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Abbey, Bel

Blowgun Maker, Wood Carver, and Koasati Storyteller

Bel Abbey was born April 10, 1916, in a Koasati settlement five miles north of Elton, Louisiana. Mr. Abbey was in the last generation to be raised in the traditional Koasati social and economic system. He was taught in the traditional manner by his grandmother, mother, and his maternal uncles. Mr. Abbey had only three years of formal education and learned to read and write during World War II. He passed away in 1991.

Bel Abbey was a skilled hunter and had an astute knowledge of animal behavior. He had an extensive knowledge of natural history and knew the names of hundreds of plants and their uses. In addition, he was extremely well-schooled in the Koasati stories that he had listened to all his life. Mr. Abbey had a great interest in preserving traditional crafts and was skilled in making blowguns, darts, bows, arrows, whistles, Spanish moss spinners, and other items. He preserved many baskets made by his mother, a master of traditional basket weaving.

Mr. Abbey grew up speaking Koasati, a language related to Creek, Alibamu, and Seminole. He had to master English on his own. Later in life, he learned to speak Alibamu, Choctaw, Mobilian, and Cajun French. His amazing linguistics and teaching skills were what attracted ethnologists and linguists to his personal. Bel Abbey would soon become an invaluable resource for anthropologists and historians and as an interpreter for his mother, who only spoke Koasati.

Mr. Abbey was active in his community and church. He sang in the choir and worked with the pastor on projects to benefit the community. His later life was spent working to preserve and share the language, skills, and traditions of Koasati culture. He helped translate the Bible into Koasati and recorded the Koasati language and traditional stories. In 1991, his hard work contributed to the publication of the Koasati Grammar. At the time of his death he was looking over drafts of the Koasati Dictionary.

Mr. Bel Abbey was inducted into the Hall of Master Folk Artists in 1982. He represented the Koasati at the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival, The World's Fair in New Orleans, the Louisiana State Folk Festival, and the Smithsonian's National Folk Festival on the Mall.

Updated: November 8, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Adams, Isabelle LeMaire

Cajun Ballads

Marie Herpin Adams was born near Kaplan, Louisiana in 1922. She was the youngest of seven children. She grew up speaking Cajun French and learned English later when she began school.

Mrs. Adams, a fine singer of traditional French Louisiana ballads, came from a long line of ballad singers. Her great-grandmother, Marie Demais Trahan, came to South Louisiana from Nova Scotia at the age of 12 or 13. As a young girl, Marie Adams learned songs by listening to her one-hundred-four-year-old great-grandmother, grandparents, and parents. She says, that back then "people took such songs for granted and singing ballads were not seen as anything special, but was just part of everyday life." She recalls living in the country as a child, when almost every Saturday night there was a singing party at someone's house. Lanterns were hung in the trees and people sat on the porch eating and drinking homemade wine and beer and singing songs of love stories and telling humorous tales.

The song's beauty lies in its haunting melodies, in its story lines, and rich vocabularies. The home-based, unaccompanied musical tradition of balladry has almost disappeared as instrumental dance music has gained popularity. Some singers like Marie Adams kept the ballad tradition alive, singing the stories of love and life in French Louisiana that they learned by word of mouth. Mrs. Adams knew at least eight songs, which she called by names like Wednesday Waltz and La Valse de la France. She sang one song that has been traced by folklorist Barry Ancelet to the year 1718, The Seven-Year Waltz. She called one of her songs, the Sunday Morning Song, "my daddy's song" because it was one of the first songs that she learned and it was her father's favorite. The song tells the story of a heartbroken young man whose beloved dies. When he asks his mother to take the lace off her clothes and replace it with black, she reminds him that there are plenty of women left. He replies, "I want only my beloved."

Mrs. Adams performed many times at the Liberty Theater in Eunice and at the Louisiana Folklife Festival. One of her granddaughters has learned the songs from Mrs. Adams, ensuring that the tradition will live on in the next generation.

Mrs. Adams passed away Tuesday, December 24,2013 at Abbeville General Hospital. She is now laid at rest within St. Paul Cemetery.

Updated November 14, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Adams, Milton J.

Cajun Musician

Cajun Accordian player Milton Adams was born October 26, 1918 in Kaplan where he lived with his wife Marie, a traditional ballad singer. He started playing music when he was only about ten years old, learning from his father Elty Polite Adams and from the great cajun accordionist Lawerence Walker. By the time he was twelve, he was playing at house dances but he did not begin performing in dancehalls until he was about twenty- five. Like almost all cajun musicians from his era, he also had a regular job, woking in the outfields as a carpenter.

He was generous in sharing his musical skills with younger musicians such as Wayne Toups. When Wayne was very young, he would come to the Adams' home to play traditional cajun music with Mr. Adams. On the night Adams performed at the library theater in spring 2000, he was accompanied on the stage by a young accordian player whom he had been helping.

Mr. Adams band was Milton Adams' Midnight Playboys. They played at festivals and other events in Washington, D.C., Wisconsin, Georgia, Flordia and Illinois. The band was named best band by the Wall of Fame Cajun Days.

As he grew older, Milton Adams ' and the Midnight Playboys no longer performed in dance halls, but in recent years up until his illness Adams on occasion played at festivals around the country.

The cassette Milton Adams Plays Traditional Cajun Music, was recorded live at the University of Chicago Folk Festival in 1992. It also Features Hubert Matte on guitar and Leo Abshire on fiddle. The notes on the cassette 'Milton Adams Plays Traditional Cajun Music', released by Swallow Records, mentions that he had eight uncles who played music, including seven who played accordian.

An old time traditional Cajun singer and accordian player, Milton Adams continued to perform Occasionally until suffering a stroke. He passed away in early July 2002.

Biography Credits: NSU Folklife Database and LSUE (submitted by Kathy Lacombe-Tell

Updated November 14, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Addison, Hattie

Traditional Gospel Musician and Easter Rock Ritual

Easter Rock is a little-known ritual tradition that has been passed down in a few African-American families in the Winnsboro area for many generations. Seemingly unknown outside of northeast Louisiana, the service is performed on the Saturday evening before Easter Sunday in a rural Winnsboro church called the Original True Light Church. Two or three long tables sit in the middle of the church's wooden floor. As the lights dim, participants dressed in white enter, singing a hymn, and carrying a homemade banner with streamers. As they move counter clockwise around the table, they place twelve decorated cakes representing the twelve apostles and twelve lighted lamps upon the table.

