Category: Landry

We Eat Fish

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My niece Sarah posted a photo earlier this week on Instagram from her visit to the Houston Zoo.  When I was thinking of what to post this week, her photo reminded me of something from my own past.

When I was young, our family would go on summer vacation every year.  Nothing too extravagant, but we had fun.  Her photo reminded me of one time when we went to the zoo.  I was thinking it might have been the Houston Zoo, because sometimes we would go to AstroWorld in Houston.

The Landry Family in Texas in 1969.

But this one particular photo stood out in my memory because the sign in front of us reads “WE EAT FISH.”  And we always thought that it looked like the sign was talking about us!  If you read the whole sign, you can see that it was talking about the seals that were in the enclosure that was between my dad taking the photo and us posing for the photo.

This photo was taken on July 22, 1969.  When I saw other photos taken on the same day (Thanks, Daddy, for writing that information for us all those years ago.), they were all taken at Six Flags Over Texas, which is in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area of Texas.  We would go to the zoo the next day, but it was the Ft. Worth Zoo.  We did end up in Houston a few days later, because I remember celebrating Al’s birthday at Uncle A. J.’s that summer.  (Much in the same way that I remembered this picture being at the zoo.  In other words, I could be mistaken!)

I always tend to explain who everyone is in the old photos that I post.  (This is not an old photo!)  But for the photos of my family I don’t usually do that.  This time I will.  Let’s start from the left side of the photo.  That’s my older brother Rob in the gold short sleeve turtle neck shirt.  I don’t know about you, but that sounds kind of uncomfortable for a hot Texas summer.  What was he thinking?  He was a 14-year-old young man getting ready to start his freshman year in high school at Jennings High School.

In the floral print blouse is my mom Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.  She was 36 years old at the time of the photo.  That’s so weird.  I remember thinking she was kinda old when I was a kid.  At least she was a bit older than some of my classmates’ parents.  Yet some people would ask if she was an older sibling.  All I can say is that I was a foolish child.  Continuing on…

Al is the one in the dark red shirt.  He would celebrate his 10th birthday two days later and in the fall he would be starting the fifth grade at Northside Junior High.  I’m pretty sure that back in those days they started at Northside in the fourth grade.  I didn’t start there until the sixth grade.  He might have started delivering the Jennings Daily News around this time as well.  He was the paper boy on Plaquemine and Nezpique streets during his junior high years.

Karen is the 12-year-old girl with the blue plaid short jumpsuit.  Is that what you call those things?  I googled it and I think it is called a romper.  I wonder if that’s what she called it back then?  I do know that it’s not surprising that she’s wearing blue.  It is and always has been her favorite color.  She would be getting ready to go to her seventh grade year at Northside.

And then there is me.  Little Van is standing there talking on the smart phone while everyone else is posing for the photo.  At least that’s what it looked like when I first looked at the photo.   But there is no phone in my hand!  I was 8 years old and wearing a gold shirt.  In the fall I would be going to the third grade at West End Elementary School.  My dad still insisted that Al and I have crew cuts at this time.  That continued for another year or so, though somehow Rob must have talked him into letting him grow his hair out like the Beatles.  He was such a rebel!

Jamie is the little 7-year-old girl in the red romper.  She would be going to the second grade at Central School in the fall.  She was still a shy little girl at this point.  She was not used to being around strangers and was reluctant to say anything around them.  If you know anything about Jamie now, you know this is not anywhere close to being true any more.

Jodie is somewhat in the shadows, but you can still see that she is wearing a blue shirt.  She was a 15 year old who would be a junior at Jennings High School in the fall.  She only lived another 20 years, so she didn’t make it to the age my mom was in this photo.  She really was a considerate person.  The only times I remember her getting mad were times when she would see someone else being treated unfairly.  It didn’t have to be anyone she knew, either.

One of the things I miss about her is her uncanny memory.  She would have been able to tell me what day of the week this was and what we did that morning.  Of course she may not have been telling me the truth when she would recite such things.  Not that she was dishonest, but she sure liked to tease.  I didn’t have Google back then to check up on those dates and days of the week, so I just believed her.  I guess I still do.

Landry family at the zoo in Fort Worth, Texas, on July 23, 1969

I thought I’d go ahead and post this other photo of the day we went to the Ft. Worth Zoo.  My mom took the photo, so you get to see my dad in this one.  You can also see that Karen is wearing another one of those rompers.  She must have been fond of them.

My dad’s name was Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. and he was 40 years old at this time.  He was the band and choral director at Northside at this time.  Even though we went on vacation during the summer, those summers back then will always be associated with the summer band programs that he had.  We’d get up early in the morning and all of us kids would go with Daddy to the old Northside gym.  In those old classrooms we’d sit and sing the songs my dad projected onto the screen with his overhead projector.  So many memories.

