Month: April 2020

Bobby Landry at Landry Memorial in 1943

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Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. was the young 8th grade student in the middle of the photo (the taller one). He was known as Bobby back then. This was at Landry Memorial High School in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

One of my Leveque cousins made a Facebook post yesterday about Landry Memorial High School in Lake Charles.  It inspired me to write my blog about Landry Memorial today, because that’s where my dad and his brothers went to school back in the day.  I remember looking through my dad’s old report cards when I was a kid and wondered about the Landry name associated with the school.  I never really bothered to ask about it back then.  My main concern were the bad grades that my dad made.  He explained them to me by saying that he only studied for enough to pass the class.  That really didn’t help explain it to me.

Nov. 1943, p. 3

But later I found out the history of the school and the connection to the family.  When I was in high school, our family sang at Shakey’s Pizza Parlor in Lake Charles.  On Friday nights I remember there being many students from St. Louis High School that would come to listen to us sing and play for them.  Or maybe they just came for the pizza.  In college I went to St. Louis to participate in various meetings and retreats.

During that time I didn’t realize that St. Louis High had once been Landry Memorial.  I probably wasn’t paying attention when my dad likely told us that he went to school there.  To me, St. Louis was just another high school in Lake Charles.  But I found out differently later on.

My dad was an 8th grade student at Landry Memorial in 1943.  In the first photo, he is the center student in the middle row.  If you read the information in the second photo (Nov. 1943, p. 3) at the bottom of the first column, they describe my dad.  “Bobby is small but is full of fight.  I am sure that he will turn out to be as good as his brother was, who played center for the Tigers in 1941.”  The brother they were talking about was my Uncle Hubert, who was a few years older than my dad.  I don’t know if their prediction turned out accurately.  All I ever heard about were his musical undertakings.

Nov. 1943, p. 1

But the first page of that old 1943 paper is interesting as well.  It talks about the death of Mrs. J. A. Landry.  She was born Wylie Eugenia Stanton in 1868.  My dad and his siblings called her “Aunt Wylie.”  She used to send her limousine to pick up my dad’s family on Sundays to bring them to church.  It left an impression.  She died on Nov. 1, 1943.

The school talked about her death because she had been instrumental in developing it.  In 1925 she purchased the old Baptist Orphanage on Seventh Street and had it remodeled to operate as a Catholic school for boys.  The school was dedicated as Landry Memorial High School on December 15, 1927, in memory of her late husband who had died in 1923.

In the school newspaper it mentions that J. A. Landry was associated with the Perkins-Miller Lumber Company.  That is true, but he did much more than that.  He was one of the main driving forces in getting modern utilities developed in Lake Charles.  He ran an ice company called J. A. Landry & Co.  Later he had the Lake Charles Ice, Light, and Water Works Company and Lake Charles Railway, Light and Waterworks Co.  He was a forward thinking entrepreneur.  I suppose that’s why his wife dedicated the school in his name.

He was born Joseph Alfred Landry, Jr. to Joseph Alfred Landry and Marie Aloysia Leveque.  He and my grandparents (Pee Paw and Mee Maw) almost have identical family trees.  There seemed to be quite a few Landry and Leveque connections back then.  They were all related to one another in various ways.  The closest connection was that Pee Paw was J. A. Landry’s half first cousin through their Leveque mothers.  

My great grandmother Celeste Leveque Landry was a half-sister to Aloysia Leveque Landry (their mothers were Landry sisters) and Aloysia’s full brother Justinian.  Justinian was the great grandfather of that Leveque cousin I mentioned at the beginning.

Like I said, he was talking about Landry Memorial High School, too.  It’s a family thing.

Birds and Bucklins

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My grandparents home in Hathaway, Louisiana, circa 1959.

I found this photo a few years ago in a group of old negatives that I got from my parents.  I don’t really remember ever seeing a print of the photo before that, so it was a nice discovery.  I’ve been planning on using it for a blog post and that time is now.

So I cleaned it up this evening and now I’m sharing it with you.  It’s a photo from around 1958-1960 at my maternal grandparents home in Hathaway, Louisiana.  My grandparents were Fred and Myrtle Phenice Bucklin.  Grandpa is not in the photo, but he left plenty of evidence of his presence.  All of those bird carvings on the wall are his handiwork.  He carved ducks for wall hangings like this and also for decoys for hunting.  I’ve posted some color photos previously that show them, but have never commented on them before.  But how could I not comment?  They are all over that wall!  I wish I had a few of them.  But pictures of them would suffice!  (That is my hint to share!)