As the singers sing the traditional song, "Oh David," they begin to rock, dancing a rhythmic rocking step that makes the church's wooden floor reverberate. The rock is performed at least once more during the service and other members of the congregation are invited to join the rockers. At the end of the service, the homemade cakes are cut and served to the congregation. In the past, the Easter Rock service traditionally lasted until midnight, but today it often ends before 11:00 p.m. because members attend a sunrise church service on Easter morning.

Hattie Addison is currently carrying on the Easter Rock tradition in her own community and occasionally sharing it with a wider audience. Born in 1953, she learned the tradition in about 1967 from her mother Ellen Fountain Addison and her grandmother. With a group of church members from Winnsboro, she has demonstrated the tradition at the Louisiana Folkllife Festival in Monroe, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and at the Natchitoches- NSU Folk Festival. Hattie Addison was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife's Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 2015.

Updated November 14,2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Allan, Johnnie

Louisiana Swamp Pop Musician

Legendary swamp-rocker Johnnie Allan was born as John Allan Guillot in 1938, in Rayne, Louisiana. Of Cajun and Spanish ancestry, he grew up speaking Cajun French and knew little English before beginning school. His father was a sharecropper who grew sweet potatoes, cotton, corn, and hay. As boys, Johnnie and his brother worked in the fields before heading to school each day. "We'd work one year to pay last year's debts," he says.

Despite the family's hard life, Johnnie grew up surrounded by traditional Cajun music. His mother's family, the Falcons, were very musical and most of them played instruments. His great uncle was Joe Falcon, the famed accordion player who first recorded "Allons a Lafayette." Johnnie's grandfather, Ulysse Falcon, played both the fiddle and accordion. His mother, Helen Falcon Guillot, played the guitar and her sister, Marie Falcon, played the triangle (ti fer).

Johnnie Allan was about six years old when he got his first guitar. He bought it with money he earned from selling garden seeds to the neighbors. Later he joined a Cajun band, The Scott Playboys, as a rhythm guitarist. At the age of fifteen, he switched to steel guitar and joined Lawrence Walker, one of Cajun music's great accordionists.

At eighteen, he became interested in rock and roll after hearing Fats Domino and seeing Elvis Presley perform on the Louisiana Hayride.

In 1957, Allen formed a band called the Krazy Kats with several other young musicians from Lawrence Walker's band and returned to playing rhythm guitar. The Krazy Kats began playing the rock-influenced music known by various names, the most common of which is "swamp pop." Allan went on to record a stream of singles and at least ten albums, some of which are: "South to Louisiana," "Johnnie Allan Sings," "Dedicated to You," "Portrait of Johnnie Allan," "Another Man's Woman," and "Greatest Hits." He is perhaps best known for his cover of Chuck Berry's song, "The Promised Land," in 1973. He has performed throughout the United States and Europe, and his music is prominently featured in John Broven's book on Louisiana music, "South to Louisiana.

Johnnie Allan says of swamp pop and the many musical influences it grew out of, "We call it South Louisiana music and I guess the only way to describe it is to say that it's the musicians who make the sound different." Most speak French and many played in Cajun bands. "Consequently," he suggests, "I think we all kept part of this French-Cajun music ingrained in us, you can almost detect it, something of a Cajun flavor in the song." Johnnie Allan is the author of three books: Memories: A Pictorial History of South Louisiana Music , Vol. I, 1988; Born to be a Loser: The Jimmy Donley Story , 1992; and Memories: A Pictorial History of South Louisiana Music , Vols. I and II, 1995.

updated November 8, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Allen, David

Walking Stick Carver

A native of Claiborne parish in North Louisiana, David Allen was born in 1925 and was one of the best-known walking stick carvers in the South. Although he didn't begin carving hickory sticks until he was an adult, he came from a rich tradition of whittling and carving.

Mr. Allen was featured at festivals across Louisiana, including the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Louisiana Folklife Festival, and the Natchitoches/NSU Folk Festival. He also appeared at the Festival of American Folklife in Washington D.C. He was a member of the Louisiana Hall of Master Folk Artists, and in 1984, served as a master craftsman in the Folklife Apprenticeship Program. He attended festivals with his wife, Rosie, and accomplished craftsperson as well. David passed away in 2014.

Updated November 14,2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Allen, Rosie

Quilter

At the age of 12, Rosie Allen learned how to make piece quilts from her mother. She soon mastered the Nine Patch and Star patterns. Today she prefers to make quilts with more elaborate patterns such as her favorite," Trip Around the World."

Her work often reflects her African-American culture, which she is committed to preserving. Although her mother enjoyed the relative luxury of quilting with a frame suspended from the ceiling, Allen creates her quilts on a bed without the benefit of a frame, a common technique in homes with limited space. Lack of space has not dampened Rosie Allen's creativity. She pieces together quilts in her spare time, while she is watching television. The quilting pattern that Allen uses is known as the  term "blocks."

In order to block her quilts, Allen mentally measures off a series of half squares between 3 and 12 inches long. This style is a variation of the traditional shell quilting design, which is a series of decreasing semi-circles. This process allows her to place the quilt on the bed, spreading the lining of the quilt over the bed, and lay the cotton out over it; the edges that are too long are folded over one side. Allen begins to quilt or tack the quilt at one corner and then works down the side. Tacking, the second method of holding the cotton or polyester batting in place between the lining and the patchwork top, is also done on a bed rather than on a frame.

Allen uses both polyester and cotton fabrics to make her quilts. Cotton is a more popular fabric with quilt buyers but Allen prefers polyester. Since many of her neighbors use polyester in their sewing, Allen always has plenty of remnants at hand. Since the knit fabric is much heavier than the cotton, Allen does not often quilt the patchwork tops she makes. The lesser known traditional Afro-American strip quilt is one that Allen does not make very often. She does make strip linings for her patchwork tops, but she prefers to piece colors together in a variation of Trip Around the World. In this pattern, the squares measure one and one-half inches instead of the regular three to four inches which allows for more color and smaller pieces.