This post ended up longer than I had planned.  I meant to just talk about that old photo that made us laugh.  Actually the sign was pretty true – we do eat fish.  But we won’t bite your fingers!

Most of the time.

Magloire et Henriette

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I thought I would add a little French to the title since the subjects of this post spoke and wrote in French.  For those of you that may not know, “et” is the French word for “and.”  I never learned French when I was younger, but I wish I had.  It would have come in handy since I have French ancestors.

It would have really helped with this letter, which was written by one of my ancestors in 1799.  I found out about the letter when I was exploring some family connections on a Facebook group about southern Louisiana ancestry at the beginning of 2018.  Someone posted rough, blurry photos of the letter and the transcription.  Come to find out, it was a love letter from Magloire Dupuy to Henriette Serrette.

To find this couple in my family tree, you have to go through my paternal grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau Landry (Mee Maw) and her father Vincent Maximilian Patureau (Grampa Max).  Grampa Max’s father was Ferdinand Patureau, who is the patriarch of all of the Patureau families in southern Louisiana.  But the matriarch of all of these families was his wife Marie Emma Landry Patureau.  Emma’s parents were Eli Onezime Landry and Jeanne Zerbine Dupuy.  Jeanne Zerbine was one of the eight children of Magloire et Henriette.

So now that you know the results of the letter, I’ll tell you a little more about Magloire and Henriette.  Magloire (I’ve seen it spelled “Magluar” in Spanish documents.  It must have been spelled phonetically.) was born in 1777 in St. Gabriel, Louisiana.  His parents and all of his ancestors were Acadians, so he would be the first generation Cajun.  Henriette was also the first generation born in North America, but her parents and ancestors were born in France.

They lived and met in Louisiana when it was still under Spanish rule, but they both were part of the French-speaking culture.  I don’t know the particulars of how Magloire and Henriette met, but this letter gives a little bit of insight into their relationship.  It’s amazing that it survived through the years.  I don’t know those particulars either.  I just know that at some point it was in an attic and rediscovered. Then at some later point someone posted a blurry copy of it on Facebook.  I decided to search for a better copy.

It didn’t take too long.  I went to some type of Cajun reunion/social gathering in West Baton Rouge Parish and started asking people.  Most people didn’t know what I was talking about, but then I came across Lucy Landry.  She is related to me, but not through the Landry line – that’s her married name.  We are related through Magloire & Henriette and she had a good copy of the letter that she was willing to share.  Woo hoo! Thank you, Lucy!

So I got a copy of the original letter and transcription.  I decided to edit it to try to bring it back to closer to what I thought it might originally look like.  There were age spots from tape that was used to put it back together.  It also had writing on top of it to fill in for parts that had been more damaged.  I got rid of those things and then copied words from other parts of the letter.

I also changed the transcription a little bit.  I took poetic license with the help of Google Translate.  People nowadays are turned off by the phrase “I want to possess you as my dutiful wife.”  The meaning of “have” and “possess” are very close, and the phrase “I want to have you as my faithful wife” sounds a little better.  Things were a bit different back then.

So let me go ahead and give you my version of the transcribed letter.  Imagine yourself sitting in your parlor back in June of 1799.  No air conditioning, so it could have been rather warm in Iberville Parish in southern Louisiana.  Here is the letter:

Iberville June 2, 1799

Mademoiselle

The esteem which everyone has for your virtue and your modesty, and my own familiarity with them which  I have had for a long time, lead me to take the liberty of writing you these lines and telling you simply and genuinely that I should consider myself the happiest man if I could win a small place in your thoughts.  Certainly I may often be found in the presence of a number of young ladies of very great merit, though I must acquiesce that none of them has been capable of significantly touching my heart as you have.  O to Heaven that I might have enough good qualities that you might honor me with some consideration, and that this kindness might surely lead to my goal which would be to have you one day as my very dear and faithful wife.  I should have nothing more to desire on earth, since I would have in you what I esteem more than everything else in the world put together.     I am, Mademoiselle, with the most sincere devotion,

Your humble and very obedient servant,

Magloire Dupuy

That’s it.  I hope you enjoyed it.  I think it is a great treasure to have from an ancestor from so long ago.

One day I would like to see the original.

I thought I’d go ahead and post the original transcript that I got.  It was very useful in working out some of the original words that were so illegible.  As you can see, it is from the Peavy Family Papers.  (Thanks again, Lucy!)

For a follow-up to this post, you can readMagloire et Henriette: After the Happily Ever After.

