Category: Landry

1946 High School Graduate Bob Landry

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1946 Graduating Class of Landry Memorial in Lake Charles, Louisiana. From page three of the school yearbook The Clarion.

I was looking through photos of my dad to use as a post today and came across one from around 1945.  It made me wonder what year he graduated from high school.  Last year I posted a photo of him when he was in junior high school at Landry Memorial.  I still didn’t remember the exact year that he graduated.  So then I found this page from a school publication that says that he was in the graduating class of 1946.  That would make this year the 75th anniversary of that graduating class.

I remember seeing this page when I was growing up.  It kinda surprised me because it shows that he was on the football team for one year and the softball team for two.  I never thought of him as an athletic type of person and I seem to recall that he was against any of us playing football in school.  Not that I ever wanted to!  He definitely was in favor of us participating in band and music.

It’s obvious from what they wrote about him that he was seriously interested in music from a young age.  He had four years of band, he received music awards two different years, and his hobby was playing and collecting musical instruments.  In another article I read, it says that he started teaching other students musical instruments during his senior year because there was a shortage of music teachers during World War II.  He taught cornet, trombone, French horn, bass, clarinet, and saxophone.

Diploma for Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. at Landry Memorial Senior High School in 1946.

The article from The Clarion also says that he participated in Dramatics for four years and Sodality for three.  I knew what Dramatics was right away.  He must have been involved with plays and other productions at the high school.  But I had to look up that Sodality one.  It was a social group or fraternity for young men in the Catholic Church.  Since this was a Catholic school, that kind of makes sense.  I was surprised that he made the Roll of Honor for two years.  I must have just seen his bad grades when I was young.  Or they impressed me more.  I never thought of him as unintelligent in any way, but he did talk about studying just enough to pass what he needed to.

It also shows that he was involved with ROTC during his whole time at Landry.  That’s interesting.  I never noticed that before.  It must not have made an impression on me one way or the other.  I never think of him in that way.  I know he served in the Air Force, but he never fought in a war.  He was in the band, for Pete’s sake!  ( A nod to P.R.)  I don’t know what his motivation was for being in the ROTC for all those years.  It’s not something I recall hearing him talk about.

I’d better bring this post to a close, before I make it look like I didn’t know my own father!  I know that he graduated from high school on May 28, 1946.  Of course I only know that because I found his diploma in a box of his belongings he left.  But I take care of those family keepsakes like he did when he was alive.  I’m glad he saved them so we could have a peek into some of his high school activities.

Grandma Belite and Family

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Almost two years ago I wrote the post “Christmas 1923 With Grandma Amelie” and it included a photo from Grandma Belite’s last Christmas with some of the women in her family.  It was the first photo from that family gathering in Lafayette, Louisiana, that I had seen.  I assumed that it must have been a gathering of women, since that’s the only people in the photo.  But then I found more photos from the same event and they showed that it was a much larger gathering than I initially thought.  I’m posting two more photos from that long ago Christmas day.  They were shared with me by the Tin Can Collection keeper, my cousin Tricia.  I also got versions from my dad’s first cousin Sis and she had some of them labeled.  She has everyone in the photo labeled, which is really nice.  It looks like the photos have the same people in it.  We’ll discover that as we go along.  Right now, I don’t know.  But I should know by the time I finish this post.

Grandma Belite (on far left) with her family at Christmas in 1923. This was taken in Lafayette, Louisiana, at the home of Louis and Clemence Babin Landry on South College Road.

When I got this photo from Sis, she had all the names of the people in the photo on the back of it.  So let me tell you who everyone is and say a little bit about them.

First off we have Grandma Belite (Grandma Babin to some family members) on the left side.  She was my great great grandmother.  My dad was Bob Landry.  His mother was Erie Patureau Landry (my Mee Maw).  Erie was the daughter of Marie Therese Landry Patureau, who was the daughter of Belite.  She was born Marie Amelie Bujol in 1843 in Brusly, Louisiana, during the time of slavery.

She was known as one of the beautiful daughters of the Veuve Bujol during Civil War times.  But that was long ago even when this photo was taken and Belite was an elderly woman of 80 years old.  I wish I had a photo of her when she was a young woman.  I may have to try out some of those age-regression photo apps to see what comes out.  But unless a photo of young Belite shows up, we’ll never know just how beautiful she might have been.  This was her last Christmas.  She passed away just over a month later.

Next to Grandma Belite in the front is her granddaughter Hazel Landry.  She was the 7-year-old daughter of Belite’s daughter Clemence Babin Landry.  She was the youngest of six children.  When she grew up, she changed her name to Roberta.  That’s because she became a nun and took on the saint’s name of Robert.  So she was known as Sister Roberta.  I think I went to her Golden Jubilee or something like that many years ago.  She died in 1988.

The next two people in the photo are Emma Patureau Mouton and her daughter Therese Wynhoven.  We knew them as Aunt Emma and Tez.  Emma was my Mee Maw’s sister.  They lived in Duson, Louisiana, where Emma was the organist at the Catholic Church for many years.  She also wrote poetry.  Tez was my dad’s first cousin.  If we got confused as children and called her “Aunt Tez,” he was quick to correct us.  And I don’t think it was just for the sake of genealogical correctness.  She was a link that brought many family members together.  As the saying goes, “Misery loves company.”  And a visit from Tez could sometimes bring misery.  Though she’s been gone almost twenty years, the stories of her visits are legendary.