Rosie Allen and her husband David both present their work at festivals in Louisiana and were asked to attend the prestigious annual Smithsonian Folk Art Festival in Washington DC. David Allen is known for his hand-carved walking sticks.

Updated November 14, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Allison, Julie Mae

Old Fashioned Sun Bonnet Maker

Mrs. Julie Mae Allison was born in and is presently a resident of Eunice, Louisiana. Her parents are Enoza and Lovenra Wattey of Eunice. She is Southern Baptist, a housewife, and a mother of three children: Jewel, Ceasor, and Angela.

Julie Allison learned to make old fashioned sun bonnets from her grandmother. She has continued the family tradition of making bonnets for thirty-five years. When constructing her bonnets, she uses simple materials of cotton and her sewing machine.

Updated November 14, 2016 by Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Anderson, Billy

Whip Maker and Bull Rope Braider

Mr. Billy Anderson is from Tunica, Louisiana and now resides in Baker, Louisiana. His main business and craft is braiding nylon and latigo bullwhips, riding quirts, and reins. Since childhood, Billy Anderson has been drawn to whips. His grandfather was an oxen driver and whip-maker who logged his way to Louisiana. He taught Billy the four-plait braid but, reading and practice taught him a great deal more. Mr. Anderson now makes a variety of whips that are in demand all over the country.

Braiding a bull rope is a slow process and takes about two to three days to complete. 1) You must know how to braid. 2) Get about twenty-seven feet of poly rope. 3) Unwind ten and one half feet on one end then tie it off and unwind three feet on the other end, then tie off. 4) Braid both pieces together to form the block. 5) Braid the bottom of the handle twelve inches long, tie (for now.) 6) Start braiding the top part of the handhold for about fourteen inches or until you can get three fingers slack between the top and bottom part of the handle. 7) Now, braid both the top and bottom part of the handle together for about five inches, then start kicking out the shorter strands at the bottom of the rope that will be burnt off later. 8) Start braiding the tail part of the rope. 9) Braid the tail six to seven feet and tie off. 10) Lace the block and rise in the handhold and you're done. This process takes about two to three days to complete.

Visit Billy Anderson at www.domains-unlimited.com/Anderson

Updated November 14, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Arceneaux, Isabel D.

Storyteller and Oral Historian

Mrs. Arceneaux was born in 1929, in Cane River, Louisiana. She presently resides in the Isle Breville community near Natchez, Louisiana. Isabel's art is a traditional art form that many small communities have used to keep traditions and family lines straight for many generations. Isabel tells oral history stories; she learned this tradition from her grandparents, parents, and other elders in the community.

Isabel Arceneaux has had a full life rearing twelve children and working as a teacher's aide. In addition to telling oral history stories, Mrs. Arceneaux makes dolls and quilts. She is a member of the "Cane River Stompers," a dance group which performs at various local gatherings in the Natchitoches area. Mrs. Arceneaux also coordinates the taste-fest for the Creole Heritage Day Festival.

Updated November 14, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Ardoin, Alphonse "Bois-Sec"

Alphonse Ardoin, better known as Bois Sec, was born in the 1920's in Prien Noir, Louisiana, and resided in Eunice, Louisiana.  He died May 16, 2007. He was of African-French descent, and his family is one of the better known families associatied with Louisiana music.  For instance, his cousin Amede Ardoin was the first black accordion player to record Creole music.  And his grandson Chris is a member of the Zydeco band, Double Clutchin'.  Bois Sec is a pretty fair musician is his own right. In 1986, Ardoin was presented with the National Heritage Fellowship Award.  This award has been presented to such music greats as Bill Monroe and John Lee Hooker

Bois Sec paid three dollars for his first accordion, and he learned to play it by watching his cousin Amede play.  He and his long time friend and fiddler, Canray Fontenot, played old-time Creole music as performed by French-speaking blacks from the Cajun, Afro-Caribbean, Old World French, and Afro-American styles. Bois Sec first presented his music outside of Louisiana in 1996, at the Newport Folk Festival.  He performs at the Festivals throughout the state of Louisiana including the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and the Festival Acadian.

Not only was Bois Sec an accomplished musician, but had several children who are musically talented as well.  Bois Sec, the father of fourteen, encouraged his children's talents. His son Morris, who operates a family dancehall, often joined him on guitar. Several of his other children play music and the entire family participates in the social activities of the rural Creole settlement of Prien Noir.  These actitivities included Saturday night dances, bouscheries, and the Annual Mardi Gras Run.

 Updated November 14, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center

Ardoin, Morris

Zydeco Musician

Mr. Morris Ardoin was born in 1935 in Evangeline Parish and is presently a resident of Eunice, Louisiana. Although he is a musician, his main occupation is driving trucks. He has a wife named Clementine, and his children are Morris Jr., Clement, Shirley, Stacey, Leslie, Gus, Pamela, and Dexter. Morris is fluent in English and Creole French.

Morris is a member of the "Dexter Ardoin and Friends" zydeco band. He plays several musical instruments including the accordion, violin, and guitar. Morris learned to play music from listening to his cousin play when he was only thirteen years old (That was in 1948) and he has been playing ever since.

Mr. Morris played at the 1985 Festival of American Folklife in Washington, D. C. and, as he wrote, "lots more after."

Updated November 14, 2016 Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center

Arsan, Essie Mae

All Saints' Day Wreaths

The first of November, All Saints' Day, is an important day for Catholics in Louisiana French communities. Many communities observe this day of remembrance for deceased relatives and friends by visiting cemeteries, cleaning loved ones' graves, and decorating the tombs with flowers. Priests then bless the graves. All Saints' Day is also an occasion for an affirmation of family ties.

Essie Mae Arsan, a long-time resident of Thibodaux in Lafourche Parish, made the traditional wreaths (couronnes) of waxed paper flowers that were placed on tombs. African-American and Anglo families alike once made these wreaths for this significant occasion. There were only a few individuals like Essie Mae Arsan continuing this traditional art.