Landry Family Circa 1956

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There were two events this week that I was made aware of that influenced the topic of this post.  Two days ago I got a reminder from Ancestry.com about the anniversary of Pee Paw’s death.  If you don’t know who Pee Paw is, you haven’t been reading my posts very thoroughly.  What’s up with that?  For those of you just joining us, I’ll let you know and hopefully you’ll look back to see other references to my paternal grandfather Robert Joseph Landry, Sr.

Then today I saw a post from a cousin that mentioned the anniversary of the death of my Aunt Wana.  She was the daughter of my Pee Paw and one of my dad’s four lovely sisters.  So I thought I would post a photo of the nuclear family that they belonged to.  Fortunately for me, the group has many photos through the years.  In more recent years, it has just been the siblings.  I wanted a photo that had both of the parents in it as well.

This is a photo of the family from around 1956.  I have the photo dated 1956, but I’m not sure how precise that date is.  As the reminder stated, Pee Paw died on August 28, 1957, at the age of 64.  So we know for sure the photo was taken before that!  It’s such a good photo of all of them.  I wish I knew if this was at some specific family event.  Maybe I’ll get some hints from some family.  In the meantime, let me tell you a little bit about the family at that time.

On the left is Frances Mae, the youngest girl.  She was 22 at the time and she married Joe Raley on Aug. 4 of that year.  Maybe the photo was associated with her wedding?  That seems like a good possibility.  Needless to say, she did not have any children at the time.  She and Uncle Joe ended up having five children together.  (A family member has verified that this photo was definitely taken at Frances and Joe’s wedding on August 4, 1956.)

Second from the left is Wana Lydwin.  She was around 23 and had been married to Norman Duffy since 1953.  If it was after March of 1956, she and Uncle Duffy would have two children, with four more to come.  Like I said in the beginning, today is the anniversary of Aunt Wana’s death.  She died on August 30, 2014, and is dearly missed.  She was a great woman who knew how to tell a good story.

Next is Germaine Erie, who was named after her mother.  She was around 29 and she married Ross Winn in 1948. They had three children together and all three of them were born at the time this photo was taken.  I wonder who was watching the kids?  Probably the First.  We’ll get to her later.

Marie Therese was the next one.  She bore the name of Mee Maw’s mother who had died when Mee Maw was just 14 years old.  It is a favored name in the Patureau and Landry families.  I wrote a post about that a while back and have found a few more with the name in the meantime.  Back to Aunt Marie.  She was the oldest of the children and was the first to get married.  She married Malloy Reeves in 1945.    They had their son Mark a few years after that.  Marie was around 33 years old at the time of this photo.

In the center of the photo Mee Maw and Pee Paw stand proudly with their children.  Erie Patureau married Rob Landry on November 12, 1921.  I said earlier that Erie’s mother was Marie Therese. And her maiden name was Landry.  She was Pee Paw’s first cousin.  Rob and Erie had their eight children over the next fifteen years.

To the right of Pee Paw is Alcide Joseph.  Uncle A. J. was around 32 years old when this photo was taken, and though he was the oldest son, he was not married at the time.  He would later marry Margie Harrington.  They did not have any children, but they did care for a niece (or two) and became like parents to them.

Hubert is next and he was around 31 at the time of the photo.  He had married Mildred Sutherlin in 1946, and they were the first to give Erie and Rob their new names of Mee Maw and Pee Paw.  By the time of this photo Uncle Hubert and Aunt Mildred had four of their children.  They later had Marla in 1960.  She had medical problems and did not make it to her third birthday.

Finally we get to my dad.  He was born and named Robert Joseph Landry, Jr., but he went by the name Bobbie or Bob most of his life.  He married Betty Lou Bucklin in 1952 and eleven months later along came Jodie.  In December of 1956, they would have the third of their six children.  Daddy was 27 years old in this photo.

The youngest of all of the children was my godfather John Alfred.  We all call him Uncle Johnny.  He had married Sondra Lee a few years earlier and was 21 years old in this photo.  They would later have three children.

So I guess you could say I came from a large family.  I enjoy being part of this large group.  Most of the cousins lived in Lake Charles, while we lived in Jennings.  It was close enough for us to go to most of the big family get togethers, but we probably missed some of them.

It’s nice that the family still gets together, even though we’re more spread out now. I’m sorry I had to miss it this year.  I hope to make the next one.

Joseph Raley married Frances Mae Landry on August 4, 1956, in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Shown here with her parents.

Here is another photo from that same day.  It has Pee Paw, Uncle Joe, Aunt Frances, and Mee Maw in it with the wedding cake.  I should have seen this photo and recognized the clothes that Mee Maw and Pee Paw were wearing.  It does confirm the date of the photo.  Don’t you think?

Old School Photos

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Back to school 1965 – Rob, Jodie, Karen, and Al Landry

I just realized something this week.  I’ve been looking at all of the cute back-to-school photos that everybody has been posting on online media.  It’s great to have all of those milestones documented for your children.

