Month: April 2026

6 Kids at 6 Flags in ’66

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The Landry family at Six Flags Over Texas in 1966.

I was planning on calling this post “On Vacation” or as the French would say, “En Vacances.”  But then I was looking at those six singing siblings sitting on shiny seats at Six Flags in 1966, and I had to change it.  I’ve been thinking of a big vacation trip lately, and the big trip for the Landry family back then was Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington, Texas.

We would all pile into the station wagon we had at the time and drive west toward a completely different state.  Of course, we’d play games like I Spy or Stink Pink.  Or we’d make up stupid jokes about tunas or elephants.  Sometimes we’d make the peace sign for the people in the cars behind us.  Then if they would do it back, we’d turn the peace sign into an imaginary slingshot.  We thought we were so funny.

It seemed like such a long drive back then, but it was only a few hours.  After we arrived, we’d find the campground and set up the tents.  That’s right!  We camped on the grounds at Six Flags.  We weren’t the only ones.  It’s not like we were camping on the parking lot.  I’m pretty sure it was campgrounds located at the park.  I could be wrong and it was just nearby.  Whatever the case, we’d set up two tents for the family.  One for the boys and one for the girls.  There were public restrooms where we could shower and get ready for a fun day at the theme park.

We did that camping thing at Six Flags for a few years.  Not continuously, of course.  We had to be in Jennings (Louisiana) for most of the summer so we could go to our dad’s summer band program at Northside Junior High.  Besides the grand excursions to Texas for the summers, the summer band program was the highlight.  I need to identify everyone in the photo for you in case you don’t know.  I don’t know who the person in the front seat is.  We just sat behind her and minded our own business.  The second seat has the oldest and youngest of the six siblings.  Jodie is on the left and Jamie is on the right.  On the next seat is me (Van), my mom Betty Lou Bucklin Landry, and sister Karen.  At the back of the train are Al and Rob.

So off on vacation I go.  Besides taking a break from work, I’ll be taking a break from this weekly blog.  I’m not going to Six Flags, but there will be different flags to represent the places I’m going.  A bientôt!

Keys Family Reunion 2026

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It’s time for another get together with your Keys relatives!  At least it is for the Keys family that I belong to.  We’ve gotten back into the good habit of meeting together every two years at a somewhat central location.  It’s happening on June 20 at the Catholic Church in Raymond, Louisiana.  That’s in Jefferson Davis Parish, if that helps.  It will be from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.  Two hours either side of noon.  Everyone brings tasty food and drink for all to indulge in.  I don’t know all the particulars as far as what kinds of activities will take place, but it is always enjoyable.  I enjoy seeing family members from near and far.

Henry Alfred “The Judge”, Leonard, Daisy Keys Phenice, Ruth Keys Bryan, and Mabel Keys Miller came from England in 1887 with their mother Marha Ann Cook Keys.

It’s held in Raymond because that’s the area that the first generation of the Keys family lived after they immigrated to the United States from England in 1887.  The matriarch of the family was the widow Martha Cook Keys.  Her husband Henry Keys died in 1886 when they were discussing the possibility of moving to America.  After Henry’s death, she decided to follow through with the plan.  She moved her five children to southern Louisiana where her uncle William Horsnell lived.  With the help of friends and neighbors, a house was built and they were made to feel welcome in the hamlet of Hathaway.

Martha had some heart issues which ultimately led to her death in 1896 at the age of 59.  None of her grandchildren had been born yet.  In fact, none of her children had even gotten married.  That changed a few years later when Daisy married Harry Clifton Phenice in 1900 in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  They settled in Hathaway and had seven children, including my mom’s mom Myrtle Phenice Bucklin.  One of the reasons I wrote this blog today was because of a milestone anniversary earlier this week.  On Monday (April 20, 2026), it was the 150th anniversary of the birth of Daisy.  My niece Alex shares that birthday.

Ruth was the next to marry.  She married Bert Bryan in 1901 in Jennings.  They had six children together and lived in Raymond Louisiana.  They later lived in Jennings.  Our family moved to Jennings in 1963, but I don’t think I ever met her.  I have a vague memory of a family member dying back then at a nursing home in Jennings.  My great grandmother died there, but it was in 1952.  I wasn’t around then.  Ruth died in 1967 in Jennings.  I may have confused the two deaths after hearing about Daisy dying at a nursing home.