When Mrs. Arsan was a child, the waxed-flower wreaths were made by her grandmother. Her mother carried on the tradition, and Mrs. Arsan did the same. She learned the art from her mother and grandmother, and had been making wreaths since she was 12 years old. She taught a granddaughter who carried on the tradition.

The wreaths are made of wire, crepe paper, and paraffin wax. The style, form, and colors of Mrs. Arsan's wreaths remained essentially unaltered, but some of the materials and methods changed. The traditional colors for the flowers are purple and white, which represent mourning or death and eternal life or resurrection. Mrs. Arsan used white and brightly colored crepe paper for her flowers; there are seven or eight flowers on each wreath.

Mrs. Arsan first cut the petals from crepe paper, making them all the same size, about two inches high and one and a half inches wide. One by one, the petals were wrapped and overlap each other around the end of the stem of floral wire. As the petals were added, the wire was twisted around the base to secure them. The base was tied with strong thread and the stem was wrapped with green floral tape.

The petals were then separated and shaped like a rose. The flower was briefly dipped in a pot of hot liquid paraffin, which stiffens and protects them. In the past, a double boiler was used to melt the paraffin. Mrs. Arsan used an electric hotpot with a thermostat that kept the paraffin at about 250 degrees. After the flowers dried, they were fastened to a wire circle made from a coat hanger. Mrs. Arsan wrapped the frame with strips of green paper and then dabbed it with wax to make it weather-proof so that it will last for a year.

Wax flowers were also used for other purposes in the past: bridal bouquets and wedding decorations. Mrs. Arsan made her wreaths for regular customers for All Saints' Day and sometimes for other occasions like decorating tombs at Easter or on the birthday of the deceased. She also made pine straw baskets.

Mrs. Arsan was a member of the Louisiana Crafts Program and had demonstrated her craft at festivals throughout Louisiana, including the Black Heritage Festival, The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Louisiana Folklife Festival, the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival, and the Native Crafts Festival.

Few individuals like Essie Mae Arsan maintained this traditional art.  Mrs. Arsan died December 8, 2006.

Updated November 14, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center

Babineaux, Rodney Sr.

Cajun Foodways

Mr. Babineaux was born in 1929 in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. Rodney is the founder of a slaughterhouse and meat market in the Breaux Bridge area and is an authority on butchering. He ran the business for twenty-six years. Mr. Babineaux is also a retired railroad bridge foreman, which makes him an expert on railroad traditions; he worked for Southern Pacific Railroad for twenty-one years.

Rodney spends his retired years organizing cochon de laits, a traditional Cajun pig roast, throughout the year. He is an excellent cook and is known for his skill at preparing traditional dishes such as boudin, hogshead cheese, rice dressing, sausage, cracklins, and roasted pig.

Mr. Babineaux has demonstrated his cooking expertise at the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival, Festival International, and the AFS Folklore Tour of St. Martin Parish.

Updated November 14, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Badaeux, Willie

Wildfowl Wood Carver

Mr. Willie Badeaux was born in 1943 in the community of Bayou Gauche, close to the city of Des Allemands, Louisiana. Mr. Badeaux's main occupation was carpentry, and at one time, his main craft was wooden boat building. He learned boat building from his father-in-law, Joseph Dufrene, a Bayou Gauche resident. Willie gained his experience in woodwork by working with Mr. Dufrene for fifteen years. Later, Mr. Badeaux started carving duck decoys and other wildfowl.

Willie contributed much of his knowledge of the wildlife to fisherman, trappers, and alligator hunters from the Bayou. He used hand tools and tupelo gum to freeze his art forms as close to natural as possible.

Mr. Badeaux has participated at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the 1984 Worlds Fair, made dugouts with Tan Brunet at the Creole State Exhibit, and was one of the 1983 and 1985 winners of the Best in Gulf South contest at the Louisiana Wildfowl Carvers Festival.

Updated November 15, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Balfa, Nelda and Christine

Cajun Musicians

One of Dewey Balfa's most famous quotes is, "Tradition is preserved one generation at a time." He did his part to make sure that his generation would not be the one to let tradition slip away. He also ensured that members of the next generation would have all the inspiration they would need in the face of an ever-expanding mass culture. While his message rang out across the world, it also rang out in his own home with his own family.

Balfa Toujours (meaning Balfa still and always) was formed soon after the death of Dewey Balfa. There was no thought of waiting, the group came together quickly, and it immediately felt right. There was great excitement in playing music that felt so good, but there was also sorrow because Dewey wasn't there to be a part of it. Everyone felt Dewey's absence, but it was soon realized that everyone was feeling his presence, too.

These feelings inspired Nelda Balfa to write the title song of the group's first recording on Swallow Records, "Pop, Tu Me Partes Toujours." The experience can be summed up in a few lines from that song: "O Pop, tu me parles toujours, avec une voix si jeune et si tendre" ("Oh Pop, you speak to me still, in a voice so young and tender.")

With the release of this recording, it became clear that the flame still burns in the Balfa family. Christine and Nelda Balfa, two of Dewey's four daughters, play with all the soul and drive associated with their family's music. Christine plays the guitar, as inspired by her Uncle Rodney, and Nelda plays the tee-fer ('tit fer - triangle), the percussion instrument that helps to give acoustic Cajun music its distinctive sound. They sing both the oldest songs in the Acadian repertoire as well as the originals. They have traveled all over the world playing their music at festivals, concerts, and dances.

Updated November 15, 2016 by Natchitoches- NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Barisich, George

Shrimping and Commercial Fisherman

Mr. George Barisich is a third generation commercial fisherman. His parents are Croatian born, but came to Louisiana while still young. George was born in 1956 in New Orleans, and spent much of his childhood in Arabi, Louisiana. He presently lives in Violet in St. Bernard Parish, with his wife and children. From the age of eight, he spent considerable time on his father's boat helping with the shrimping. While working as a fisherman, he attended Southeastern University.

George, like his brother, learned everything about fishing and shrimping from his father. When his father became too ill to work, he sold his half of the business to George. George has five boats, one of which he describes as being thirty-eight years old, which is made of cypress and double planked.