When I saw those new photos all over the place, it reminded me of this old photo from 1965.  This is a photo of my older siblings Jodie, Rob, Karen, and Al before their first day of school.  The girls are wearing their Catholic schoolgirl uniforms.  I’m not sure why the boys didn’t have to wear uniforms, but they all were going to Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic Elementary School which was only a few blocks away from our home at 758 Lucy Street.

OLHC school in 1965

See, this is the school.  The main reason I posted this was to show that I got the name right.  That was the name of the school when we went to it, but it later was changed to Our Lady Immaculate.  Mostly it was called OLI.  And when I say we went to it, I say that to include myself.  Because I did go to that school in the first grade.  All of the family then went to public school the years after that.

I have report cards and such to prove that I went to school there, but I don’t have a 1st Day of School photo of myself!  Not one!  Can you believe that?  And I never really thought about that until this year when I was looking at those happy little faces.  So where’s the picture of my happy little face on my first day of school?

Sadly, there isn’t one.  My and my younger sister Jamie have always been aware that there aren’t as many photos of us as there are of the older kids.  I guess once you get around to the fifth child, the thrill is gone.

It really wasn’t all that bad.  I have pictures from my birthdays and such.  But more importantly, I had the best parents in the world.  Maybe they were negligent in taking photos of us all on our first day of school.  I didn’t say they were perfect.

I guess I really shouldn’t feel left out at all.  See, I have a photo of Jamie and me from around the same time.  We got to stay home and do whatever we wanted while they were off to school.  At least for another year or so!

Jamie and Van taking it easy at home in 1965.  This was our PreSchool.

Pee Paw and the Aquitania

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Last week I ended my post by saying that I was on to other mysteries.  It was just a comment about finding new discoveries as I research my family lines.  I didn’t have any particular mystery in mind, but this photo was kinda in the back of my mind.  Not because of any mystery, though.  I was just thinking it was time to post a photo from the Landry side of my family and this is an interesting and nice photo of my grandfather from this period in his life.

Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. in 1938

As you can see from the writing on the photo, it is of R. J. Landry in 1938.  That would be Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. for those of us in the know.  But a few of us would have called him Papa or Pappy, and more of us would know him as Pee Paw.  Some others called him Uncle Rob.  Let’s just call him Rob.

Rob would have been 45 years old in this photo.  He and his wife Erie had been married for 17 years and they had eight children.  There are a few photos of their children from this time and some of them have Erie in them.  Rob is not in many of them.

So why is Rob posing with this print of the cruise liner called the Aquitania?  Because he is definitely taking a photo with the image.  It doesn’t just happen to be behind him.  He’s standing to the side as though the ship is another subject in the photograph.  What’s up with that?  And the nameplate that denotes the Cunard Line is intriguing as well.  Maybe this is when he was named the captain of the ship before he sailed around the world that time?  Oh, wait! No. That never happened!

Or maybe it was when his wife was shipwrecked on a deserted island for several years and he heard that the Aquitania had rescued her and was bringing her back to him.  So he stared at the image of the ship as he longingly waited on her return.  Oh, drats!  That never happened either!  How else could they have had 8 children in 17 years?

So why is he staring at that ship so intently in the second photo?  I guess we’ll never know.  It’s a good thing I didn’t say I was going to solve those mysteries that I was moving on to!

Landry Household June 25, 1900

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I wasn’t sure what I wanted to write about today.  I knew that it was time for a Landry post, but nothing really stood out for me.  Then I came across an old photo of Marie Celeste Leveque Landry that I had dated to around 1900.  I cleaned up the photo a bit and then wondered just what life was like for Grandma Celeste back then.  Of course she wasn’t a grandma just yet.  Or was she?  I guess it was time to explore a little.

1900 Census of the Landry family in Westlake, Louisiana.  The next household is Samuel and Zoe (Marson) Leveque.  Samuel was Celeste’s half brother.  Zoe was a 2nd cousin to both Celeste and Samuel.

So I looked at the 1900 Census, which is where the first photo comes from.  It gives lots of basic information like name, age, sex, relationship to head of household, and marital status.  This year was good because it asked for the month and date of birth in addition to the standard age category.  You just have to assume that the Census taker got it right when he asked all of the questions.  Most of the time they get it right.

But sometimes it is wrong.  So how can you ever be sure?  It’s not always obvious.  There is an obvious discrepancy in this one.  According to the information that I have collected, Celeste and her husband Alcide (my great grandfather Simon Alcide Joseph Landry) were married in November of 1868.  That would mean that they were married for 31 years as of June of 1900.  On their anniversary that year, it would be 32 years.  The information on the Census shows Alcide as being married for 34 years, while Celeste had only been married for 30 years.

