NEW ORLEANS (Associated Press) -- Former Gov. Dave Treen, who was elected Louisiana's first Republican governor since Reconstruction in 1979 but lost a re-election bid to flamboyant Democrat Edwin Edwards four years later, died Thursday. He was 81.

Treen's son, David C. Treen Jr., said his father died of complications from a respiratory illness at East Jefferson General Hospital in a New Orleans suburb where he had been hospitalized for about two days.

Treen's victory over Democrat Louis Lambert was a watershed for Louisiana's Republican Party in a state long dominated by Democrats. It was a precursor to Republican growth in the state that would coincide with the two-term presidency of Ronald Reagan in the 1980s and continue through today.

Treen, however, wasn't destined to benefit from the rising Republican tide.

Treen's term was marked by frustration over a downturn in Louisiana's boom-and-bust, oil-based economy. Oil prices and production fell during his tenure, cutting sharply into state revenues. He tried to make up for it by taking on oil with a proposal to tax production, but business interests shot it down.