Henry Alfred “The Judge” married Eugenia LaFosse in 1902 in Jennings.  They settled in Kinder, Louisiana, which is just a few miles west of the Raymond/Hathaway area.  They had a dozen children altogether.  With all of those children, I’m sure some of their descendants are still in the Kinder area.  It would be good to have some of them come to the reunion this year.  Leonard married Edessa Havenar in 1907 in Raymond.  They settled in Elton, Louisiana, and they had five children together.  I always mention family historian Edith Keys Segraves when talking about this family.  I also want to mention Edward Russell Keys.  He was in the military during World War II.  He was killed in action at D-Day in 1944.

The last to get married was the youngest.  Mabel married Abraham Miller in 1910 in China, Louisiana. China, Hathaway, and Raymond are all parts of the same community in Jefferson Davis Parish.  Mabel and Abraham settled in Kinder, and they had four sons together.  So like I said at the beginning of the post, the first generation lived around Raymond/Hathaway.  Daisy and Ruth lived there for some time.  Ruth moved around ten miles south to Jennings.  Mabel was about ten miles north in Elton, while The Judge and Mabel lived fifteen or so miles west in Kinder.  They were not too far spread out at that time.

The descendants are spread out all over the country now.  But they’re still invited to come to the reunion.  Make plans now!  Come visit a spell with the family.

Marie Celeste Circa 1926

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Marie Celeste Leveque (on the right) with her niece Amanda Leveque circa 1926

I figure it’s time to write about my Landry paternal line of the family.  I can’t go back as many generations with this line because the generations are spread out further than my other family lines.  In all of the other lines I have photos of my great great grandparents.  But in this line, I don’t have photos of Narcisse Landry and Marie Carmelite Hebert Landry.  Carmelite died in 1856 at the age of 54, and Narcisse died in 1876 at the age of 80.  I haven’t given up hope that there is a photo of Narcisse, but I haven’t been able to locate one.  Photos were being taken by 1876.

Narcisse and Carmelite were married in St. Gabriel in 1819, but soon after moved to Brusly to live.  I descend from two of their sons.  They had eight children in total.  Let me go ahead and name them for you.  Their oldest child was Marie Irma Landry who was born in 1821.  She married Francois Joseph Bujol in 1845.  His mother was Marie Francoise Leveque. The second child of Narcisse and Carmelite was Pierre Belisaire Landry, born in 1824.  In 1851 he married Marie Marguerite “Lise” Leveque, daughter of Joseph August Leveque.  Joseph August and Marie Francoise were Leveque siblings.

The third child of Narcisse and Carmelite was born in 1826 and her name was Victorine.  She married Jacques Molaison in 1843.  He had mostly French ancestry with some Acadian ancestry as well. Joseph Amedee Landry was the fourth child of Narcisse and Carmelite.  He was born in 1828, and in 1850 he married Desire Landry.  I’m not sure if her maiden name was Landry or not.  After Amedee came Elizabeth Adele Landry born in 1831.  She married Sylvanie Bourg in 1851.  Their descendants show up as strong DNA matches to me.  Following Elizabeth Adele is Marguerite Josephine who was born in 1834.  She married Simon Octave Rivet in 1860.  For some reason, I have no DNA matches from their descendants.

The last two children of Narcisse and Carmelite are the ones that I descend from.  Jean Trasimond Landry was born in 1839, and he married Marie Amelie “Belite” Bujol in 1867.  She was the niece of Francois Joseph Bujol, the husband of Trasimond’s sister.  But more importantly, she was the daughter of Anna Adele Landry, who was a half first cousin of Trasimond.  Adele and Trasimond had a common grandfather – Joseph Ignace Landry.  And lastly, Simon Joseph Alcide Landry was born in 1845.  Carmelite was twice as old as she was when she had her first child.  She became a grandmother that same year when daughter Victorine gave birth that December.  Alcide married Marie Celeste Leveque in 1868.  Marie Celeste was the half-sister of Lise Leveque through their father.  Their mothers – Clarissa and Marguerite Basilite Landry were sisters of Anna Adele Landry.