How can that be?  I suppose you could say the average of the two is pretty accurate, but that’s not the way it’s supposed to work.  Maybe there were two years in there that were really rough and it seemed like four years to him, while she would rather not think of them!

Speaking of bad years, there must have been a few of them.  The census shows that Celeste gave birth to ten children and only six of them are still living.  Those were tough times for families, particularly for the mothers.  I have the names of the four children that died, starting with their firstborn child Marie Marguerite Carmelite “Lily” (named after her two grandmothers).  She was born in 1870 in Brusly, Louisiana, and died in 1889 in Westlake.  I’m not exactly sure when the family moved from Brusly to Westlake.  They were in Brusly at least until 1880 because they showed up in the 1880 Census there.  They were in western Louisiana at least by 1889, because Lily was buried in Lake Charles.

The next one born was Joseph E(lie) in Jan. 1872.  He shows up in the 1900 Census, but would only live until 1913.  He would be another child mourned by Celeste.  Then came Sebastien J. who was born in Oct. 1874.  I’ll tell you more about him later.  The next name I have is Joseph A(lcide) who was born in Feb. 1877.  Dad knew him as Uncle Joe.

Next is Louis (Joseph) who was born in Jan. 1879.  If you look at the Census, there is a ten year gap before the next child Mary is listed.  There were three children that were born and died during that period.  A son named Sam was born at the same time as Louis, but he did not survive long.  They gave birth to another son three years later and also named him Sam.  There was also a son named Alcide.  I’m not sure about Sam and Alcide, but they must have died before 1900.  They are not on the list of names, but they do account for the rest of the children that did not survive.  It’s a shame that most of the 1890 Census was destroyed, because it could possibly have provided some more information about their lives.

You would think that they would give up trying at that point.  But fortunately for me, they didn’t.  They had Mary in Feb. 1889 and finally they had Robert J(oseph) in Jan. 1893.  He would later come to be known as my Pee Paw.  And Celeste was 45 years old when she gave birth to him.  That is what you would call a strong constitution!  She needed it to get through all of those births and deaths.  Mary would die in 1909, so only four of her ten children were living when she passed away.

Marie Celeste Leveque Landry circa 1900.

So in 1900, this is what Celeste looked like.  In 1900 she would be caring for her six children who were from age 7 to 28.  She also had her 79 year old mother living in the household.  Besides being “Mrs. Joseph A. Leveque”, she was born Marguerite Baselite Landry.  Another interesting point is that Alcide and his mother-in-law Basalite were half first cousins.  They had the same paternal grandfather Joseph Ignatius Landry.  How cool is that?

And who else was in the house?  If you read the Census, you will see that it was a niece (of Alcide) named Manette.  Which would mean that she was a 23-year-old girl cousin to all of those 20something year old Landry boys.  I’m sure you can guess where all of this led!

Of course some of you knew this from the start, because you descend from Manette and her Landry cousin of choice Sebastien.  Manette and Sebastien would be married later that year.  They had a daughter named Manette in 1904.  Sadly, Manette the mother died a few days later.  So Celeste pretty much took over the role of mother for little Manette, and Manette was like a younger sister to my grandfather.

Since Pee Paw was the youngest of all of his siblings and he died before I was born, I never met any of them.  But I do remember Manette.  “Little” Manette was an older woman celebrating her 50 year wedding anniversary with Bibb Bouquet in 1974.  A link to that long ago household of 1900.

The Landry Family Circa 1930

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Little Bobbie Landry circa 1930

I always thought this was a funny picture when I was a kid.  I always wondered why Daddy was dressed up as a little girl when he was young.  Didn’t they know he was a boy?

I now know that it was the way they did things long ago and it doesn’t really look all that funny anymore.  It’s just a charming old photo of a little boy in southern Louisiana.  He was born Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. on January 31, 1929, in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  He was a “junior” even though he was the third son.

His parents’ names were Robert Joseph “Rob” Landry, Sr. and Germaine “Erie” Patureau Landry.  He would go by “Bobbie” for the early years of his life, and family would continue to call him that till his death.  Later he went by “Bob” and “Pluto.”  Then he was known as “Daddy” and “Pappy” by us kids and grandkids.

He would call his parents Mama and Papa, but I think his dad sometimes went by Pappy.  Is that right?  Maybe it was only his grandchildren (my generation) that called him that.  Mostly he was known as Pee Paw.

The Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. family of Lake Charles, Louisiana, circa 1930

This other picture shows the family that he was born into.  In the middle of the photo and standing directly behind little Bobbie was his sister Marie Therese Landry, who was born in 1923.  As I’ve told you previously, Marie Therese is a frequently used name in the Landry and Patureau family and she was one of the only ones to go by her first name Marie.