The last two people in the front are two of Hazel’s older siblings.  The boy next to Tez is Henry Louis Landry.  I saw his grave a few months ago when I visited Belite’s grave in Lafayette.  Just recently I had a DNA match show up on Ancestry who is a great granddaughter of Henry.  I sent her a note to let her know about photos like this that I have of her family.  Maybe she’ll be interested.  Next to Henry is his sister Wana Clemence Landry.  She never got married.  She used to have family gatherings at her home.  She is buried along with her parents and grandparents in Lafayette.

On the back row we begin with Belite’s granddaughter Marie Therese Patureau.  She was another of my Mee Maw’s sisters.  She was known as Aunt Bee, like the character on The Andy Griffith Show.  She was a young woman in this photo and almost ten years later she would marry Clarence Schafer.  She was the mother of Sis and Syl.  For the sake of clarity for this picture, I’ll call her Patureau Sis.  She is the one who provided the names for all these people.

Next to Bee is Belite’s daughter Clemence.  She was the mother of Henry, Hazel, and Wana C.  She was the half-sister of my great grandmother Marie Therese Landry Patureau.  Her father was Magloire Babin, the second husband of Belite.  She had an older full sister named Amelie who died as a child.  She also had a younger sister named Albine who died in 1903 at the age of 18.  So Clemence was the only one of Belite and Magloire’s daughters to have children of her own.  And since Clemence (Aunt Clem) married Pee Paw’s brother Louis Joseph Peter Landry (Uncle Louie), they are double kin to us.  This photo was taken at their home in Lafayette on South College Road.

After Clemence comes three family members in my line of the family.  Vincent Maximilian Patureau was married to Belite’s daughter Marie Therese, who I have identified as my great grandmother.  So he was my great grandfather, but I always refer to him as Grampa Max.  He is standing next to his daughter Lydwin Patureau who is holding his granddaughter Mona Mel Mouton.  Lydwin or Aunt Win also never married and did not have any offspring.  She is holding her sister Emma’s youngest daughter (at the time) Mona Mel who was born earlier that year.  Mona Mel did get married, but she did not have any children of her own.

The next group are the three older children of Clemence and Louis.  Ethelbert was the third child and he went by Bert.  I don’t know much about him.  Call it the middle child syndrome.  Next to Bert is Naomi Landry and for the sake of this post I’ll call her the Landry Sis.  So my dad had two first cousins that were called Sis and both of them were interested in family history and have been helpful to me.  My dad made a video where he talked with Landry Sis about all of the cousins and their families.  She also identified some family photos.  Patureau Sis is much younger and is still around to help out with family history information and photos. 

Back to the photo.  After Landry Sis is Thornwell Fay Landry.  He was the oldest child of the family of six children.  I just realized that they had three boys and three girls, just like the family I grew up in.  They had about the same spacing in ages that we had, too.  I wonder if they enjoyed it as much as I did?  After Thornwell is Mee Maw’s younger sister Sylvia.  A few years later she would marry Son Marionneaux.  Like Mee Maw she would have a large family of four sons and four daughters.

The tall man in the back on the right in this photo is Anthony Joseph Mouton.  He was married to Mee Maw’s sister Emma and was known as Uncle Toby.  He lived in Duson, Louisiana, and died in 1969.  I don’t have any memories of him, but my brother Rob and my older cousins do.  He must have been a pleasant fellow, because everyone seems to speak of him fondly.  The last person on the right in this photo is Mee Maw’s brother Vincent.  He lived in Baton Rouge like I do.  One of my favorite family heirlooms is a banjo that belonged to him.

Landry family in 1923 at Christmas

Now to look at this other photo from the same day.  I decided to post it with the other one because I actually prefer it to the other one.  But the other one had the names provided, so I went with that one first.  It wasn’t until I got to Uncle Toby in my descriptions that I realized that the tall guy in the back right of this photo isn’t Uncle Toby.  He’s in the same location in the photo and he’s even posing the same way, but Uncle Toby is in the front holding Tez in this one.

The new person in this photo to the far right is Louis Joseph Peter Landry.  He was an older brother of my Pee Paw and he’s the father of six of Belite’s grandchildren in the photos.  He was the son-in-law of Belite.  But beside that, Louis’s mother Marie Celeste Leveque was Belite’s first cousin.  That puts a whole new spin on the relationships I talked about in these photos.

But all you really need to know is that they were family getting together to make sure that their cherished Grandma Babin (or Grandma Belite) had a wonderful final Christmas.

Pee Paw Worked at Gulf States

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Robert Joseph “Rob” Landry, Sr. (on the left) receiving his 40 year service award pin from Gulf States Utilities. “President Nelson” is giving him a congratulatory handshake.

I thought I may have posted this photo before, but I could find no evidence of it.  It’s hard to remember which photos I’ve actually posted on here after I’ve shared over 250 photos and/or stories.  There are hundreds of other photos that I’ve considered posting and sometimes I think I’ve actually used them when I haven’t. 

I got this photo from Uncle A. J. a few years ago.  It didn’t have any identifying information written on it, but that was okay.  I already had the information about the photo.  It was published in a Gulf States Utilities May 1957 newsletter called ‘Plain Talks’ and it was captioned, “R. J. Landry  received his 40-year pin at the banquet held in Lake Charles this month.”  He was the only one receiving the 40 year pin that year.  That’s why he is alone in the photo.  There were 10-year, 20-year, and 30-year pins given out, as well.  Those were given out in groups.  Pee Paw was the top of the heap with his 40 years of service!