Grandma is prominent in the photo.  That is her working on setting the table for a tasty meal that was sure to come, especially tasty if it was followed by her fabled divinity.  She was also a teacher, a singer, an artist, and an organist.  But surely you know those things already if you have been following my blog.  Say “Hi” to Myrtle!

In the front of the photo are my three oldest siblings.  From left to right are Karen, Rob, and Jodie.  They look really excited about the meal to come.  Or maybe it was something else.  In the background on the left, you can see Aunt Sylvia and her husband Ronald Pilcher standing in the doorway.  My mom was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry and Sylvia was her older sister.  They were the oldest two of five children. 

The youngest of the five was Uncle Austin, who can be seen in the center in the back with his head in the clouds.  Not really, it just looks like that because his head was surrounded by birds.  He must have liked that feeling, because later he joined the Air Force and he spent many years working with airplanes.

The last of the subjects in the photo are some of my cousins.  I’m pretty sure they’re the children of Sylvia and Ronald Pilcher.  I’m just not sure which ones they are!  There’s a little boy and a little girl.  It’s either Larry or Paul with Toni or Lynn.  There were lots of grandkids being born during this time.  I don’t see Al, or Kevin, or Brent.  And joining the group soon would be me, Rhonda, Keith, Jamie, and Glen.  Later on would be Charla, John, Dale, and Anita.  We don’t even need to mention Mary. 

There were lots of meals that came out of that kitchen during those holidays.  And there was lots of fun with cousins that followed.  This was just a glimpse into one of those times.

Bonus photo from the same day.  In the back on the left is Aunt Alma, one of my mom’s younger sisters.  Next is my Grandma Myrtle, and Aunt Sylvia.  In front is Rob, who is looking back to the ladies, and Larry, who is looking at the table.  Larry is the boy in the original photo.  Cousin Toni claims the little girl in the original photo is her.

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 5 – Bourg/Granger

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On the Wall of Names in St. Martinville, Louisiana. Included in the Acadian Exiles of Louisiana are Joseph Bourg with his wife Marie Magdelene Granger and family. Their daughter Marie Josephe Bourg was my 5X great grandmother.

So far I have talked about several families that came to Louisiana after being Exiled from Acadie in the 1750s.  I’ve mentioned the surnames Landry, Babin, Breaux, Trahan, LeBlanc, Gautreaux, Aucoin, Hebert, and Melanson.  I’m surprised at how many names there are, and there are more to go.  I’m learning a lot from doing this series.

One of the things I’m learning is all of the roundabout ways that the Acadians made it to Louisiana.  You’d think that they didn’t want to become Cajuns!  But that was not what was on their minds.  The most important thing was survival, and after that was finding family.  The family we are focusing on this time are the Bourg and Granger families.

Joseph Bourg was born in 1733 in St. Peter & St. Paul, Cobequit, Acadie.  He was the youngest child born to 55-year-old Abraham Bourg and his second wife 37-year-old Marie Theriot.  Joseph had an older sister who was 22 years older than he was.  The information about their parents is scarce.  Their deaths are given as “after 1733,” which means that the last record of their life was the birth of their son Joseph.  Joseph was one of those in the last generation of people who lived their childhood in Acadie.  He was a young adult when the Grand Derangement began in late 1755.

He was not among the first groups of Acadians deported from Acadie.  He was either living in or had escaped to Ile St. Jean, which is now known as Prince Edward Island.  Ile St. Jean was still under French rule, so it was a sanctuary for some of the Acadian people.  It was still a time of uncertainty because they knew they could be Exiled at any time.  Yet Joseph did not put his life on hold.  In 1757 he married Marguerite Josephe Dugas.  They only had a short time together in Acadie.

After the fall of Louisbourg in July 1758 to the English, it was decided that the inhabitants of Ile St. Jean were to be Exiled to France along with other Acadians.  Several transport ships were assembled in November, when the Acadians were deported from the only homeland they knew.  They traveled on one of the “Cinq Paquebots Anglais” (“Five English Ships”).  The voyage was met with terrible disasters.  A storm delayed the ships from their intended departure date.  When they finally set out to France, they were met with another storm.  It is believed that some 1300 Acadians were lost at sea during that winter voyage to France.

