In 1910, he was appointed a member of the influential Louisiana State University Board of Supervisors.

On June 19, 1933, Bolivar Kemp died unexpectedly of a heart attack at his home in Amite three weeks after the similar death of his brother and law partner, William Breed Kemp Jr. His seat ordinarily would have been filled through a special primary and general election.

In early December 1933, Governor Oscar K. Allen declared that a special election would be held eight days from the date of his announcement, and he named Kemp's widow, the former Esther Edwards Conner, known as "Lallie" Kemp, as the "unopposed" Democratic nominee.

Lallie Kemp declined to run in the subsequent May 1 special election in which Sanders defeated Harry D. Wilson, the Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry.

Lallie Kemp, who died in 1943, was appointed in 1937 by Governor Richard Leche to the Louisiana Hospital Board.