The other man in this photo was in all of the photos.  I didn’t know who he was, but then I noticed he was in another photo honoring two members from Beaumont who also received 40-year pins.  In that photo he is identified as President Nelson.  He must have been the president of Gulf States Utilities at the time.

Reddy Kilowatt service pin

Forty years is a long time to work for one company.  And all they got was a little pin?  I say that now, but my dad had a few Reddy Kilowatt pins in his chest of drawers when we were kids.  I always thought it was kinda cool.  “Who is Reddy Kilowatt?” you asked.  He was the cartoon spokesman for Gulf States back in the day.  His body was made up of red lightning bolts.  And my grandfather knew him personally!  At least he got a few pins from his years of service at that company.  Of course he was probably paid pretty well and most of those companies had a good retirement plan for their dedicated employees.

Page from 1957 Gulf States Utilities newsletter.

Pee Paw did not benefit from that retirement plan.  Ironically, in that same May 1957 newsletter, there was an article that warned about the signs of a heart attack.  On the opposite side of another photo of Pee Paw showing the 40 year employees, the article was titled “Have a Heart to Heart Talk With Yourself.”  I wonder if recently-turned 64-year-old  Rob Landry had a heart to heart talk with himself?  If he did, it doesn’t seem to have helped.  He died from a heart attack on August 28, 1957.

So this is one of the last photos of my paternal grandfather.  It’s nice that they recognized his dedication to their company.  I don’t even know if he retired.  I’ve always heard about people who retire and then die shortly afterwards, but I don’t recall that being the case for my grandfather.  I’m sure one of my older cousins will help me out with that piece of information. (I was right, cousin Kenny said that he died just as he was about to retire.)  They might even share a photo of a Reddy Kilowatt pin.  (My sister Jamie shared the photo of a pin she has.)  Pee Paw died before I was born, so I was never able to ask him any questions about his life.  I think I missed out on knowing a good man.

Mee Maw and Her Leveque kin

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Marie Celeste Leveque Landry, Amanda Leveque, Marie Therese Landry, Germaine Erie Patureau Landry, and Landry child in Lake Charles, Louisiana, circa 1927.

Here is a sweet looking family group photo from my dad’s side of the family.  It was taken around 1930, give or take a couple of years.  I got the photo in 2019 when some cousins met up to share their treasures.  This is one that came from the Secret Collection.  I have shared two other photos that look like they were taken on the same day.  The other photos didn’t have as many people in it. 

My dad’s name was Bob Landry.  At least that’s what most people called him.  But he was also known as Pluto by quite a few people.  His family mostly called him Bobbie or Uncle Bobbie.  He was born in January of 1929.  So it’s possible that the youngest child in this photo could be him.  Or it could be one of his older siblings.  Like me, he had two older brothers and two older sisters when he was born.  I wish these photos had been identified with the date.

My dad’s parents were Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. and Germaine Erie Patureau.  They were known as Rob and Erie.  He was also known as Pappy, and I think that he got that nickname when he was playing semi-professional baseball in the 1910s.  Us grandchildren knew them as Pee Paw and Mee Maw.  Mee Maw is the young mother with her two children in this photo.  Marie is in the middle of the photo and she is the oldest of her children.  Now that I say that, I’m thinking that Marie can’t be older than 3 or 4 and she was born in 1923.  So that would mean that this is not a photo of my dad.  The child in Mee Maw’s lap was probably one of her older sons A.J. or Hubert. 

On the left in this photo is Pee Paw’s mother Marie Celeste Leveque Landry.  These grandchildren are her youngest grandchildren.  In fact her oldest grandchild Manette Landry Bouquet was starting her own equally large family around the same time as her Uncle Rob.  The two families have been close until this day.  So even though they were all the same ages, my dad’s family was from a different generation.  That’s because Rob was Grandma Celeste’s youngest child.

Since I called this post “Mee Maw and Her Leveque Kin,” I have to tell you of their Leveque connection.  Because not only is Grandma Celeste Erie’s mother-in-law, they were also related by blood.  Celeste was the daughter of Josephe Auguste Leveque.  Joseph had a sister named Marie Francoise Leveque.  Francoise was the great great grandmother of Erie.  That would make Erie the first cousin three times removed of Celeste. 

The other person in this photo is also a Leveque.  Her name is Amanda Leveque and she was the daughter of Celeste’s sister Evalina.  So Amanda was Pee Paw’s first cousin and Mee Maw’s second cousin twice removed.  She was born in New Orleans in 1866 and was living there until at least 1910 according to the Census.  Grandma Celeste was living in Lafayette at the time.  So Amanda must have met up with her Aunt Celeste and came to visit some family in Lake Charles.  It looks like they were having a nice visit.  I’m glad they decided to take a few photos to commemorate the visit.

Four Years Gone

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Betty, Jodie, and Bob Landry in January of 1955.

It has now been four years since the week that both of my parents died five days apart.  The anniversary of my mom’s death was two days ago and the anniversary of my dad’s death will be in three days.  Losing your parents in such a short time was rough.  It did seem appropriate that they had a joint funeral, since they had been happily married for 64 years.  Some people back then would say things like, “That’s kinda romantic, though.”  I have to say that at the time, there was nothing romantic about it to me.

