Bobbie Landry as a Young Teenager

I thought I would share a photo of my dad tonight.  This picture caught my interest when I saw it.  I got it in 2019 when some of the cousins got together to share photos and dinner.  I can’t believe it’s been four years already.  Time sure does fly.  There were lots of great photos that I saw then that I had never seen before.  This is one of them.  It was in the Secret Collection that my cousin Daphne is the curator of.  Thanks, Daphne, for sharing those treasures with us.

What’s interesting about this photo is how it shows the changes that a few years can make when you look at photos of a family.  My dad was part of the Landry family in Lake Charles, Louisiana, during the early thirties and forties.  His father was Robert Joseph “Rob” Landry, Sr. who had grown up in Westlake, Louisiana.  His mother was Germaine Erie Patureau, and she had grown up in Crescent (Plaquemine), Louisiana.  Erie’s mother was Marie Therese Landry Patureau.  She had died when Erie was just a young girl of 14.  That’s about the same age as my dad in this photo.  Marie Therese was also the first cousin of Rob Landry.

So, yes, my dad’s parents were first cousins once removed.  But that was a long time ago, and that’s what everyone did back then.  In fact, all four of my dad’s grandparents were related to each other through the Landry family.  That’s probably why I feel so connected to the Landry name.  That, and it is my last name!  So Rob and Erie were married and they started a family.

My dad and I were both the fifth child of our families and the third son, as well.  We both had two older brothers and two older sisters.  But his older brothers were only a year apart in age, and they were 3 and 4 years older than he was.  That bit of difference is very noticeable in this photo.  Hubert on the far left and AJ in the middle look almost like adults while Bobbie (Robert Joseph Landry, Jr., my dad) still looks like a kid.  I think it’s one of a few that shows this time period.  Before long, he would catch up and become the tallest of the four brothers.  He remained the tallest even when younger brother Johnny reached his full height.  I was not like my dad in this.  My dad was 6’1 and I was only 6′.  My older brothers are taller, or at least I always thought so.  I’ve measured lately and found that I’m 6’1, so I may not be the shortest after all.  Either way is fine with me.

So there you have it.  A photo of my dad as a young teen.  A discussion of family make-up.  And a discussion of growing up.  I thought about saying something about how pleased my dad looked or how handsome they were, but I didn’t.  If you would like to address that, feel free.  I’m pretty sure the photo was taken around 1943 at my grandparents’ house in Lake Charles.