Most of the time he trawls for shrimp, but he has also fished for oysters. George is an active advocate for fishing as a traditional way of life. He says, "it's something that's in the blood." Commercial fishing is far more than just a job to him; it represents an entire traditional way of life. However, he sees it as being seriously threatened by increasing government regulations.

Today, commercial fishing is more high-tech than it was when George started shrimping in the 1960s. The fishing boats now have radar, VHF radio, and telephones on board. It's an entirely different life than it was in the past. The one thing that has not changed is that shrimpers are still out fishing for many days. George comments, " I am usually out six to seven days at a time, and maybe sometimes a little longer." When asked, "what makes a good fisherman?", he answered, "it's in the blood; also, believe it or not, it's the chase for the shrimp, and the adrenaline rush shrimpers feel."

Mr. Barisich is President of the United Commercial Fisherman's Association. For his presentations, he speaks on various commercial fishing operations and he uses tapes showing trawling and fishing operations on shrimpboats. George has attended the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the New Orleans Work Boat Show, the Islenos Festival, and the Bycatch Symposium in Seattle, Washington.

Updated November 15, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Barras, Mervin

Alligator Skinner and Trapper

Mervin Barras of Catahoula was born in 1954 and grew up in a family that made its living crawfishing and catfishing in the Atchafalaya Basin. The son of Charles Barras and Angelle Latiolais Barras has done all sorts of fishing and hunting since childhood learning from his father, brothers, and friends. As an expert on Atchafalaya Basin swamp culture, he maintains many of these Cajun traditions. He also speaks French and English fluently.

Like his father, Mr. Barras fishes for catfish and crawfish in the Basin. He traps during the off-season, including trapping alligators. He is very familiar with skinning and tanning alligator hides and also makes his own nets and traps. He has demonstrated alligator trapping and skinning at Festivals Acadiens in Lafayette.

He is also skilled at camp-style cooking and preparing the game and fish that he catches. He makes an excellent crawfish etouffee which he has prepared at the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival.

Updated November 15, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Battise, Doris

Coushatta Pine Needle Basket Maker

Born in the fall of 1926, Doris Robinson Battise grew up in the small town of Elton, Louisiana. As a member of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, Battise was a well-known and respected master longleaf pine-needle basket weaver. She learned basket weaving at a young age from her mother, Lizzie Robinson, who taught Battise the subtle intracacies of weaving nature into art. Battise even learned river cane basketry. From her home on the Alabama-Coushatta Reservation, Battise carried on the artistic tradition, teaching her own children and the children of the community to weave pine-needle baskets.

Most of her work had been available through the now defunct Tribal Enterprise, personal sales at various powwows and craft shows, and eBay from various collectors. Battise passed away content with the knowledge that her baskets have become collectors' items scattered throughout the country including various museums and that the Alabama-Coushatta Historic Preservation and Cultural Programs Offices have endeavored to revitalize the legacy of longleaf basket weaving. Her works of art have been presented to numerous people, dignitaries and organizations. In turn, she was presented with many letters of recognition, awards, and honors for her unique craftsmanship. President of the United States, William J. Clinton, sent her a letter of appreciation. In 1993, The Memorial Student Center Visual Arts Comittee of Texas A&M University honored Battise with a "living treasure" award and the state of Texas Office of the govener, Ann W, Richards, commendeed Battise for the significant cultural contribution she made towards preserving the Alabama-Coushatta heritage through pine-needles basketry. In 1995 she recieved a letter of appreciation from Comite des Fetes, des arts et des sports de nice of nice, France for the creation of a pine-needle basket which was presented at the festival. Battise recieved a Retired and senior volunteer Program Certificate of appreciation from the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas for teaching local children the art of pine-needle basketry. Battise was also inducted into the hall of master folk artists for her pine-needle basketry at the 2011 Natchitoches-Nsu Folklife Festival in Natchitoches, Louisiana.

In 2014 she decided to "retire" due to poor health despite the urging of her children and those eager to buy her baskets. She passed away on August 7, 2015 at the age of 89.

Updated November 15, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Battise, Marjorie Abbey

Pinestraw Basket Maker

Marjorie Abbey Battise was born October 26, 1942, in Elton, Louisiana to Bel and Nora Abbey, elders in the Koasati Indian tribe.  The Koasati or Coushatta Indians have lived in Louisiana since the 18th century, having migrated across the Mississippi river from their ancestral lands in present-day Alabama in an effort to avoid English, and later American, expansionism.  Being born into a tribe which seeks to maintain very strong traditions with the community, Marjorie was destined to practice, retain, and share her heritage with others.  Because of this, Marjorie began learning the art of basket making and making traditional Indian fry bread from her mother at the age of eight.

Ms. Battise has participated in many festivals by sharing her foodways and crafts, including the 1985 Festival of American Folklife in Washington D.C., the Louisiana Native Crafts Festival in Lafayette, Louisiana, the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival in Natchitoches, Louisiana, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and the annual "Basket Day" held in the Williamson Museum in Natchitoches.  At these festivals, Marjorie uses sewing needles, raffia, and pine needles to construct the fifteen to twenty coiled pine-straw baskets she makes each year.  She also makes her fry bread.  Marjorie takes great pride in her basketry, which she usually practices with her sisters, Myrna Wilson and Joyce Poncho, as the finished products are firm and tightly woven.  Her first creation was a wall basket made from pine needles, which is unique, as The Bayou Blue Coushatta have always made their baskets from wire grass in the past.

Today, Marjorie, a third generation Koasati in Louisiana, still makes baskets with her sisters, at home and for public presentations in festivals.  She has passed down her foodways and crafts to another proud generation of Koasati people.  Because of this strong tradition and influence, Ms. Battise was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 1982.

Research done and written by Samantha Sullivan.

Updated November 16, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Baudoin, Autrey "Chank"

Storyteller

Mr. Autrey Baudoin was a resident of Lafayette, Louisiana where he lived with his wife, Alma. He was a retired air conditioning serviceman and a storyteller.

Autrey said, "I tell mostly Cajun stories and jokes that are associated with the two famous Cajun names of Boudreaux and Thibodeaux. As a child, I learned to tell stories from family members such as my grandparents and parents."

Mr. Baudoin had not presented his stories at any festivals, but he had shared them with the local community at meetings and at the University of Southwestern Louisiana.

