Education
Though born in Westwego in Jefferson Parish,Nicholson was listed at the age of sixteen in the 1940 United States. Census as residing in Eunice in Saint Landry Parish in the 1940 United States. Census, along with his grandfather, Ensche Jeansonni (born c 1877), and his parents, John Nicholson, II (born c 1903), and Eve Nicholson (born c 1904).He graduated from Eunice High School and attended on a football scholarship Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge but after an injury transferred to Tulane University in New Orleans. Having studied pre-medicine, he ran a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, or Mid-Atlantic Animal Specialty Hospital unit, when he was transferred to Okinawa, where he met Rose Marie Wojtyna (born January 1923), an Army Nursing Corps officer whom he soon married.
Career
He was best known for his advocacy of the creation of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Barataria Preserve. In 1944, Nicholson enlisted in the United States Army. Fluent in French, he became an interpreter in New Caledonia on the staff of General Douglas MacArthur.
When he returned from the war to Jefferson Parish, Nicholson purchased a grandfather"s corner grocery store.
Nicholson and Loup Food Giant, as it became known, expanded to locations in Marrero, Gretna, and Kenner, with gross annual sales of $27 million. He worked to pass legislation to fund such construction projects as the Crescent City Connection, the elevated West Bank Expressway, the Earhart Expressway, and the Lafitte-Larose Highway.
He also advocated preservation of the state coastal wetlands from erosion. On February 3, 1986, Senator Nicholson told Westwego Rotarians that racial integration of public schools had "destroyed our educational base." He suggested that pupil test scores would reflect a considerable disparity if they were separated by race.
Nicholson was handily unseated in the state Senate in the 1987 nonpartisan blanket primary by his fellow Democrat Chris Ullo, also a Jefferson Parish businessman.
Ullo led a three-candidate field with 15,973 votes (548 percent) to Nicholson"s 10,847 (372 percent). A third candidate, Johnny Nobles, held the remaining 2,329 ballots (8 percent). Twelve years after his defeat, Nicholson polled 13.8 percent of the vote in the 1999 primary in a bid to unseat Ullo, who led a three-candidate field with 77.2 percent of the ballots cast.Ullo died in January 2014.
Nicholson resided in Marrero.
He has a surviving sister, Carole North. Malbrough (born c 1940) of Marrero, and had a younger deceased brother, Doctor Farrell R. Nicholson, Senior
Nicholson died of natural causes at the age of ninety. He was a Roman Catholic.
He is interred at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans.
