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John’s note: Joyce Aboussie is an iconic figure in both Democratic politics and the philanthropic world. In 2002, The Riverfront Times’ DJ Wilson authored an in-depth profile of Aboussie, published in the May 29-June 4 edition of the paper.

The Riverfront Times has since been sold, and Wilson passed away in 2019. To my knowledge, no versions of Wilson’s article remain online today. In the spirit of capturing Aboussie’s most valuable lessons – and to preserve Wilson’s detailed journalism – I’ve captured the original text of the RFT piece with occasional context added. For ease of readability, I’ve split the article up into seven parts, using the same topic breaks originally used by Wilson in the print piece.

— John Combest

Part 1: Joyce Aboussie

Part 2: Ron Casey learns a valuable lesson

Part 3: Joyce Aboussie and Dick Gephardt, Bob Holden, Francis Slay, Jeff Rainford, Richard Callow

Part 4: The Barry Bonds of politics

Part 5: Fundraising machine and mystique

Part 6: Gerrymandering Missouri congressional districts

Article text of Part 7 begins below:

Times have changed since Joyce Aboussie started her political career in 1976 as a volunteer in Dick Gephardt’s first run for Congress. Times haven’t changed, too.

Back in the ’70s, Alex Aboussie was responsible for the fast-food joints and 7-Elevens sprouting up on the South Side. In recent years, he has been known for packaging lots and flipping them over to be Quik-Trip gas-and-go stores.

Alex Aboussie was a member of the city school board in the carly ’60s and later held a seat on the Community Development Commission. He resigned that post after concerns were raised about conflict of-interest issues because he profited from several land deals that came hefore the commission, although he always abstained from those votes.

Then as now, the Aboussie family has seemed to have someone in the political mix and someone in the mercantile world. In the ’60s and ’70s, when a developer or property owner in the Seventh or Ninth Ward needed a passport to get through the City Hall permit and zoning maze, the word was to hire Chuck Deeba as your lawyer. After paying a goodly sum for Deeba’s legal work – and his connections – the permit, zoning variance or city inspection would be finagled.

With Joyce Aboussic, the dynamics are not so crass. If a person with a political jones wants to run for office on the Democratic ticket, it’s best to get on her good side. One way to do that is to hire her company, Telephone Contact Inc., to do voter surveys and gain access to her famed frequent-voter lists. But before that happens, a candidate must schmooze his or her way to a position of being able to hire TCI.

Once a candidate has Joyce Aboussie on the payroll, the assumption is, doors will be opened and the skids will be greased.

Then, as now, who you know, what you’ve done for them and what they can do for you is the currency of any deal, be it a political campaign, a real-estate development or a federal judgeship.

Joyce Aboussie hasn’t changed that – she’s just done it in a more modern, remote-controlled way. That she has engendered so much animosity may simply be because people resent her power and are painfully aware of her capability for vengeance.

Part of her dark image may come from her roots and the rough-and-tumble history of other local Lebanese families – the Slays, the Webbes and the Leisures. Ray Leisure, a longtime alderman of the Seventh Ward, has a hearring room in City Hall named for him.

But that family name is also widely known for a rash of car bombings, including three killings, in the early ’80s. Ray Leisure’s cousins Anthony and Paul were sentenced to life in prison for planning the bombings. Another cousin, David, was executed for his role.

Eugene Slay, Mayor Francis Slay’s cousin, was convicted in the cable-television influence-peddling scandal of 1985 but never did time because the Supreme Court overturned the law under which he was convicted. Both Sorkis Webbe Jr., an alderman, and Sorkis Webbe Sr., a committeeman, were convicted of vote fraud in the Seventh Ward. The father died before going to prison; the son did time.

The Aboussies never had such public brushes with the law, but there was at least one inconvenience. In 1978, during Alex Abousle’s dabbling in the vending-machine business, a small bomb went off at Aboussie’s house, 6736 Eichelberger Street in St. Louis Hills, It was a message bomb, not intended to hurt anyone. It didn’t.

But the bomb did explode just before midnight outside Joyce Aboussie’s bedroom window. She was 21 at the time, and police speculated she escaped injury because the drapes on her window stopped the flying glass caused by the bomb.

Several conflicting rumors swirled as to why the bomb had been planted, and one suspect was questioned with regard to his union connections. But the most credible theory centered on Art Berne, known as an organized-crime boss on the East Side, He was a tad territorial when it came to his vending machines, and perhaps, the thinking went, the Aboussies had strayed too far onto Berne’s turf.