Mr. Baudion passed away on March 15, 2006.

Updated November 16, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Beavers, Fred

Fiddler

In 1991, Fred Beavers won the coveted Grand Championship of the Louisiana State Fiddlers' contest. He'd come a long way since he started playing the fiddle at the age of 13. He now owns ten fiddles and repairs fiddles in his spare time. Sometimes referred to as "Fiddlin' Fred," Beavers entered the competition four times before he won the championship. Each year, he would place in the senior division only to be defeated in the grand championship round.

Beavers, who is from north of Simsboro, learned to play the fiddle by listening to other fiddlers. He still plays by ear rather than by reading sheet music. He worked as a management technician for Arkla Energy Resources in Ruston, Louisiana. Beavers was a member of "The Grey Eagles String Band." The old-time country string band tradition in north Louisiana draws on the upland south string band tradition including Texas swing and the mountain music of northern Arkansas and Alabama. "The Grey Eagles String Band" also showed the influence of live country music radio, especially as it was played at the Louisiana Hayride in the 1940s and 1950s. The band still plays the breakdowns and waltzes familiar to Louisiana families and communities.

Mr. Beavers has not only played at the Louisiana Folklife Festival, the Dixie Jamboree in Ruston, and in several local dance clubs, but has also performed with his group at the Claiborne Parish Fine Arts Festival and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. He has also served as a judge in the Louisiana State Fiddle Championship.

Updated November 16, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Beebe, Ray

Fiddler
(1925 - 1980)

Ray Beebe's father died when he was three, and he was often very sickly as a child. His stepfather made Beebe's first fiddle from a cigar box, and his uncle was the one who taught him to play the fiddle. He would often walk for miles to a friend's house to learn something new on the fiddle. According to his brother, when Ray was a boy, two things could always be found in his pockets—fishhooks and a rosin for his fiddle bow. By age thirteen, he was playing for money and traveling around the state trying to learn more tunes.

Ray joined the Navy in 1943 as a way to make ends meet for his family. Even during this time, he continued to play the fiddle, playing once for President Roosevelt. After he served time in the navy, Ray held down many jobs, but continued to play his fiddle.

During the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, Ray continued to play barn dances, many times at an activity center for an Alexandria Catholic church. He also went to fiddle conventions in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana learning new tunes and meeting new people. On one occasion he met Roy Acuff, who is said to have had the greatest commercial influence on Beebe's style and repertoire.  Ray also met Troy DeRamus in 1946. Troy later started a band with Beebe and became a close friend. DeRamus, who played music with Ray since 1951, once remarked, "I don't believe any man alive ever loved his instrument or his music more and was more dedicated than Ray Beebe." DeRamus and Beebe began a band called the North Louisiana String Band, playing the Anglo-American music tradition of "Hillbilly" or "Old Time Country". The band often performed at the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival, the Louisiana Art and Folk Festival in Columbia, the North Louisiana Arts Festival in Grambling, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Festival of Traditional Arts and Crafts in New Orleans, the Governor's Inaugural, the Shreveport Red River Revel, and the Shreveport Blues Fest.

During his career in the North Louisiana String Band, Beebe became sick, which he attributed to an old ulcer flare up, although he later found out he had cancer.  Ray continued to play, even in pain. Sadly, Ray Beebe died on Saturday, September 21, 1980, at the age of fifty-five, after a full life of fiddle playing.  Because of his lasting impression on music in Louisiana, Ray Beebe was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 1981.

Researched and rewritten by Samantha Sullivan.

Updated November 16, 2016 by Natchitoches NSU-Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Begnaud, Gayle

Chair Caner, Weaver, and Spinner

Mrs. Gayle Begnaud is a life long resident of Lafayette, Louisiana and is presently employed as a wallpaper hanger. She graduated from high school and has some college education. Her religious affiliation is Catholic. Gayle has three children: Andre, Kevin, and Kenny. She also has five grandchildren.

Gayle's art form is chair caning, weaving, and spinning. She was taught by Mr. Ned Arceneaux and other artists in the 1970's. Her technique is weaving materials to form patterns in chair seats. She uses simple tools such as pegs, an awl, scissors a spinning wheel, and looms. There are supplementary materials such as plastic caning and cording available, but Gayle uses mostly natural materials such as rattan and cattails (rush), which are found in the area where she lives. Cotton dyed with indigo is her main fiber used for spinning.

Mrs. Begnaud has restored chairs for private homes as well as museums. Presently, she is working with Gladys LeBlanc Clark on a grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, they are making an Acadian Blanket.

Gayle has performed and had exhibits at the Louisiana Native Crafts Festival in Lafayette, the Jazz Festival in New Orleans, Mamou Mardi Gras, and the Rural Life Museum in Baton Rouge. She was selected as the outstanding craft person of the year at Vermillion in 1991.

Updated November 17, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Berard, Al and the Basin Brothers

Cajun Band from Atchafalaya River Basin

From the heart of the great Atchafalaya River Basin comes down-home music--music to feed the soul and satisfy the heart, not to mention the feet. Al Berard, along with Errol Verret, manages their band, "The Basin Brothers." Al Berard began playing music at the age of eleven. He learned many of his tunes from recordings by legendary Cajun musicians Dennis McGee and Dewey Balfa.

The music of the Basin Brothers reflected their rich Cajun heritage and native Louisiana homeland. "The Basin Brothers" grew up along the edge of the Atchafalaya River Basin, a huge swampland laced with bayous and the great Atchafalaya River. "The Basin Brothers" played a variety of traditional Cajun music. Their vast repertoire of infectious two-steps, graceful waltzes, and swamp blues spiced with the early sounds of Creole Zydeco is the result of many hours of practice at their camp in the swamp.

The band features Al Berard who sang and played the fiddle, guitar, and mandolin; Errol Verret on accordion; Keith Blanchard on drums; and Dwayne Brasseaux on bass. "The Basin Brothers" were extremely popular in Louisiana and are special favorites of Cajun dance enthusiasts. The band has performed throughout the U.S. and Canada. In 1991, the band received a Grammy nomination for best traditional folk recording for the album "Let's Get Cajun." In 1993, "The Basin Brothers" embarked on their first European tour.