The next oldest child was little Alcide Joseph, who was born in 1924.  That was another common name and he has always gone by A. J.  On the other side of big sis Marie is next brother in line Hubert.  He was born in 1925.  You can barely catch a glimpse of sister Germaine Erie’s dress and hand on the right edge of the photo.  At least I think that might be Germaine with the rest of the family.  She was named after her mother and was born in 1927.

And there behind her brood was our dearly beloved grandmother that we all called Mee Maw.  But she was just a young mother at the time.  She still had three more children to go before she completed her family.  It’s a cute little family and she was a good mother.  I, for one, am grateful to be part of this family.

Basketeer Betty AKA Mom’s Memories p. 19

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Mom’s memories, p. 19 is about basketball

During the last few years of her life, my mom jotted down little stories about her past. She knew that she was forgetting things and I suppose there were some things she wanted to make sure to remember. But when it came to the topic of basketball, she needn’t have worried. She was talking about her basketball days with some of the care workers up until the end of her days.

I’m glad she wrote a little bit about basketball because it makes me laugh and it provided me with some details I wasn’t aware of (or forgot). She started basketball in the 5th grade, and the 6th grade was a trying year for her since her mother was her teacher.

Her family was big into basketball. She always talked about the dirt basketball/tennis court that they made in their yard. From the way she talked about it, she scraped up all of the grass and smoothed the ground single-handedly! Maybe she did.

Ladies basketball team from Hathaway, Louisiana, in 1948. My mom Betty Lou Bucklin can be seen standing on the left.

It was obvious from the way she talked that she loved the game. She played all through high school and nothing pleased her more than when her small town Hathaway team beat the ‘city’ teams like Jennings.

Beating the Jennings team was not their only success, though. They also made it to State, where they once made 3rd place and another time placed 1st. I’m thinking this photo may be from their winning season. If anyone knows better, let me know.

Shown in the team photo are (top row) Betty Lou Bucklin (my mom), LaVelle Krumnow (mom’s best childhood friend), Mrs. C. B. Krumnow (Gertrude Lessman Krumnow, mother of LaVelle and coach of the team), Lela Mae Jester, and Claribel Brown; (kneeling) Dorothy Gary, Carol Bryan, ? Sittig, Adley Benoit, and Jean Jester; and (front) Geneva Hayes, Laura Jane Ritter, and Eva Derks. At least that’s the information on the back of the photo.

My mom also saved some old clippings from her glory days as a basketeer Hornet, or as one reporter claimed “a bulldog.” This article is from the beginning of the 1948 year, which is the same year as the photo.  The article lists some of the members and it mostly matches Mom’s recollections. I’m sure Dot must be Dorothy, but is Ruby the same Derks as Eva?

 

1949 newspaper article about the Hathaway basketball teams

The other article is from 1949, I think. The same members are mentioned, and as before, they were up to their winnings ways again. This is the article that talks about those girls giving a “bulldog” defense during the games. I’m not sure they would appreciate that description. They were, after all, rivals of Jennings and everyone knew that Jennings were the Bulldogs.

I doubt that bothered young Betty Lou. She was proud of her accomplishments with the basketball team. According to her yearbook, she and teammate Laura Jane Ritter were chosen on the “All Tournament” team. Maybe that’s the Parish team she mentions in her writing. That’s how she ended up playing in an exhibition game at McNeese. And as my mom stated, that’s when she (and presumably her teammates) “thought we were hot stuff.”

Number 0 Betty Lou Bucklin in action during her high school basketball career.

I’ve never really been a fan of basketball – as a player or an observer. But I do have some fond basketball memories from my childhood. Our family had a basketball goal set up in our driveway and sometimes we would all go out and play the game. It was my mom and dad and all six of us kids. (At least according to my memory!) I mainly remember that we were laughing and making a lot of noise and we’d play until after dark.

The dark didn’t stop us because we would go inside and get this clamp-on light that we attached to the pole for the antenna. This did not make our neighbors the Bordelons very happy. That crazy Landry family was out all hours of the night laughing, yelling, and shining a bright light right outside their window. So we put up a big, white wooden fence along the property line by the driveway.

I thought I’d post a photo of the fence, since I was talking about it. That’s Al and Rob shooting some hoops in 1974. I don’t see how that fence would have made much difference to the sound level. But we could continue playing our games and say that we tried.

I wasn’t going to post this next photo since I have posted it before. But it was posted in 2010, which is well before I started these regular blog posts. Since I’ve already written more than I intended to, I might as well add a little more.

Getting rough on the court! Christmas 1977

Because I just have to talk about the basketball match to end all basketball matches. I’m talking about the famous Christmas 1977 Bucklin Girl Basketball Extravaganza. It was the most entertaining family gathering for my mom’s side of the family. (As you can see, the white fence has been removed.)