They had been living in Assisted Living in Lake Charles, Louisiana, for two years and had grown very dependent on each other.  The main reason that they moved into Assisted Living is that my dad couldn’t keep up with my mom.  She was physically strong, but her memory was fading.  She could easily take a week’s worth of her medications on the same day and not realize it.  He was slowing down physically and finally took our advice to move out of their home.  We all thought it was for the best.

Three months before they died, my mom had a fall and broke her shoulder and her hip.  At the same time my dad became very weak with a few medical problems.  My mom’s physical problems got better, but my dad’s did not.  He had no energy and was extremely weak.  On that January 18th I got a call that he could be dying at any time.  Then later that night I got another call about my mom falling and hitting her head.  What actually happened is that she had a stroke and died the next morning.  My dad got progressively worse and died five days later.  Does that sound romantic?

The Landry family in December of 1983 in Jennings, LA.

But now, I have to admit, the sting of it all has eased up a bit.  If I’m not thinking too much about it, I can agree that it was somewhat romantic.  Anybody that knew them knew that they loved each other.  It was pretty obvious.  My mom told me years ago that that was the most important thing for children to know – that their parents loved each other.  Since that’s what she believed to be important, I figure I’d post a few photos to show how that love expanded through the years.

The first photo is from January of 1955.  By this time, they had already welcomed little Jodie into their circle of love.  Don’t they look like a sweet little family?  Yes, you’re right!  They need more.  My brother Rob would be joining them in a few months.  But as I once said in a song I wrote for their 50th wedding anniversary, “Two would never do.”  They had Jodie in California and Rob was born in April 1955 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  I don’t know when they moved there, so the photo was taken either in California or New Mexico.  The rest of us kids – Karen, Al, Van, and Jamie – were born in Lake Charles.

You can see all of us kids in the second photo, which was taken in 1983.  From left to right is Jamie, Bob, Karen, Rob, Betty, Al, and Jodie.  This was taken at their house at 758 Lucy Street.  The family is definitely growing, as you can see.  Jodie gave them their first grandchild Chris in 1981.  And Karen had little James just a few months before this photo was taken.  My parents certainly enjoyed their roles as grandparent.  They taught them to sing, to paint, to play ping pong, to make Pappy biscuits, to make liver pie sandwiches – the list goes on.  Chris and James were the first two of twelve grandchildren that they would get to know and love over the years.  We would lose Jodie in 1989.  Those who are greatly loved are greatly missed.

Four generations in 2008 – Bob and Betty with daughter Karen, grandson James, and great granddaughter Kelcie.

The last photo was taken on November 27, 2008.  It was also taken at 758 Lucy Street.  But this time little James in that last photo is now a father himself.  So now Bob and Betty were great grandparents and they still had enough love to share with that little one!  Great grandson Hudson showed up in 2013 and Henry showed up on my mom’s last birthday in 2016.  Two more little ones to love.  My mom was losing her memory by this point.  She loved those kids – when she was reminded of who they were.

And all of this came about because a little Hathaway country girl met a slightly older boy from the big city of Lake Charles and they fell in love.  That’s sounds a little more romantic.

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

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It’s time to finish up my Acadian to Cajun series that I wrote throughout the year 2020.  I’ve covered all of the lines of my family that came to Louisiana from Acadie.  I’ve learned a lot while writing this series.  Before I started doing the research, I only knew that my family lines had been deported to Maryland and France.  I discovered that other family lines were deported to Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Massachusetts.  Some other family members had made their way to Ile St. Jean which was under French rule until 1758.  From those places, they made their way to England, France, and St. Domingue (Haiti) before arriving in Louisiana –  if they survived long enough. 

It’s time to talk about the ones that didn’t make it.  Obviously the ones that I descend from that didn’t make it were adults who had children already.  I didn’t talk about all of the family members who were affected by the Grand Derangement in the original installments.  Either I didn’t know about them or I didn’t want to overly complicate the stories at the time.  But they deserve a mention.

Installment 1 was about the extended families of Augustin Landry and Marie Madeleine Babin.

From Installment 1 of my Acadian to Cajun series, I’ve already talked about Pierre Landry.  He was the father of Augustin Landry who brought his family to Louisiana by way of Upper Marlboro, Maryland.  I talked about him in my post about Landry Grandfathers.  Augustin’s wife was Marie Magdelena Babin and her mother was Marguerite Bourg.  I talked about Marguerite in Installment 10.  But I didn’t talk about  Marguerite’s father Alexandre Bourg who was still alive at the time of the Grand Derangement. 

Can you imagine your whole life turning upside down  at the age of 84?  That’s what happened to Alexandre.  He moved to Ile St. Jean sometime in the early 1750s.  He was living with his daughter Anne and her husband Joseph LeBlanc in 1752 in Port Toulouse.  He somehow escaped being Exiled after the fall of Louisbourg in 1758.  He had been a royal notary for many years, so he may have still had some political connections on both the French and English sides of the conflict.  He was 87 years old at the time.  He was 89 years old when he died in 1760 in Richiboucton, New Brunswick, Canada.

Installment 2 covered the family of Antoine Breau and Marguerite Landry. Antoine’s mother Claire Trahan is listed below him. I could find no information about the ancestors of Marguerite Landry.

In Installment 2, I talked about the Charles Breaux family who was Exiled to Port Tobacco, Maryland, in 1755.  Charles died in Port Tobacco sometime around between 1763 and 1765.  His wife Claire Trahan made it to Louisiana where she lived a short while.  Claire’s mother was Marie Helene Pellerin and she was alive in 1755, but she was living in Ile St. Jean which was still under French rule.  She died August 27, 1756, at the age of 87.  She was my 7x great grandmother.

