Month: October 2025

Betty Lou in First Grade

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Betty Lou Bucklin circa 1939 in Hathaway, Louisiana.

I wasn’t sure if I had posted this photo before or not.  I searched through my posts and couldn’t find it, so I think I’m good.  I think I may have shared an animated version of it on Facebook a few years ago.  But I didn’t do an official family history post.  It definitely deserves a post, because it is so painstankling cute.

This is Betty Lou Bucklin in the fall of 1939, which would have been the year she started first grade in Hathaway, Louisiana, long before she was my mother.  I cleaned the photo up and sharpened it a bit.  The original is in pretty bad shape.  It is splotchy and there is a big dark spot on her chin.  It looks stained in some way.  I didn’t do the coloring.  I think my mom used the photo as one of her practicing photos for hand tinting.

The color tinting may have been done when she was young, because it wasn’t a very good example of it.  So I smoothed out the colors to try to make it look a little more natural.  It looks like she added a bit of red color to her lips.  That seems appropriate because if she was ever gonna have any makeup on, it would be her red lipstick.  

Betty Lou was born in 1933 in the midst of the Great Depression to Fred Bucklin and Myrtle Phenice Bucklin.  She was their second child.  By the time of 1939, there were two more sisters to join the family.  When she was born, three of her grandparents were alive.  Her paternal grandfather Louis Bucklin had died in 1929 at the age of 54.

Her paternal grandmother Addie Hine Bucklin lived nearby when she was young, so she knew her pretty well.  Addie had twelve children, so there were lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins around.  They would have big covered-dish dinners at Grandma Bucklin’s house, and Mama said that the food was always delicious.  Her mom’s parents were both alive and they lived nearby also.  Harry Clifton Phenice and Daisy Keys Phenice were her Phenice grandparents.  H. C. was known for his fiddle playing and Daisy would play along on the piano.  I think they were a big musical influence on her.

All four of my mom’s grandparents came from different areas.  Louis Bucklin had been born in Iowa to a father whose family was from Massachusetts and a mother whose family were Irish immigrants.  Addie was from Indiana.  Their family had come down to Louisiana in 1894.  Daisy was an immigrant from England.  Her family had moved to Louisiana in 1887.  H.C. had been born in Pennsylvania and lived most of his childhood in Nebraska where his father had homesteaded. 

Actually H.C.’s father was still alive the first few years of young Betty Lou’s life.  Samuel Charles Phenice could have told my mom the story of being a witness to the Lincoln Assassination when he was a young man.  But Samuel lived up in southern Nebraska/norther Kansas, and I don’t think they ever met.  She would have told us about it if she had.  She remembered her bad haircut when she was three.  She remembered taking photos with a real doll in 1938.  I think she would have remembered meeting her great grandfather. 

He died around the same time this photo was taken, but she talked about him the rest of her life.  She told me about him being a witness to the Lincoln Assassination when I was a kid.  In school we learned about the Lincoln Assassination in history class.  Of course, I had to tell the teacher that my ancestor had been a witness.  I don’t think the teacher believed me.  I can’t remember the exact details, but my mom made sure that the teacher was informed of our family’s history.  Either she talked to the teacher or she had me bring the newspaper article to school.  Similar to this one here.

Lincoln Sunday Journal, Oct. 1, 1939

 

Patureau and Parasol

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I always try to be creative and unique with the titles of my posts.  They are easier to find that way when I later go searching for them.  Maybe I should say that I try to make my posts easily searchable by their titles.  I’m not sure I succeed with either one of those descriptions.  But I do it.  I keep writing posts and I keep coming up with titles for them.  I’ve been doing that every week for almost ten years now.  Ten years!!  That’s 544 posts in that time.  And 544 titles.  I’ve been thinking about that the past few days.  It’s time for me to get serious about putting some of them together to make some books for the different family groups.  I’m not getting any younger.

Parasol girl and Erie Patureau Landry, my paternal grandmother in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Here is a photo of my paternal grandmother from around 1921.  Her name was Germaine Erie Patureau, but most of her friends just referred to her as Erie.  You know, like the lake.  She was born in Crescent, Louisiana, in 1895.  Crescent is a small community near Plaquemine along Bayou Plaquemine.  She grew up there along Bayou Road until the family moved to Lafayette in 1912.

In Lafayette she went to college at SLI and became a teacher.  She and her sisters taught in Lafayette a few years.  Then she decided to get married.  I’m not exactly sure when she got engaged.  She was married in November of 1921, so she probably got engaged earlier that year or the previous year.  And I think that’s around the time that this photo was taken.

