines district.

From 1972 to 1976, he again represented only Saint Bernard Parish. In 1973, Tapper he was a delegate to the Louisiana Constitutional Convention, which produced a new governing document for his state.

The son of Elmer and Sarah Tapper, he was reared in Violet, a census-designated place in Saint Bernard Parish and a suburb of New Orleans, where Tapper assisted his father in fishing local lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. In 1952, he received his law degree from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.

He wed his high school sweetheart, the former Audra Galjour, and then entered the United States Army.

Upon discharge from military service, Tapper practiced law for thirty-five years and served a total of eleven years in the legislature, claiming to have represented the interests of "the little guy." From 1976 to 1984, Tapper was the attorney for the Louisiana Pardon Board.