In Installment 3, I talked about the Pierre Breaux family.  Pierre was the brother of Charles Breaux.  Some of his family were also Exiled to Port Tobacco and Pierre died before 1763.  In the meantime his son Honore had been deported to Virginia and was sent on to England and France.  He eventually married Elizabeth LeBlanc.  She was the daughter of Victor LeBlanc and Marie Aucoin.  I talked about the tragic deaths of Marie, her parents, and two of her young children by her second husband Gregoire Maillet.

Installment 3 was about Honore Braud, Elisabeth Le Blanc, and their extended families

But I didn’t tell you anything about Victor LeBlanc’s family.  I doubt that anybody noticed because I was talking about so many people.  The other reason I didn’t write about it was that I wasn’t sure about his family.  When I looked around for information about him, I found different parents than what I had .  My dad had obtained that information from Acadian researcher Bona Arnsenault.  But recently more information was discovered that showed he was from a different family.  I needed time to “Let go of” his previous parents and make the changes. 

His parents were Pierre ‘dit Pinou’ LeBlanc (1685-1769) and Francoise Landry (1693-1767).  I descend from siblings of both of them, so there were no new lines to add to the tree.  Francoise was the sister of Pierre Landry who I mentioned earlier.  Pierre LeBlanc and Francoise Landry were Exiled to Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. They both showed up on a 1757 Census of Acadian Exiles, as well as another one conducted in 1763.  After the Seven Year War was over, many of the Acadian Exiles in Massachusetts decided to return to Canada.   Around May 17, 1767, Pierre and Francoise, along with the family of their daughter Angelique (married to Germaine Dupuis, the first cousin of my ancestor Joseph Dupuis from Installment 9), boarded the schooner Abigail bound for Quebec.  They arrived in Quebec on June 18.  Sadly, Francoise died a few months later on October 3, 1767, in Lavaltrie, Quebec, at the age of 74.  Pierre died on October 22, 1769, in Montreal at the age of 84.

Pierre Paul Hebert’s and Marguerite LeBlanc’s families were discussed in Installment 4.

In Installment 4, we talked about the Hebert family.  They were Exiled to Georgetown, Maryland.  If you’re keeping track, my ancestors were deported to four locations in Maryland:  Upper Marlboro, Port Tobacco, Oxford, and Georgetown.  They seemed comparatively the safest places to be Exiled.  I could be biased since my ancestors survived being deported there.  We descend from survivors of catastrophes through the ages.  Just because a person is a Holocaust survivor doesn’t mean that they had an easy time of it.  And it’s not like they had a choice.

I mentioned in that installment that Marguerite LeBlanc (the wife of Pierre Paul Hebert) was the daughter of Antoine LeBlanc and Marie Babin.  I am a bit more sure of her parentage than back then and have found out more information about them.  To make things perfectly clear, I found out that Antoine LeBlanc and Victor LeBlanc were double first cousins.  That means that his father Antoine was the brother of Pierre ‘dit Pinou’ LeBlanc and his mother Anne Landry was the sister of Francoise Landry.  Antoine LeBlanc (the grandfather of Marguerite) died before the Grand Derangement in 1739 in Grand Pre, Acadie.  His wife Anne Landry (my ancestor) was Exiled to Massachusetts like her sister.  She also died in Quebec in 1767 like her sister.  Anne was 79 years old when she died.  The younger Antoine LeBlanc (father of Marguerite) died in 1744 at less than 40 years of age.  It is believed that his wife Marie Babin (my ancestor) was deported to Virginia, which is very unfortunate.  They were sent on to England where they were treated poorly.  Many of them suffered from smallpox and died.  It looks like Marie was one of those that died in 1756 in that group.

Installment 5 discussed the families of Joseph Bourg and Marie Magdelene Granger.

In Installment 5, I told you about the very tragic story of Magdelene Granger, my 6x great grandmother.  Her first marriage was to Alain Bujol.  They had two children together in Ile St. Jean, but were later deported in 1758 at the fall of Louisbourg.  She was the only survivor of her little family due to the circumstances of being Exiled.  I found out that her father Joseph Granger was alive at the time of the initial deportations in 1755.  I descend from his first wife Anne Richard who died in 1751.  Joseph remarried shortly after that (he was 54 years old) to a Marguerite Gautrot.  They had two sons before the deportations began.  Joseph’s family was deported  to Virginia. (cue the somber music) They were on a ship that arrived in England in June of 1756.  There was no sweet reunion for Joseph and Magdelene.  When she was married in 1760, Joseph is listed as deceased.  She is my inspiration for perseverance! 

Installments 6 and 7 were about the families of the brothers Etienne and Joseph Bugeaud. I descend from both of them.

In Installment 6, Joseph Bujol and Anne LeBlanc were sent into Exile with their family to Oxford, Maryland.  I bet you were relieved to hear that they weren’t sent to Virginia!  This history is so full of tragedies.  Thankfully this little family fared well during their time in Exile.  The family stayed intact and actually grew during their time in Maryland.  This wasn’t true for their extended families.  Anne’s mother Jeanne Bourgeois was Exiled to Cambridge, Massachusetts.  She arrived in December 1755 and it was the last that was heard of her.  Three of her children died in Liverpool, England, in 1756 and another one died in France in 1759.  Jeanne was probably not aware of their deaths since those events happened across the ocean.  We know that she had died before the 1763 Census at the age of about 70.