This photo leaves me with more questions than answers.  The two girls are wearing large coats, so if I’m right about the time frame, this was probably taken around January or February of 1921.  I’m saying it was in Lafayette because that’s where Miss Patureau was living at the time.  But what’s with the parasol?  I would call it an umbrella, but it’s not raining and they are using the apparatus to (unsuccessfully) block the sun.  And I’ve never before seen a photo of someone wearing a big coat and carrying a parasol.  I looked!

And who is that girl holding the parasol?  It could be a friend, or it could be family.  The more I look at it, I think she looks like Erie’s younger sister Sylvie.  But when I look at it closer it doesn’t seem to look like her.  Just like with Erie; when I look at her in this photo it makes me think of my sister Karen.  There’s just something about it that seems Karenish.   The girl in the photo could be anyone.  I don’t think she was identified on the back of the photo.  It came from Box 301, and when I was taking photos of those pictures, I would photograph the back of it had identifying writing on it.  So she is a mystery for now and maybe forever.

But we know our dear sweet Mee Maw.  That’s who Erie became when she got older. But back then she was just Erie.  Excited about starting a new part of her life when she married that Rob Landry guy.  Counting down the days.  And making sure to protect her fair skin from the cruel winter sun.

H. C. and Daisy Carried on the Tradition

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Harry and Daisy Keys Phenice in Hathaway, Louisiana.

This is a post about the Phenice family.  My maternal grandmother was Myrtle Phenice Bucklin.  She is my connection to the name.  So I thought I would post a photo of her parents.  Actually, the photo was the only thing I knew I wanted to have in the story for tonight.  Everything else followed in its wake.  It’s a photo I only recently acquired from one of my mom’s Phenice cousins.  (Thanks, Marilyn!) 

The photo is very charming because it has my great grandparents standing front and center in front of their home in their later years.  It’s a very symmetric composition, with a window showing on each side and the front door at the center.  The top of the roof is cropped off at the top, and their feet just barely made it into the frame.  It’s a great old photo.  At least the original of it is probably great.  The quality of this one isn’t.  I hope I’ll be able to improve on that with the help of a sharing relative.

The photo must have been taken around the time that H. C. (Harry Clifton Phenice) and Daisy (Daisy Henrietta Martha Keys) had repeated a tradition in my Phenice family line.  They got married on December 27, 1900, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and I’m thinking this photo is from around 1950 or 1951.  They survived to make it through fifty years of marriage.  That’s right, they weren’t the first couple to accomplish this in the Phenice family line, and they weren’t the last.

I’ve mentioned this “tradition” before, but I haven’t given the details.  I think it’s time to do that.  The first Phenice marriage of fifty years or more – that I know of – happened on May 29, 1792, in Hagerstown, Maryland.  I’m pretty positive of the connection, but I’m not sure of the spelling of the name.  Pretty ironic since Grandma was a stickler for correct spelling and it is my superpower.  The document I’ve seen gives the groom’s name as John Archibald Phenicie.  He was born in 1765 to Stephen and Ann Finnacy.  I don’t know much about them.  I don’t know when they were married or how long they lived, so I don’t know if they were part of the tradition.

But John married Margaret Maurer in 1792.  She was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1774.  They had at least eight children that I can attribute to them, including a son named Daniel born in 1809 in Mercer County, Pennsylvania.  John and Margaret both lived until at least 1850, so they were married for 58 years or so.  Margaret shows up in the 1850 Census, and her last name is given as Finnessy.  John and Margaret are Golden Marriage #1.

Daniel also was shown with the last name of Finnessy in the 1850 Census.  I always use the last name Phenice for him, since that is the way his descendants spell the name.  There was another Daniel born around the same time and around the same place (born in 1808 in Bedford County, Pennsylvania), but he goes by the last name Phenicie.  Our Daniel was already married to Susan Jackson by the time of the 1850 Census.  They had gotten married in 1830 or 1831, probably in Somerset County.  Susan had been born (in 1806) and reared in Somerset.

Daniel and Susan did not technically make it to the 50-year mark.  That’s because Susan did not live quite long enough.  She might have made it to the beginning of the 50th year, but the dates are uncertain.  I give it to her because I have a letter that she wrote in 1877, and she was all about the family.  Daniel and Susan are Golden Marriage #2.