On the sidelines on the left are Uncle Ronald and Toni Pilcher. On the “court” are Sylvia Bucklin Pilcher (on the ground), Alma Bucklin Waldorf (with the ball), Betty Lou Bucklin Landry (the famed basketeer stepping over her sister Syvia’s foot), Charla Seal (with hand on her Aunt Bettilou’s hip), and the matriarch Myrtle Phenice Bucklin AKA Grandma.

There was a lot of laughter that day. As you can see Aunt Sylvia and Grandma are having big laughs as they try to catch their breaths. I know Aunt Loris was there and she was involved in the game as well. Perhaps she was taking a break at the time.

Oh, wait, there she is with Aunt Alma waiting for the ball to come down. See, she definitely was there. She told me that this was the last time they all played basketball together because it took so much out of them. If they’re gonna play ball, they’re gonna go all out! I, for one, am glad that I was a witness to that phenomenal game. And I’m more than just a little bit jealous that Toni and Charla took part in it. But knowing them, I’m sure they cherish those basketball memories as well.

Bobbie’s First Communion

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First Communion photo from circa 1940.

Here is a really cool old photo of my dad.  He was born January 31, 1929, in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  He was the fourth of eight children born to Robert Joseph (“Rob” or “Pappy” or “Pee Paw”) Landry, Sr. and Germaine “Erie” (or “Mee Maw”) Patureau Landry.  It wasn’t long after he was born that the country was thrown into a Great Depression that lasted until little Bobbie was almost a teenager.

Yet that did not deter this southern Louisiana Catholic Cajun family from celebrating milestones that they felt were important.  The suits and the candles indicate that this was a celebration of the First Communion for these young ones of old.  I think that most times this occurs when a child is around the first or second grade.  Back then, there was a Private Communion at that time.  Later, when they were around 11, they would have a Solemn First Communion.  This photo is of the Solemn First Communion.  (Thanks to my 3rd cousin Dolores White Hebert for informing me about the different rituals held back then.) So I estimate the photo was taken somewhere around 1940.

Daddy can be seen in the group of boys.  He is the one with the wavy hair third from the left.  He’s got his little white suit on, which probably was quite a luxury for that time.  He did have two older brothers, so it could have been a hand-me-down.  I’m sure he got a new candle, though.  You can’t have a candle that’s been burned before at your First Communion, right?

The other ‘luxurious’ part of this event was that there was a photo taken and he got a copy of it.  There aren’t that many photos of him from that time.  Mainly the photos from that time were the yearly school portraits.  It’s a really good photo.  I did a little bit of editing on it last year, but it was already in pretty good condition.  And though a good many of these people may have had their Last Rites, it’s nice to be able to look back and reminisce about one of their earlier rites.

Patureau Passings

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I heard some sad news yesterday relating to the Patureau extended family.  My dad’s first cousin died.  Melwyn Mary Marionneaux Barker (1930-2018) was the daughter of Sylvie Albine Patureau Marionneaux (1903-1962).  My dad Robert Joseph “Bob” Landry, Jr. was the son of Sylvie’s sister Germaine Erie Patureau Landry (1895-1973).  Sylvie and Erie were the daughters of Vincent Maximilian “Grampa Max” Patureau (1865-1935).  Melwyn was one of the sweetest people that I have ever met.  She always had such a welcoming smile and demeanor.  I’ll miss seeing her at the Plaquemine cousin events.

The other sad thing that happened relates to a sibling of Grampa Max.  Max had an older brother named Leobon (1851-1928).  I posted a photo of the two brothers a while back.  Leobon had a son named Charles Allen Patureau (1887-1956) and on the day before Melwyn died, a son of Allen named Edward Andrew “Ned” Patureau (1933-2018) passed away as well.  He was my dad and Melwyn’s second cousin, and he seemed like a kind and gentle person.  I have read some remembrances of him that make me think he was a genuinely good person.

Ferdinand Pierre Patureau and Marie Emma Landry Patureau’s family circa 1864.

So in honor of these two wonderful people who were second cousins to each other, I’m posting a Patureau family treasure.  It’s the oldest photo that I have of the Patureau family.  It’s a photo of Max and Leobon’s Patureau family in about 1864.  Their parents were Ferdinand Pierre Patureau (1827-1877) and Marie Emma Landry Patureau (1829-1892).  This is the only photo of Emma Patureau that I know of.

It’s not the best of photos, but it’s better than nothing.  It’s actually a scan of a Xerox copy that my dad had.  I don’t know where it came from, but I’m on the lookout for a better copy. (Hooray! The original has survived and it is in a collection in Beaumont, Texas.  In case you were wondering, you are not seeing the terrible Xerox copy, you’re seeing the new improved photo. Updated 1/16/2022) That’s why I put off using the photo before.  But for this occasion I thought I’d share it.  I did work on Emma’s face and the background a little, but it is a rough photo to work with. (Here is an improved version from the original that I found.)