The story in Installment 7 was about Joseph Bujol’s brother Etienne and his wife Anne Forest.  Anne was another of those with a tragic story.  She lost her first husband during the Exile.  What I didn’t mention in that installment was the fate of her parents Pierre Forest and Madelaine Babin.  They were alive when the Grand Derangement began and they were deported to Weymouth, Massachusetts.  He died within the first year of Exile at the age of 62.  Madelaine shows up on the November 10, 1756, Census in Weymouth as a widow.  There are no records of her after that time.  So she probably died shortly after that before the age of 60.

Joseph and Etienne’s extended family was not Exiled during the initial deportations of 1756.  They had several younger brothers and sisters who moved to Ile St. Jean with their parents Joseph Bujol and Josette Landry.  They were there by the time of the Census of 1752.  So while Joseph the younger and Etienne were Exiled with their families in 1755, other family members were able to stay at Ile St. Jean until 1758.  It was at this point that Joseph the elder died.  Either he died prior to the deportation or as a result of it.  He was 59 years old.  Josette and some of her children fled north with the help of a son-in-law who was part of the Acadian militia.  They surrendered to the British and were held in Nova Scotia until the end of the Seven Year War.  They made their way to Quebec and settled there.  Josette eventually died on June 8, 1778, in Bonaventure, Quebec, at the age of 77.  She did not see her sons Joseph and Etienne during the last 22 years of her life.

So that’s it.  I previously covered the extended families of the ancestors I discussed in Installments 8, 9, and 10.  I don’t think I’ll ever think of the Grand Derangement or even Acadie in the same way ever again.  Hopefully I’ll always be aware of the difficulties my ancestors had to endure in order for me to be able to call myself a Cajun.  Even though those I mentioned in this post didn’t survive the Exile to make it to Louisiana, I will still consider them honorary Cajuns!  I think of it as a title of respect and they definitely deserve it.

For other installments of the “From Acadian to Cajun” series, 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 5 – Bourg/Granger

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

Christmas Eve at Mee Maw’s

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Landry Christmas 1966

Christmas Eve at Mee Maw’s in 1966.  That would be Germaine Erie Patureau Landry’s home in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Last week I talked about one of the traditions of our family during the 1960s.  That one involved the music at the junior high school where my dad taught in Jennings, Louisiana.  This week I’m looking at the other family traditions from that same time period.  I realized a few weeks ago that I really hadn’t written much about Christmas traditions in the Landry household, even at the Christmas time of year.  I also realized I had lots of Christmas photos that need to be shared.

So that’s what I’m doing – sharing some Christmas cheer by way of old family photos.  It’s what you do on a family history blog, right?  And the big event for the Landry family aunts, uncles, and cousins was the Christmas Eve get together at Mee Maw’s house.  As you can see from the photos, there were lots of family members!  My dad was Robert Joseph Landry – better known as Bobbie by the family – and he was from a family of eight children.  His mom was Erie Patureau Landry and she was the matriarch of this large group.  And she loved family.

The Christmas Eve get together in 1967.

She had to if she was willing to have this large group of people in her house!  It started out with her, her children, and her daughters- in-law and sons-in-law.  That’s seventeen people, and by the time I was born, there at least fifteen grandchildren.  It continued to grow for a while longer, so in 1966 there were lots of excited little children around.  What’s even more amazing is that she had a gift for every one of her grandchildren at this event.  And since we were Catholic, we all had godparents.  So we got gifts from our godparents as well.  At some point we drew names and bought gifts for the person we picked.  That’s a lot of gifts in one place!  I remember how the people handing out gifts had to be careful not to step on anyone or anybody’s newly opened present!

From an old family recipe. Pate’ de fois gras made by Greg Raley (#73 in photos). He and my brother Rob are two from my generation that are keeping the tradition alive.

The other part of this get together was the food.  Everyone brought food to share with the family.  There was always plenty to eat and it was all tasty.  One thing that we used to have at some of these events seems to be unique to my family.  My grandmother had an old family recipe for pate de fois gras.  It was a spread made with goose or pork livers.  I never have liked liver, but I did like the pate.  My dad would make it and we would make sandwiches with it and eat it for breakfast.  We would eat our liver pie sandwiches after dipping them in coffee milk.  Sometimes my dad and his siblings would bring a sampling of their latest batch and compare it with each other.  I’m trying to find out the origin of this recipe, so if any extended family are familiar with the history, let me know.  I’ve been wondering if it comes from our Leveque line.

When it was getting later at these Christmas Eve gatherings, I remember going outside with the cousins and looking up in the sky to see what could be seen.  Some of the older ones would say, “Is that Santa there?”  I would look to see if there was a telling red light trailing across the sky.  Those were such days of wonder and longing.  Waiting for Christmas day seemed like forever.  The family gatherings were such a highlight.

I think of those events from time to time when I’m doing my family research.  With my dad’s ancestry being French and Acadian, the old records are written in French.  I’m able to make out most of what is written on a birth or baptism record.  The first word I was familiar with was the word for godfather – parrain.  That’s because I remember getting a gift from Uncle Johnny (my godfather) one Christmas and it said it was from “Your Parrain.”  I started learning about my family history at a young age!  But I wouldn’t enjoy my family history as much without having such great family memories of my own to recall.

Merry Christmas everyone!

