Marie Celeste Circa 1880

This is a photo of my great grandmother Marie Celeste Leveque Landry.  Her husband was Simon Alcide Landry.  She was the mother of my paternal grandfather Robert Joseph Landry, Sr.  She was the grandmother of my dad Bob Landry, and she was called Grandma Celeste by him and his siblings.  Even though she lived to be 86 years old, she died when my dad was only five years old.  That’s because Daddy was the fifth child and Pee Paw was 36 when he was born.  Pee Paw was Grandma Celeste’s last child, and she had him at the age of 45.  

Yet even though she died when my dad and his siblings were quite young, they always talked fondly of her.  Their Bouquet cousins talk fondly of her, too.  They descend from Pee Paw’s older brother Sebastien.  He was married to his first cousin Marie Manette Landry (daughter of Trasimond Landry – brother of Alcide).  They had a daughter named Marie Manette Landry.  The older Marie Manette died shortly after the younger was born, and Sebastien went to live with his parents.  So Marie Celeste was like a mother to granddaughter Marie Manette.  Manette grew up and married Bibb Bouquet and they had a large family that was very close to my dad’s family.

This photo came from cousin Jeanne Landry, who descended from another of Pee Paw’s older brothers – Louis.  That was the Landry family that lived in Lafayette.  The photo was identified as Marie Celeste, but it didn’t have a date.  I originally estimated a date of 1905, but last week when I thought of posting this photo, I realized that it was not quite right.  That dress looked older to me.  How much older, I didn’t know.

But a friend was coming over to visit on Friday and he is more knowledgeable about the fashion trends from that time period.  So I put off posting this photo until after I talked to him.  I also thought that the dress looked rather fancy to me.  I was told that the dress was definitely earlier than the 1905 date.  It is more likely from around 1880.  In addition, the dress is not as valuable as I thought.  That would make sense, because she was a young mother with six young children to care for.  In the 1880 Census the family was living in Brusly, Louisiana.  Celeste is identified as a 33-year-old wife and Alcide was a 35-year-old store clerk.

It was soon after this that the family would move west to Westlake, Louisiana.  I think the motivation was work availability with the railroads in that area.  I guess it would be more lucrative than working in someone else’s store.  But I suppose they made enough to have a photo portrait made of Celeste.  I wonder why they didn’t do a family portrait. Whatever the reason, it is a nice photo of her.  I like having this image of Grandma Celeste.  It’s a keeper.