The bomb was a warning. The Aboussies dropped out of the vending-machine business.

Five years later, in 1983, Paul, David and Anthony Leisure were charged with the bombing.

The Aboussies were the target of this minor explosion, but they have had no direct link to the seamy side of the power struggles, which included car bombings, indictments and vote fraud.

Lana Stein, chairwoman of the political science department at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, says one reason Joyce Aboussie is judged harshly by some is that she’s a powerful woman in what largely has been a man’s game. Stein is the author of the recent book St. Louis Politics: The Triumph of Tradition, a 296-page work tracing city politics from 1876 to the present. (John’s note: You can purchase St. Louis Politics: The Triumph on Tradition on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)

“There’s something else going on here – it’s gender,” says Stein. “In the history of this city you’ve had a lot of men, hardball political players, who when they say they’ll get even, they do. It’s unusual to have a woman in that role.”

Part of Aboussie’s image stems from her aversion to attention. Described by many who know her as a workaholic, her life is her work and her work is her life. She wants her private life to remain just that – private. Her main interest, besides Gephardt and TCI, is her support of St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, where she has served on the board and continues to help as a fundraiser.

Gregg Daly, St. Louis license collector and former aide to Francis Slay when he was aldermanic president, has known Aboussie for more than 25 years, starting when they both worked on the campaign of Tom Zych for president of the Board of Aldermen.

“She is very intense,” says Daly. “She works all the time. She works all the time. I don’t have that drive. She does. I sensed that long ago. She takes very little time off. As the years have gone on, it’s gotten more intense. Her line of responsibility has gotten bigger. It’s not just local stuff; she’s zeroed in nationwide. She was pretty intense way back then; it’s just that she didn’t have the playground that she’s got now. It’s a whole different set of territory that she’s operating with now than she did in her early stages.”

Unlike those who are critical of her, Daly stresses that when he has backed a candidate whom Aboussie opposes, it has never gotten in the way of their friendship.

“In my dealings with her, it’s always been ‘This campaign is over; let’s move on.” We’ve always been able to hold on to a relationship and continue on,” says Daly. “Next one, we’ll be on the same team together.”

In maintaining that relationship through the years, old friend Daly is there for Gephardr’s national political director.

“One of these days she’s going to call, and she’s going to say. ‘Gregg, listen, brother, I’ve got somebody who’s got a situation.” And I’ll say, Joyce, sure, I’m right here. I’m right here,” says Daly, “She works hard.”

So Joyce Aboussie is a throwback, a relic of the backroom politics of the past and at the same time an evolution, a descendant of that stereotype. Instead of patronage jobs and kickbacks fueling the machine, there are frequent-voter lists, access to a powerful congressman and a hookup to big-bucks donors. It’s still money and power; the only thing that has changed is the mechanism of how it corrupts and the props that surround the process.

One politician – again, talking on background, more out of fear than loathing – describes the downside of Joyce Aboussie’s grip on power this way: “The concern people should have about a monolithic political structure is the limited number of ideas and voices that become part of the public discussion. It’s just not healthy in a democracy for there to be a dearth of points of view. A lack of debate is not healthy. Developing consensus is healthy.”

When it comes down to a power broker such as Joyce Aboussie making the call, good public policy too often comes in a weak fourth – behind the political, personal and financial interests of her clients.

Or herself.

(End of article.)

Epilogue: The title of the Aboussie profile in the Riverfront Times was “Joyce Abusive.” I think that’s an unfair sobriquet, more punny than poignant.

How involved is Joyce Aboussie – and Aboussie & Associates – in political campaigns in 2025? In 2014, she told Blanche Touhill, “I don’t really run campaigns anymore. I do mostly…although I’m involved with campaigns and I’m helpful to campaigns, I’m kind of at a point in my life where I can give advice and I can raise some money and can be helpful.”

But less than a decade later, her campaign influence was still mighty. It included selecting Trudy Busch Valentine as the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in 2022. Aboussie & Associates still holds significant sway in St. Louis area Democrat politics. As Sam Page’s campaign team searches for a replacement candidate for the 2026 St. Louis County Executive primary, one can expect Aboussie’s input to be key in selecting the eventual pick.

More importantly, Joyce Aboussie continues to be a major contributor to the success of St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. You can find more about her work on behalf of St. Jude’s here.

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