IDs –  I can’t leave without letting you know the names of everyone in the photos.  I got most of them, but some I couldn’t tell.  That’s bad when I can tell who is who in photos of my great grandparents’ siblings, but can’t tell who my own first cousins are from 50 years ago.  Like I said, there are so many of them.  And not all of them are looking at the camera.  I can’t see some faces clearly, so I appreciate any help with identifications.  I went ahead and made a list of names and used the numbering system of the list for both photos.

List of my Mee Maw and her children and grandchildren

Christmas in the 1960s in Jennings

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One of the memorable things for me while growing up in the small town of Jennings, Louisiana, was the Christmas Concert at Northside Junior High School.  At least I think it was a Christmas Concert.  My dad was Bob Landry, the man – the legend.  Sorry.  I had to put that in there.  One time I was talking about my childhood and I mentioned my dad.  The person stopped me and said, “Your dad is Bob Landry?  He’s a legend!” (or something similar) Actually he was the chorus and band director at the junior high school for many years.  He had been in Elton, Louisiana, for two years and then started in Jennings in 1965.  I mentioned that in a previous post and talked about the summer band program that was so memorable.

Jennings Northside Junior High School gym circa 1965.

But the thing I didn’t mention was the Christmas Concert.  I saved that for later.  That time is now.  I even have a photo to go with the story.  It’s from the same time period, but I don’t think it’s from a Christmas Concert.  The photo looks more like an end of the year Awards Ceremony.  My dad is at the mic talking about something.  He’s directly behind a table that has two trophies on it.  I’m not sure what that was about, but they look like they could be for music.  I can see that one of them has a harp symbol for musical instruments on top of it. (Directly below one of his elbows.)

I also see Lou Gaudet sitting down next to the flag behind him.   There also seems to be some other teachers or administrators for the school sitting on chairs  in the front.  Behind them is the band.  I can recognize my oldest sister Jodie in a blue dress between my dad and the tuba.  Then to the right is the chorus.  I’m sure they’re all ready to make some music. 

If this was the Christmas Concert I’d know for sure one of the songs they would be singing.  It seems like we sang it every year.  We loved singing it.  It had some interesting harmonies and echoes, and the older guys wanted to be the ones singing, “Bum pa dum pa dum, dum dum” in a deep voice.  The name of the song was  “The Carol of the Star.”  At least that’s what we called it.  It’s a great song and I’ve never heard it since that time from any other place.  I’ve searched for the song for years.  It seems like I’ve searched for it online for over 15 years.  And I never found it…until today.

My story was going to be that I never could find it and how amazing it is that you couldn’t find something on the internet.  I searched for the first few words of the song today and came up with a result.  The song is originally called “The Love Star” and it was recorded by Harry Simone and His Orchestra in 1959.  I’m sure that’s where my dad found it.  It sounds like something he would listen to.  I listened to it, but it doesn’t compare to the way we sang it back when we were kids at Northside Junior High.  It doesn’t have any “Bum pa dum pa dum, dum dum” in it.  Not a one!  And that’s what makes the song!

So here it is!  The original recording from the 1966 Christmas Concert of Northside Jr. High.  That’s right!  My dad had recordings of all of his concerts and such.  For the longest time, those reel to reel recordings sat in the kitchen closet at 758 Lucy Street.  I used to wonder who was ever going to want to listen to those recordings!  Now I’m so glad my dad did that.  It makes me want to sing his praises and call him a hero.  I’ll stop short of calling him a legend, though.  But if you want to call him that, please feel free.  Enjoy this old version of “The Love Star,” better known as “The Carol of the Star.”

 

I might as well put the other songs from that 1966 Christmas Concert on here.  This is the song “Lo How a Rose.”

 

And the last one from 1966 is “Silent Night.”

 

Fast forward to 2010.  I was sitting at my desk in my house in North Carolina and I got a phone call from my brother Al.  He asked me if I remembered the words to “The Carol of the Star.”  I said, “Of course,” and started singing it.  Unknown to him, I had reached in to the top drawer of my desk and pulled out the sheet music for the song.  I had put it in there a few weeks earlier, so it was very handy.  I was able to recall every word of that old song.  He was suitably impressed.  I did explain to him what I had done.  He decided to record me singing the first verse of the song.  He later got recordings of my sister Jamie singing another verse.  Her husband Allen even cooperated and sang a few “Bum pa dum pa dum, dum dum”s for him.  Al also recorded my sister Karen singing some harmonies.  My mom and dad (Betty and Bob Landry) were alive at the time and they participated as well.  Al combined all of the voice tracks and made us all sound great.  It’s like we had been singing the song our whole life!  Here is the 2010 Landry Family Band version of “The Carol of the Star.”

The Snow, a Coat, and a Secret

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I decided to write this post because I’ve seen so many people posting memories that are related to snow.  Plus I was chatting with my sister Jamie earlier in the week and we exchanged copies of photos from the Big Snow Event in Jennings, Louisiana, on January 11, 1973.  I just made up that name.  Nobody called it the Big Snow Event.  There was barely enough snow to make a small snowman.  It was Jennings, Louisiana, and it was the first time I remember having snow there.  We had been living at 758 Lucy Street for less than 10 years, so it was due for a snow.  We don’t get snow that often and it’s usually not very much.  But that doesn’t stop kids from being excited about it when it does fall!

The Great Snowstorm of 1973 in Jennings, Louisiana.