I wasn’t planning on writing all of this information when I picked out this photo of Marie Celeste tonight.  I ended up talking about Alcide’s family.  Like I said, I don’t have photos of his parents.  On top of that, I only have two photos of Alcide.  He must have avoided the camera.  But Celeste was not as put off by it.  I’m glad of that.  I have many photos of her.  As a matter of fact, I have three photos of her with the other person in this photo.  Her name was Amanda Leveque, and she was the daughter of Celeste’s sister Evaline. 

Evaline was married to Jean Baptiste Andre Leveque.  According to notes given by Mee Maw (Germaine Erie Patureau Landry), Evaline and J.B.A Leveque were cousins.  My ancestors may have married their cousins, but at least they never married one with the same last name.  The relationship I have for Evaline and J.B.A Leveque is questionable.  If they were first cousins, their fathers would be brothers that were born the same year.  That seems unlikely.  Plus I haven’t found official records proving the relationship.  But that’s okay.  We’re just looking at Celeste with one of her favorite nieces.  Why else would she have three photos showing them together?   I’m calling it.  This is Celeste Leveque Landry with her favorite niece Amanda Leveque.  And I’m sure that Celeste was Amanda’s favorite aunt.  What’s not to love about Grandma Celeste?

Bucklin Cousins at Easter 1966

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Bucklin cousins at Easter of 1966. Taken in Lafayette, Louisiana, on April 8, 1966.

I was tempted to call this post “My Sixth Advent” as a follow up to a post from five years ago.  That’s when I had a dream and someone told me to tell them about my fifth Advent.  In the dream I knew that they were talking about my fifth Easter.  As I said back then, I know that Lent comes before Easter and Advent comes before Christmas.  I knew what they were talking about because it was in my dream.  In my post I said that I didn’t have any photos from my sixth Advent, which would translate to Easter of 1966.  Actually, I don’t have a photo to prove what I was talking about in that post, but I do have a photo from that Easter sixty years ago, and that’s what I’m sharing today.

I decided to not be too confusing with the title, so I went with “Bucklin Cousins at Easter 1966.”  The funny thing about that is that nobody in the photo has the last name Bucklin.  But all of our moms were daughters of Fred and Myrtle Phenice Bucklin from Hathaway, Louisiana.  Specifically, only the first three daughters are represented in this photo.  That would be Sylvia Bucklin born in 1931, Betty Lou Bucklin born in 1933, and Alma Bucklin born in 1935.  They had a younger sister named Loris born in 1937 and a younger brother named Austin born in 1942.  Loris and her husband Ernest Woolley had their three sons by this point, but they aren’t in this photo.  Austin and Aunt Margaret would start their family a few months later.

It’s not the best photo, because it is a bit blurry.  But it’s a great photo because we were just cute young kids on April 8, 1966.  It’s got all six of us Landry kids, three of the five Pilcher kids, and one of the two Seal kids.  It was taken at the home of Sylvia and Ronald Pilcher in Lafayette, Louisiana.  They lived on Leonpacher Drive.  I remember walking down their road on some of our visits and I remember it being a somewhat rural area at the time.  I haven’t been there in years.  My mom was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry and my dad was Bob Landry.  We lived in Jennings at the time, so it wasn’t very far of a drive for us to visit.  Aunt Alma and her husband Chuck Seal lived in Florida, so they had a longer drive to make.

I will use the numbering system similar to the Borg from Star Trek.  Although the Borg were not known by the Star Trek universe of 1966.  It was much more associated with the Starship Enterprise, which was, by the way, built by one of my mom’s Bucklin first cousins.  His name was Mel Keys.  He, too, had a Bucklin mother.  So, the Landry children will have the designation L, followed by their birth order, and end with “of 6” since that’s how many there were of us. 

On the first row we have Rob L2 of 6, Van L5 of 6, Jamie L6 of 6, Kevin P5 of 5, and Rhonda S1 of 2.  Kneeling down behind them are Al L4 of 6, Toni P3 of 5, Jodie L1 of 6, Karen L3 of 6, and Lynn P4 of 5.   That looks kinda weird, but it does show you who everyone belongs to.  I’ve considered changing it, but as you can see, I haven’t.  And I won’t, because I’m stubborn like that.  As you should be able to tell, P1, P2, and S2 are missing.  Hopefully, they were having a fun time looking for Easter eggs or eating some Easter candy.