Unfortunately, Al Berard passed away in the year 2014, he will always be thought of through the continuation of playing of his music.

Updated November 17, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Bertrand, David

Cajun Mardi Gras Run

David Bertrand was born in 1955, and presently lives in Elton, Louisiana. He is the fifth generation of his family to farm rice and raise cattle in Elton. Along with his wife, he is the owner of Estherwood Rice/Bertrand Rice. He is an expert rice farmer, miller, and a talented artist. David makes hand painted rice bags featuring his sketches of the local Mardi Gras runs. He is also a skilled woodworker and makes handmade wooden boxes.

In the early 20th century the rural Mardi Gras tradition was very strong in Elton. The town hosted two Mardi Gras runs each year, one which ran north of town and one that ran south of town. By the time David was a young man, the local Mardi Gras run had disappeared. David Bertrand says, "about a half a dozen years ago, we wanted to start running again, because everybody from our town was scattering to run in Mamou, Oberlin, and in Eunice. Everybody was scattering and we were losing our traditional run at home. We were very fortunate to find some of the elderly people who had run in 1925 to give us an oral history of the tradition at the time. In 1996, we ran the same route that they ran in 1925, making the same stops, and trying to keep in real tradition."

The all male run travels on horseback through the countryside and into Elton. The riders are dressed in tall, pointed hats called capuchons, fringed Mardi Gras suits in bright colors, and screen masks. The leader of the run, the capitaine , carries a braided whip, or quoit, made from a burlap sack. When the procession stops at a house, the captain approaches to ask permission from the homeowner for the Mardi Gras to visit. When permission is given, the riders dismount and crawl towards the house on hands and knees, whooping loudly. They then dance for their hosts in exchange for the gift of a live chicken, rice, other ingredients for their gumbo, or money. Before leaving, they invite their hosts to come share their gumbo that evening.

Mr. Bertrand and other community members continue to make their Mardi Gras run in Elton each season.

Updated November 17, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Berzas, Jamie

Accordion Musician

Jamie Berzas has lived in Mamou, Louisiana since his birth in 1958. He is married to Madeline and they are both practicing Roman Catholics and professed Cajuns. Jamie has a degree in Biomedical Electronics Technology along with the skill to perform Cajun Music by playing a "mean" accordion. Jamie first began learning the accordion at the young age of ten. He received lessons from Austin Pitre, a practiced member of a Cajun band.

Jamie currently performs with a band, "The Cajun Tradition Band," at festivals and meetings. "The Cajun Tradition" was formed many years ago when two friends, Jamie Berzas and Mark Young, began playing together, first at home, and later at dances. Austin Pitre, a Cajun elder with his own Cajun band, loaned the young men some of his band members and equipment. The band has been playing together since 1979, except for one brief break in early 1983. Jamie plays the accordion, a vital instrument for playing Cajun music, and his wife Madeline is the drummer. Mark Young, another of the original members of the band, is the rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist. Lee Manuel is a Cajun fiddler with over 40 years of experience playing Cajun music. Don Vidrine plays several instruments such as bass, steel guitar, and rhythm guitar. He rounds out the talent in this top Cajun band.

Since that time, they have played many festivals and have received high praise for their part in preserving the traditional Cajun music for which they are named. Mr. Berzas continues to help spread the popularity of Cajun music. They have produced one record that was nominated for a Grammy and won first place in Musicians du Bal trials held during Fetis Des Acadians.

Updated November 28, 2016 by NSU-Natchitoches Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Bigard, Ferdinand

Mardi Gras Indian

Ferdinand Bigard was the Big Chief of the Cheyenne Black Mardi Gras Indian tribe and was widely known for his unique style of designing and making Mardi Gras Indian suits. With almost fifty years in the tradition, he provided a rare historical perspective on Mardi Gras Indian songs, dances, and other traditions.

Mr. Bigard was born in New Orleans in 1928. He began making costumes in 1946 for Mardi Gras Indian gangs like the "Seminole Braves," the "White Eagles," and the "Cheyenne Hunters." His intricate and creative hand-sewn beadwork was based on Native American designs and original sewing methods. This tradition, his innovative costume design and construction, distinguished his fine work. Some of his beadwork also reflected Haitian influences or depicts aspects of New Orleans culture like second line parades. He drew his designs on canvas before beginning to bead a patch.

He said, "Masking as a Mardi Gras Indian is an important part of African-American culture and tradition in New Orleans. The maskers instill pride and preserve the history of the Native American Indians' contribution to the African American slaves' search for freedom and dignity." He pointed out that for many years, masking as Indians was the only available way of participating in Carnival for many African Americans.

After Retiring from the Postal Service, he devoted himself full-time to sewing and designing Mardi Gras Indian costumes. For more than 45 years, Mr. Bigard designed and made suits. Mr. Bigard was a member of the Louisiana Crafts Program as a master Mardi Gras Indian costume maker. He made beaded patches like those used on Mardi Gras Indian suits, which sold for $100 to $3,000.

Several of his costumes are in museums throughout the United States. In 1993, Bigard received a Folklife Apprenticeship grant as a master craftsman to teach tailoring, pattern-making, crown-making, plume arrangement, drawing, and Mardi Gras Indian history to his apprentice, John E. Breaux, Jr. He demonstrated his skill in Mardi Gras Indian beading and costume making regularly at festivals such as the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. He also devoted considerable time to teaching, lecturing, and demonstrating Mardi Gras Indian crafts to school children in the New Orleans area. He developed a program in which he provided free instruction to children throughout the public school systems.

The photograph above is provided courtesy of Michael P. Smith, veteran New Orleans photographer. It is entitled "Super Sunday" and was taken in 1980 on North Claiborne Avenue in New Orleans.

Updated November 28, 2016 by NSU-Natchitoches Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Billiot, Ivy

Woodcarver and Blowgun Maker

Ivy Billiot, a member of the Houma Indian tribe, was born in 1945 in Grand Cailou and was raised in Houma. He recalls that his neighborhood then was in the woods and that there was nothing back there but a cane field. His father, Cyril Billiot, made baskets of split cypress for many years, a skill Ivy's brother Easton carries on today.