Another person that showed up in that 1850 Census was 6-year-old Samuel Charles Phenice.  He would grow up in Mercer, Pennsylvania, and joined the military there to fight for the North in the Civil War in 1864.  He was a witness at the Lincoln Assassination the following year.  The next year he was married to Cathrine Jane Foster, who was four years younger than him.  They had eight children, including Harry Clifton who was born in Butler County, Pennsylvania, in 1874.  A few years later the family moved to Nebraska, which is where Samuel and Kate spent the rest of their marriage.

As some of you may remember, tragedy struck in 1920 on the eve of Christmas Eve.  Kate had a terrible accident where her clothes caught on fire, and she was seriously injured.  She died from the injuries two weeks later.  For some reason I’ve always thought of her as dying young.  But she lived to be 72 and she had been married for 54 years.  She lived about the same amount of time as her mother-in-law Susan had lived, but she had gotten married younger.  Samuel and Kate are Golden Marriage #3.

H. C. and Daisy were my mom’s grandparents.  H. C. was the only grandfather my mom knew.  Her paternal grandfather died before she was born.  She seemed to be very fond of old H. C.  H.C and Daisy had seven children.  Their sons had some long marriages as well.  Sylvan was married to Mary for 56 years.  Henry and Irma were married for 57 years.  Orville was married to Elta for 59 years.  Warren and Wilma were married for just short of 54 years.  H.C. and Daisy are Golden Marriage #4.

At least Myrtle could say she had the longest lasting marriage between herself and her two sisters.  Because if there was a competition between siblings, three of her brothers outdid her.  Myrtle Phenice married Fred Bucklin on March 12, 1930, in Raymond, Louisiana.  They had five children, including my mom, Betty Lou.  They lived most of their lives in Hathaway, Louisiana, but then moved to Jennings for their last few years.  When Grandpa died in 1984, they had been married almost 54 years.  Myrtle and Fred are Golden Marriage #5.

And finally, we get to my parents.  I didn’t realize this post would be so long when I started it.  I was just going to write a short little thing about each of the six couples who set up such a stable family foundation for their children and grandchildren.  But I didn’t want to leave anyone out.  Especially my parents.  Betty Lou Bucklin married Bob Landry on November 1, 1952, in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  I’m not sure about all of the previous marriage, but I can safely say that my parents had a happy marriage that lasted for 64 years.  It was the longest of all the marriages I mentioned, and they definitely were happy with each other.  Betty and Bob are Golden Marriage #6.

The tradition continues…

Bobbie and Siblings Circa 1930

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I came across this photo tonight and I just had to share it.  I didn’t remember seeing it before, but it is in a folder that I look through from time to time.  Tonight it really stood out to me, so I cleaned it up a bit.  It took me way too long.  I think my hand has a cramp in it from all of the cleanup.  It had lots of fine scratch lines all over it.  I had to make sure the faces were clear of blemishes.  Then I didn’t want so many scratches in the background either.  Like I said, it took way too long.

The Landry children of Lake Charles, Louisiana, around 1930

But doesn’t it look amazing?!  Maybe not amazing, but it is definitely a charming photo from almost a hundred years ago.  It’s a photo of my dad with his older siblings from around 1930.  My dad was Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. and he was born on January 31, 1929, in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  He was known as Bobbie back then to his family.  They called him that the rest of his life.

The parents of these children were Robert Joseph “Rob” Landry and Germaine Erie Patureau Landry.  Rob was born and grew up in Westlake, Louisiana, and Erie was born and grew up in Crescent, Louisiana, which is around Plaquemine, Louisiana.  So how did they meet?  They were related, of course.  Erie’s mom Marie Therese Landry Patureau was the first cousin of Rob.  Cousins marrying cousins was way more common than it is now.  They definitely didn’t have the same aversion to it that people have now.

So Rob and Erie got married November 12, 1921, in Lafayette, Louisiana, which is where the Patureau family was living at the time.  But Rob and Erie went to live in Lake Charles, just across the lake from Westlake.  The first child they had was Marie Therese who was born in 1923.  That’s Marie on the far right of the photo.  The second born was Alcide Joseph and he was born in 1924.  A. J. is the one standing directly behind my dad, who you see in the front of the photo.  Actually, I think A. J. is sitting down next to the other two siblings.