I wasn’t going to mention my mom’s Easter poem, but then I considered changing my mind.  And I did, because I’m stubborn like that, too.  Here is the poem she wrote long ago.

 

                  Betty Lou’s Easter Poem

That crummy, dummy Easter Bunny left no eggs for me.

That crummy, dummy Easter Bunny hopped right by with glee.

I tracked him to my neighbor’s house and stood outside his door,

and when I saw that Bunny head, I knocked it to the floor.

I tied up all his whiskers and macraméd his ears.

I sat down in my rocking chair and drank three beers.

A Clearer Photo of Belite

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I couldn’t think of anything to write about tonight.  Earlier I had an idea about posting a second photo of our family at NASA in 1969, since they just launched a manned spaceship to fly around the moon for the first time in over fifty years.  But when I got back home, I realized I had already posted that second photo.  So I jettisoned that idea.  When Chuck saw me struggling for an idea, he suggested I revisit a post from ten years ago.  That sounded fine to me.  I looked back ten years ago to the beginning of April, and I saw an old photo of my great great grandmother Marie Amelie “Belite” Bujol Landry Babin.

I couldn’t use that one, because I had only recently updated that photo with a newer version that I got from Box 301 in June of 2024.  At least I thought I had.  When I searched through the photos of Belite on my blog, there wasn’t a post with the new photo.  I had already edited the photo nicely and thought about posting it many times.  But evidently, I never did post it.  It’s a good thing I can search through my posts rather easily, because obviously I can’t remember every detail of every post I’ve written.  That’s actually one of the main reasons I write them, because I know I can’t remember all of the details that I discover.  And soon I need to get serious about putting some books together.

Marie Amelie “Belite” Bujol circa 1915.

This is the new and improved version of the old photo of Grandma Belite.  I’ve had three versions of the photo.  The first one I had must have been a Xerox copy of the old photo.  The second version was a washed-out looking scan with small, splattered spots across part of her face.  Those are hard to remove and keep the face looking accurate.  The end result was pretty good, but there weren’t as many details as there are on the newest version.

The newest version is so much better because I was able to scan an original old photo from Box 301.  That was an old box full of treasures stored in my Aunt Wana’s house.  Look at the details on this one.  You can see the wrinkles around her eyes and on her forehead.  The shape of her mouth is much clearer as well.  Both of her shoulders show up on this version of the cropped photo.  I had created a shoulder on the left side of the old photo to try to balance it.  It always looked fake to me, but the photo was unbalanced without it.  

You can also tell that she has either buttons or pinheads on her collar.  With all of the scratches and spots on the older photos, I got rid of them because I thought they didn’t belong there.  This photo shows that they did belong there.  It also shows her hair clearer.  You can see the gray hairs mixed in with the darker ones.  You can also see that her hair is not draping down her back.  It must be up in a bun, and behind her there is a shadow on the wall that at first glance looks like hair on her shoulder and back.  You can also see more details in the cloth of her clothes.  It is a much better photo all around.

Trasimond Landry circa 1861 in Brusly, Louisiana.

I still wonder what she looked like when she was younger.  In a description in a book about the Civil War, she was referred to as one of the beautiful daughters of the Veuve Bujol.  That would be Anne Adele Landry, the widow of Amedee Bujol.  Amedee had died in 1857, and Adele died in 1899.  Soon after the Civil War, Belite married the Brusly war hero Trasimond Landry.  Trasimond and Adele were half first cousins.  They had a common grandfather – Joseph Ignace Landry.  I only have one photo of Trasimond, and it is from 1861 when he joined the military.  He was just a young man.  He and Belite were married in1867 and I have never seen a photo of the wedding.  

So, I have several photos of Belite when she was older and only one of Trasimond when he was young.  But the technology of reverse-aging photos is just starting.  Now, it usually takes one photo and shows an interpretation of that photo with the person at a younger age.  Soon, it will take into account several photos of the person to get more accurate estimate of what that person would have looked like at a younger age.  Then I would be able to create a wedding photo of Trasimond and Belite!  Would that be wrong?  My answer is, “Yes, it is, but I’d still like to see it!”  

In the meantime, I’d prefer it if an old forgotten photo of that wedding would be discovered in someone’s attic.  It could happen.  Just look at this photo.