Joseph was not spared from the suffering.  His wife Marguerite died on the trip, as well as his sister Elizabeth, his brother Jean Pierre, and his sister Madeleine, along with her three youngest children.  A very sad trip indeed.  Yet he did survive, as did his brother Alexandre.  They arrived in St. Malo, France on January 23, 1759.

Marriage document from Jan. 16, 1719.

Meanwhile, back in Acadie on January 16, 1719,  Joseph Granger married Ann Richard.  What’s interesting about this marriage is that there are some documents that survived from that time.  Most of the records were destroyed by the British during the Grand Derangement.  But some of them were hidden away and brought into Exile in Maryland.  When those Acadians made their way to Louisiana 12 years later, the documents made it there as well.  Pretty amazing.

Birth record for Marie Magdeleine Granger and her twin sister Anne.

The other interesting thing about this couple is that they had a daughter named Marie Magdelene who I descend from.  She was born in 1731 in Grand Pre, Acadie.  She, too, grew up in Acadie.  In 1750 she was married to a man named Alain Bujold.  In 1752 Magdelene and Alain were living in Ile St. Jean with their 9-month-old son Simon.  They had a daughter in 1756 that they named Marie Louise.  Like others living in that area, they were not deported until the fall of Louisbourg in 1758.

Magdelene was not spared from suffering during the voyage of the “Cinq Paquebots Anglais.”  Little Louise Marie died during the crossing of the ocean.  Her husband Alain’s parents (Oliver Alain Bujold and Madeleine Boudrot) also died on the voyage.  Alain would die within the first month after their arrival in St. Malo in January of 1759.  Less than a month later her boy Simon would die as well.  She must have been surely and thoroughly heartbroken with all of that loss.  She was all alone in a foreign land. 

Do me a favor and read that last paragraph again. (Or read a more detailed account here.) I think Magdelene deserves it.  She was forced from her home and lost everything that was most dear to her.  It must have been devastating.  How could she find the hope and strength to carry on?  I don’t know how she did it, but I know she did.  Otherwise I wouldn’t be here.  So let’s see what she did next.

At some time during 1759 or 1760 Magdelene met (or met again) fellow Acadian Exile Joseph Bourg.  They probably knew each other because they were second cousins from their Landry grandparents.  That did not deter them from getting married on June 30, 1760, in Pleurtuit, Ile-et-Vilaine, France.

In 1761 Magdelene and Joseph had twin sons who they named Joseph and Pierre.  A year later little Marie Joseph came along.  She is my 5X great grandmother.  In 1765 they had another son and they named him Sebastian.  The family was in St. Servan for a while, then moved on to St. Coulomb.  They were following the same path as other Exiles who were trying to form a community in France.  They had two more children, Jean Baptiste in 1768 and Elizabeth Blanche in 1770.  In 1774 Joseph’s brother Alexandre died.

Like many Acadians in France during the Exile, they found themselves in Nantes in  1776.  One of their twin sons Joseph died, and Pierre was married to fellow Acadian Marguerite Dugas.  In 1785 Joseph, Magdelene, and their four youngest children boarded the ship La Bergere headed for Louisiana.  Pierre was on the same ship with his wife.  They arrived in New Orleans on August 15, 1785.  They eventually made their home along Bayou LaFourche.

The last bit of information that I have about Joseph and Magdelene comes from the 1788 census of the LaFourche District.  It shows that Joseph was  the 56-year-old head of a household that included his 54-year old wife Marie (Magdelene) Granger, his 19-year old son Jean Baptiste, and his 18-year-old daughter Elisabeth. He and his family lived on a piece of land with six arpents frontage. They also had a cow, two horses, and four hogs.

Missing in that household was 27-year-old Marie Josephe.  Once again, what happened to her is a story for another time.

Unlike other ancestors in my tree, there is only one path to Joseph Bourg and his wife Marie Magdelene Granger.  It goes through my paternal grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau, or Mee Maw as we call her.