Let me tell you a little bit (or maybe a lot!) about this family.  Emma and Ferdinand were married on Feb. 10, 1847, and she gave birth to their 16 children over a 25 year period.  Doesn’t that sound fun?!  Their first child was Elizabeth Zulma Patureau (1848-1924) who was never married.  I believe she is the older girl in the back on the right of this photo.  I have another photo of her that looks like this.  The next daughter to be born was the other older girl on the left.  Her name was Marie Aline Patureau (1849-1946) and she later married Joseph Omer Hebert.  Their son was one of the banjo players (Ferdinand Hebert) in a previous post.

The next child born was Leobon.  He is the young man standing proudly in front of his father in this photo.  This is a really big family line on its own.  Leobon and his wife Amelia Hebert (sister of Marie Aline’s husband Joseph Omer Hebert) had twelve children, including Marie Caroline Patureau Wilkinson (I posted a photo of her two weeks ago).  Since it was just two weeks ago that I talked about that DNA connection, I won’t mention all of the other DNA matches that I’ve found from this line of Patureau kin.

After Leobon came a daughter named Marie Valentine in 1853.  She lived for just over a year, so did not survive to be in this photo.  Elizabeth Palmire Patureau (1855-1870) was the next one born.  I think she is the young girl standing in the front on the right.  She is in the photo, but only lived for another six years or so.  She died at the age of 14.  After her there was an infant son that was born and died somewhere around 1856 or 1857.  Then in 1857 Mary Zelica Patureau (d. 1925) was born.  She is most likely the young girl in the front on the left.  She first married Roger Allain, but after his death she married Louis Hebert, the brother of Amelia and Joseph Omer.

The next child born was Ferdinand Pierre Patureau, Jr.  He was born in 1858 and only lived for two years.  If you are counting, that would make 8 births in 10 years (only halfway through the children) with 5 children making it past two years in age.  Modern medicine has cut down on infant mortality.  For the most part, we are better off than most of our ancestors in this respect.  This brings us to the next two children who also had short lives.

Anne Emma Patureau was born in 1860 and she survived to be in this photo.  She is the youngest girl standing next to her older brother Leobon.  She looks to be 3 or 4 years old in this photo and she only lives to be about 13 years old. The next child born was Joseph Onesime Patureau who was born in early 1862 and died about six months later.  Next came Rose Elisa Patureau (1863-1940) who lived to the respectable age of 76.  She was married to Hypolite Victor Dupuy and they had three sons and a daughter together.  She was the last child born to Ferdinand and Emma when this photo was taken.  She is the little girl in her mother Emma’s arms.

The date of this photo was determined based on the approximate ages of the children, their sexes, birth order, and how long they lived.  With the number of children increasing and decreasing through the years, the date of 1864 is the only year that seems to fit with the details of the family in the photo.  My only disappointment with the photo is that it was taken just about a year before Grampa Max was born.  I know that he was born in Mexico and I’m not sure when they moved there.  So I’m also not sure if the photo was taken in Louisiana or Mexico. (The back of the original photo I saw in 2021 shows that it was made in New Orleans, Louisiana.)

As you can figure, Vincent Maximilian was born in 1865, followed by Pierre Oscar in 1866 (-1926).  He was married to a Domitille Dupuy.  I’m sure she was related somehow to Elisa’s Hypolite, but I don’t know how closely they were related.  A lot of the information on this family line came from a DNA match at 23andMe, including a sad story that I may share with you all one day. (Here it is: Unnatural Patureau Deaths.)  After Pierre Oscar came Joseph Alcide (1868-1919), another sibling that never married.

I know you’ve been wondering when this next one would show up.  “Where is that other banjo playing Patureau?” you wanted to know.  Well here he is.  Abel Omer Patureau (1870-1917) was a member of Kelly’s String Band and was married to Eunice Constance Pefferkorn.  They had eleven children and their family group is quite large, with many living in southern Louisiana.

And finally we come to the baby of the family.  Marie Victorine (1873-1937) was married to William Albert Cropper and they had a dozen children.  They must have been competing to see who could have the most children.  I never stopped to count how many grandchildren that Ferdinand and Emma had, but I’m sure it’s a rather large number.  Victorine’s family lived in Beaumont, Texas, and a lot of the family still lives in that area.

So there it is.  The family that led to all of the Patureau descendants in southern Louisiana, including our very own Melwyn Barker and Ned Patureau.  Here’s to these two wonderful people.  May we live up to the excellent examples their lives exemplified.

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