We took quite a few photos of us kids in the snow.  I think it was my mom who took the photos.  I’m pretty sure the date is correct, but I’m kinda doubtful.  For some reason I was thinking Rob had come home from college, but he didn’t graduate from Jennings High School until May of 1973.  In the photo is Karen, Jamie, me (Van), Al, and Rob Landry.  I’m pretty sure it was a school day, and we were let out of school because of all of the snow!

The other thing about this photo is that it’s the last photo I have of that big coat I’m wearing.  It was a reversible coat.  The side you see here is the shiny, coppery side that was good at blocking the wind.  On the other side was nice, thick brown fur.  It wasn’t real fur.  We didn’t have fancy stuff like that.  In fact it was handed down to me from Al.  That’s what happens when you’re the third of three boys – you get hand me down clothes.  I survived it.

I hinted at a secret, so I suppose I will have to reveal it.  It’s not really anything big.  It kinda makes me laugh.  It has to do with the coat.   I was in junior high school at Northside.  Anybody who’s lived in southern Louisiana knows that a cold morning can turn into a warm afternoon fairly quickly.  That’s what happened one day at school.  I was wearing this big coat when we went out for recess after lunch.  It wasn’t long before I started to get warm, so I took the coat off and threw it to the side so I could continue what I was doing.  When the bell rang, I didn’t have a thought for that big coat and went inside with everyone.

I realized a few days later that the coat was missing, but I couldn’t find it anywhere at school.  Then one day it turned up and it had been rained on.  I could see the fur inside and it looked like a mangy dog or something.  I seem to recall someone asking if it was mine.  I just shook my head no.  I turned my back on that poor coat after it kept me so warm in the snow!  I kinda felt bad about that.  Then when my mom asked me what had happened to my coat, I claimed ignorance!  For some reason I’ve never told many people this story, so let’s just keep it as our little secret.  You can go ahead and tell it to one or two of your closest friends if you like.

Before I go, I thought I’d share another photo.  This is a photo Jamie sent me the other day.  You can see the snowman that I mentioned earlier in the post.  She reminded me that we had cheated a little bit when we made the biggest part of the snowman.  There wasn’t much snow, so we formed that part around our basketball!  What’s funny is that it’s still a tiny little snowman.  Yes, he’s the little white man standing in the middle of the photo with the red, white, and blue bandana on his head.  That was Rob’s donation, because you can see he had that on his head in the first photo.  Thanks for the photo, Jamie!  I had forgotten about how cute that little snowman was.

Is Erie Engaged in the Chair?

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Today we will be discussing my paternal grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau.  I’ll use her maiden name, since I think she was single at the time.  It would be later that she would acquire the last name Landry and then be known as Mama.  A while later on she would be known by us grandkids as Mee Maw.

Poor quality photo of Erie in the chair.

But at the time of this photo she was usually known as Erie.  So that’s what we’ll call her. I had this old, poor quality copy of a photo of Erie sitting in a chair.  I’m not sure where it came from, but I didn’t really care for it.  Other cousins seemed to like it.  Maybe that’s because at least one of them had a much better copy of it!  As you can see I kept it, but I always hoped to get a better copy of it.

In August 2019 some of us cousins got together to share photos and documents.  I’ve told you that before.  But what I didn’t tell you is that we hugged, stood next to each other, and breathed near each other.  Even Shirley!  Those were the good old days.  Now we’re all keeping a distance and hoping the Covid vaccine comes out sooner than later.  But last year we got together and I was able to get this new improved version of the photo.

Erie Patureau circa 1921 probably in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Isn’t this one much better?  It’s so much clearer and it’s not washed out.  You can also see so much more detail on her dress.  Not to mention that you can see her feet.  Of course she was being very proper, because even though the dress ends a bit above her shoes, you still don’t see her ankles.  That would have been scandalous!  I’m surprised she got away with those see-through sleeves she’s wearing.  That seems a little risque!

The other detail I noticed was the Apple watch that she’s wearing.  I wonder if it was keeping track of her daily activities for her?  No, that can’t be an Apple watch.  That was way before any idea of such a thing was in existence.  But I do see a ring on her finger that I wasn’t able to make out in the old fuzzy photo.  And it is on the ring finger of her left hand.  I’m thinking that this must be an engagement photo.  It is a rather formal photographic sitting.

Erie Patureau in July of 1921.

When I compare it to the photos taken in July 1921, it looks like she’s the same age.  Here is a crop of the photo to compare.  I also notice that she was wearing a ring in that photo as well.  Those were the more casual photos that she took when she was engaged.

So I’m saying, “Yes, Erie was engaged,” when these photos were taken.  I guess they are the closest thing that I have to a wedding photo of her.  Why have I never seen a wedding photo of my grandparents?  I’ve shared a photo from her sister’s wedding in 1933.  It looked like a big formal affair that their father (Grampa Max) provided.  There were lots of flowers and lots of photos of a rather large group of family.

Maybe it was a tough time for Grampa Max.  He went into hiding in 1920.  Not really, I just can’t find him on the 1920 Census.  Wait!  There’s another clue I just remembered.  There was a reception after Mee Maw & Pee Paw’s wedding that was attended by family and friends.  I don’t have a photo of the event, but I do have this newspaper article from the Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, Louisiana, from November 12, 1921, the day of their wedding.

Newspaper article from the Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, Louisiana, on Nov. 12, 1921. Germaine Erie Patureau (they spelled her name incorrectly) married Robert Joseph Landry.

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