For other installments of this series of blog posts, click on the following links:

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 1 – Landry/Babin

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 2 – Breau/Trahan

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 3 – Braud/LeBlanc/Gauterot/Aucoin

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 4 – Hebert/Melanson

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 6 – Bujol/LeBlanc

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 7 – Foret/Bujol

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 8 – Hernandez/Babin

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 9 – Dupuis/Dugas

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 10 – Bourg/Babin/Landry

From Acadian to Cajun: Part 11 – The Ones That Didn’t Make It

Good-bye, Karen

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Easter 1963 – The Landry family siblings in happier times. From left to right is Al, Rob, Jamie, Jodie, Karen, and Van.

I was planning on writing a post in my “From Acadian to Cajun” series that I’ve been doing this year.  But then something happened that is so much more important – last night my older sister Karen passed away.

What can you say about a sibling who has passed away?  Nothing seems to be enough.  There is such a long history together.  She was already part of the family when I came around.  It seems like she should still be here, but that’s not the way life goes sometimes.  

She was diagnosed with Multiple Systems Atrophy about three years ago after several things started going wrong.  As the name implies, various systems in a person’s body begin to atrophy.  A person slowly loses functioning in the body over time.  Time that I thought we would have more of.

What I can say about her is that she dealt with her condition admirably.  She always seemed to me to be upbeat and positive.  She was a sweet and loving person.  Saying that sounds trite, but it is true.  She was a peaceful soul.  She will be missed.

Good-bye, Karen.

 

The Word is Hydroxy…

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Snapshot of Betty Lou Bucklin in the 1949-50 yearbook for the Hathaway High Hornets in southern Louisiana.

I’ve thought about writing a post about this topic for quite a while now, but I have to admit that it is a really weird topic.  But lately I keep hearing the word hydroxycholoroquine in relation to possible medical treatment for Covid-19.  Every time I hear the beginning of the word, it reminds me of one of my mom’s favorite words. 

I can’t remember the first time I heard the word.  I seem to think it was back when I was learning the word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious in 2nd grade or so.  I’m sure we must have been learning the song for school choir or something like that.  So my mom must have decided to tell me about her favorite word.  That favorite word was hydroxymercurobenzolphenonasulfate.

So I learned that word and have remembered it ever since then.  And now lately I’ve been thinking about it more often.  It’s not a word that comes up in conversation very often, if ever.  I assumed it was a word she might have heard in a science class or something.  I have tried to find out what it means or what its purpose is, and I’ve only been able to find one reference to it.  And it wasn’t online anywhere.

A note to Betty Lou from Flutina. Hathaway High School, Hathaway, Louisiana, 1949.

I found it in my mom’s old yearbook from 1949-50.  It was a message written to Barry Tone c/o Miss Betty Lou Bucklin.  (It’s a play on words.  My mom played the baritone in band.)  The message was from one Flutina the Flute.  I don’t know her identity, but her message says, “Dear Barry, They say life is hard.  Don’t let its problems get you down.  If they do, I advise the quick way out – Take some hydroxymercurobenzolphenonasulfate.” 

My only thought about it when I found it was that it was just a cute little phrase that mom and her friend joked about.  Kinda like “Wheatavitavegimin, it’s tasty!”  I didn’t think it was anything dark –  my mom taught me the word when I was a wee lad!  But when I showed it to Chuck to tell him what I was going to write about tonight, he thought it was a bit dark.  He’s right!  How did I never see that before.

Then when I looked it up online, the closest results came up with poisons and an icon with skull and crossbones.  Oh my!  I decided to write about it anyway.  Did I tell you that it was one of my mom’s favorite words?  I’m sure I did.  And I like it too!  And I know for sure my mom was not trying to encourage me to harm myself in any way.  It’s just a fun word to say.  Try it.  Hydroxymercurobenzolphenonasulfate!  See?  No harm in saying it.

Hathaway school band circa 1950

I’m still curious to know who Flutina the Flute is.  I have a photo from that yearbook and it shows a picture of the Hathaway school band.  My mom labeled a few people in the photo.  She is in the photo, as well as her sisters Alma and Loris.  She also labeled Gayle (Groth I presume).  And there on the back row is Flutina the Flute.  Of course, she is playing the flute, but I don’t know her real name. 

But I think I might know one of her favorite words!  You think?