Keys Reunion 2017

I thought I’d use my Throwback Thursday series to encourage everyone to try to attend the 2017 Keys Family Reunion.  It will be held on June 3 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at the Lutheran Church in Jennings.  It is being hosted by our cousins Julie Phenice Campbell and Diane Phenice Prejean.  It should be a nice celebration of 130 years of our family in the United States.

This photo is from the first Keys Reunion that I remember.  It was on June 10, 1973, at a KOA campground near Jennings off of I-10.  The newspaper article for this event is on the first page of a scrapbook that I kept back then.  It was written, of course, by the family historian Edith Keys Segraves.  The original immigrants who came from England in 1887 were Martha Cook Keys and her children Henry Alfred “The Judge”, Leonard James, Daisy, Ruth, and Mabel.  None of them survived past the year of 1967.  So the oldest generation present in 1973 were the grandchildren of that brave pioneer woman Martha Cook Keys.  My grandmother Myrtle Phenice Bucklin was one of those grandchildren present. (She is sitting right of center in a greenish dress.) One of the things that surprised me in my research is that one of those grandchildren is still alive. (She has since passed away.  Martha Bryan Boose was born in 1920 and she was present at many of the reunions.

This photo is from the Daisy Keys group.  If you look at the left of this photo, you will see a small boy standing with a greenish shirt on.  That is my first cousin Dale Bucklin.  I am standing next to him in the brown shirt and wearing my cool 70s glasses.  Standing next to me is my younger sister Jamie.  We are standing in front of aunt Margaret and uncle Austin Bucklin (holding Anita, I presume). Next to Jamie is our cousin Keith Woolley.  In front of Grandma is my cousin John Bucklin in a lavender shirt.  Behind her are my siblings Karen, Jodie, and Al.  My mom (Betty Lou Bucklin Landry) can be seen toward the right with a noticeable navy Y collar shirt.  My brother Rob is behind her to the left.  Behind her to the left is her father (Fred Bucklin).  My dad (Robert Joseph Landry, Jr.) is to the right of them with a red striped shirt that matches the background.  There are a few others I recognize; enough of them to realize that this is a photo of the descendants of Daisy Keys Phenice.  (See another version of this photo with names on it below.)  The top photo (which was used for the newspaper) includes descendants of all five of the children of Martha Keys.

I have a few memories of this reunion, but the most intriguing memory is what I haven’t seen – the videos that were taken that day.  I remember a few men walking around with these huge video cameras and lugging around extra batteries and such.  You had to put forth a lot of effort in those days to make a short video.  And they probably didn’t even have sound!  But I would still like to see some of that live action recorded on that long ago day.  So if any of you know who might have those videos or where they might be found, I would love to see them.  Or have a digital version of them.  I don’t ask for much!  I’m sure if they were found and brought to the reunion, they would be the highlight!

But this was not the first party for the Keys family.  I found an even older newspaper article from June 25, 1895.  That was before any of her children were married or had children of their own.  The article stated that in China, Louisiana, “the party at Mrs. M. A. Keys was enjoyed by all present.”  Hopefully the same will be said about our get together this year.