When I was working on the photo, I zoomed in quite a bit to work on all the fine scratches on it.  Did I tell you that it took a long time?  Yes, I definitely did.  When I got to one little patch, I thought I was looking at some trellis under the porch or whatever it is they are sitting on.  I zoomed back out and realized that what I had seen were the plaid stockings that A. J. was wearing!  He’s got on an interesting outfit.  Moving along in the order of birth, we come to Hubert Joseph who was born in 1925.  That’s Hubert looking all cool on the far left of the photo.  I’m pretty sure this was before he learned how to play the harmonica. 

The fourth child of Rob and Erie came in 1927.  Germaine Erie was named after her mother but went by her first name.  I was thinking this photo might have come from her by way of the Secret Collection – so many of them do – but it actually came from an envelope of negatives that I discovered a few years ago.  My dad must have gotten them from his mom many years ago.  And now you can see it in all of its glory.  There may be a few little scratches left, but I got rid of most of the serious ones.  I think it was worth it.

Betty Lou in 1963

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Betty Lou Bucklin Landry on July 3, 1963, in Jennings, Louisiana.

I can’t believe I’ve never used this photo of my mom before in all of my family history posts I have written.  It’s one of my favorite photos of her.  It is so 1960s.  The bright red colors in the photo show up so saturated in the photos from that time.  And with this photo, it really makes it pop.  Her bright red lipstick.  Her red plaid flannel culottes. The red striped potholder.  Even the handy red ice crusher.  It all just pops.

The year was 1963.  The day was July 5.  See?  You can see the calendar on the wall.  I’m pretty sure that was a calendar that we would get every year from the Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic church in Jennings, Louisiana.  We had moved to Jennings from Lake Charles less than a year earlier.  My younger sister Jamie was born in Lake Charles, and July 5, 1963, was her first birthday. 

If you casually look at the calendar, you might think that July 5th was on a Wednesday that year, but you would be wrong.  It hasn’t been flipped over to July yet.  How could my mom let that happen?  Just because she had six children under the age of ten didn’t mean she could let things escape her notice!  I’m sure it was the least of her worries that day.  She had a house full of people.  Her sisters and their families were coming over to visit.

The day of the week was actually Friday.  It was probably the fourth of July weekend, so that’s why everyone was able to come.  Plus it was time for summer vacation.  Of course, I’m taking the word of whoever wrote the date on the back of this old photo.  I know all of the cousins at the time were there, because there are photos to prove that.  I don’t see a photo of a birthday cake for Jamie, but maybe I didn’t get that photo.  There might be proof.  But like the calendar, the fifth and sixth kids of the family didn’t get as much undivided attention as the earlier kids.  We don’t have as many photos of us as the others.  Of course, I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

I like seeing all the little details in this photo.  Like the potholders and that oh so familiar red ice crusher.  That thing lasted for years.  So did that pot that she’s cooking the shrimp creole in.  Again, I think my mom wrote that on the back of the photo.  Yes, she did.  I just checked the original that is sitting on my shelf across the way.  She also mentions that it was the old Dupuy place.  In another blurb she wrote that it was the Dupre place.  I’m thinking that Dupre might have been correct.  For years I thought we rented it from a Mr. Sonnier.  That’s the name of the man that came by to fix things, or collect rent, or do businessy things.  I was just a kid less than three years old.  What did I know about such things?  

We rented that old place for two years when we first moved to Jennings.  It was kinda in the country and it had a big barn in the back.  We had a dog, cats, cows, and horses.  I know the dog was ours.  Her name was Princess and there are lots of photos of her.  The cats were ours.  They were outside cats.  I always thought that they found food on their own in the barn and such places.  But tonight, I noticed the Purina Cat Chow on the top of the cabinets in this photo.  I also know that the horses were ours.  Another thing I was corrected about later in life.  I don’t know if the cows belonged to us or not.  Probably not, but Princess was good about rounding them up if they ever got loose.

The Bucklin cousins in 1963

Obviously, that first photo was taken in the kitchen in the house.  I don’t know how my mom could possibly have made enough shrimp creole for all of the people that we see in the photo of all the cousins.  Maybe they brought their own food to share.  Maybe Grandma Myrtle and Grandpa Fred brought some, too.  Though they do not show up in any of the photos.  It seems like they would have been there.  They only lived ten minutes away in Hathaway.

But look, there’s Rhonda, Larry and Rob, Toni holding Glen, Jodie holding Jamie, Lynn, Karen, and Paul.  And there are more on the floor!  Kevin, Al, Van (me), Keith, and Brent all look so painstankling cute.  Wouldn’t you say so?

Ok, they were all cute.  And so was my mom.  That’s what this post is all about.