Ivy Billiot is a woodcarver whose work is exceptional in its beauty and close attention to detail. For years he worked for Terrebonne Parish as a crew leader and channel finder. He was an expert chain saw operator whose work entailed cutting down trees in ditches and along bayous. Retired now, he is a full-time artist who does much of his carvings on commission. A number of private collectors collect Ivy Billiot's pieces. His regular buyers specifically request a more natural look. Much of Ivy's work is marked by its lifelike realism, complete with such painstaking details as whiskers on a crow and blue and green highlights in a trout's scales. He carves a wide variety of birds, animals, and other objects: ducks and geese, alligators, chickens, pirogues, fishing boats, and blowguns. Ivy creates wildlife carvings from the wood native to Louisiana. Billiot says that he is always experimenting and trying new things in his work.

Mr. Ivy Billiot says, "I've been doing this ever since I've been a little boy. I guess I must have started when I was about five years old, maybe six. I used to see those other boys play with little boats in the canal, you know," and so he decided to make himself one. Later, when he saw how a real boat was made, "I said, I can do this" and went home and made an accurate model. When he was perhaps thirteen or fourteen years old, he made a plywood seaplane to play with in the ditch. He also made an eight foot long plane and added an old washing machine motor before selling it for five dollars. He is knowledgeable about electronics, and as an adult, he once made a working satellite dish. He says, "I can do just about anything if you show me what it looks like."

Although he occasionally carved when he was working for the parish, Ivy became much more serious about woodcarving when he retired. He says, "It was kind of rough when I got started, but I caught on." Working at home, he carves his pieces by hand, but sometimes uses a chainsaw or squirrel saw to rough out pieces. He works from observation, pictures in books, or memory. Of alligators and other creatures he makes often he says, "I have it in my mind, it's stuck there." He is scrupulous about detail not only in carving, but also in painting his pieces.

Mr. Billiot also makes blowguns. After carefully inspecting one of Antione Billiot's blowguns, Ivy went into the woods, cut a suitable piece of elderberry, and carved a blowgun and darts. After finishing, he decided to decorate it. Plaited strips of palmetto were the traditional decoration, but since Ivy didn't know how to braid palmetto, he decided to put some feathers on it and make a design by wrapping leather strips around the blowgun. He has been making blowguns for sale ever since. Ivy has begun painting small animals on some of his blowguns, especially red crawfish, an emblem associated with the Houma tribe.

Mr. Billiot has demonstrated his skills at the Louisiana Folklife Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, at Vermillionville, and other fairs and festivals .

Updated November 28, 2016 by NSU-Natchitoches Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Billiot, Lawrence "Moot"

Boat Maker

Today, when most people want a boat, they go to a marina or boat dealer and purchase a fiberglass or metal boat. But for a larger craft, hand-crafted from wood, one has to look a little harder for the skilled boat builders who can do the job. In the recent past, an individual could go to Mr. Lawrence Moot Billiot for such a project. Mr. Billiot, now deceased, was a skilled boat builder born 1916 from Dulac, Louisiana. Mr. Billiot, a French speaker, attested to his French background. Mr. Billiot built boats without the assistance of blueprints, using only the extensive knowledge stored in his head and the tools in his hands.

According to Mr. Billiot, "Steel boats require more maintenance than wooden boats. Steel boats must be chipped and the rust must be sanded off before repainting, while a wooden boat just needs sanding and repainting." Mr. Billiot built several types of boats including a Lafitte skiff (47 feet long), a semi-V bottom, and numerous flat bottom boats. He occasionally built scale models of his full-size boats which he sold for about $100. According to Mr. Billiot, "the V-bottom boats ride rough water more easily than a flat bottom. This is especially important to those who are going out into the Gulf to fish." It took Mr. Billiot approximately three months with good weather to build a boat 40-foot or more in length. His boats were made from cypress planks or marine plywood, and quite durable if they are maintained properly. The boats could be outfitted for shrimping or pleasure. And Mr. Lawrence Billiot took pleasure in building fine hand-crafted boats for his customers.

Mr. Billiot participated in the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Fair in 1981 and the Native Americans on the Mississippi River program in New Orleans. Mr. Billiot passed away November 9, 1998.

Updated November 28, 2016 by NSU-Natchitoches Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Blake, Clifford Sr.

Cotton Compress Caller and Storyteller

Clifford Blake's experience with the cotton press began in 1927, two years after his father's death.  Blake wanted to help his mother rear the family and keep his sisters from "having to rock white folks' babies."  Mr. Mack Hyams offered him a job "totin' dinners" for the workers at the American Compress Company. While working at this job, Mr. Blake frequently used the line, "Cornbread for your husband, and biscuits for your man," which would later become the title of his album.  This phrase is common to many blues phrases, as it relates to food and infidelity.

Blake began working at the American Compress Company at a young age "calling the press."  Cotton was loosely wrapped into 500 pound bales which were then hauled to "presses" and compressed into concrete-like blocks roughly a quarter the original size.  According to Blake, "calling the press" made the men work faster.  He said, "You press fifty bales more an hour when you['re] calling the press."

Blake relied on a call and response pattern, sometimes "hollering" a spiritual and at other times a blues lyric.  Blake would keep everyone on task by hollering out specific orders.  For example, he would first tell the leverman "Let her fall, let her fall."  Then he would tell the men to hurry up and bring the compressed bale up and kick it out of the machine.  Even his line "sun is almost down, sun is almost down, Captain" shows how Blake worked to constantly hurry the press workers.

Besides keeping the men in line, Blake was also a boilerman.  His job at the cotton press almost became fatal on February 14, 1967, when he lost his footing while riding the press, and the machine crushed his leg.  Even though this ended his career, Blake believed that God gave him the power to call the press, as he said "God gave me a gift…to make it."

Blake is well known for his field hollers and folk tales, and he has participated in many festivals, sharing his stories and songs.  He was in the 1984 World's Fair and the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival.  The Louisiana Folklife Center recorded Blake calling the cotton press and produced an album entitled, Cornbread for Your Husband, Biscuits for Your Man.

The album includes titles such as "Brer Rabbit and the Babies," "A Cardcutter and a Hoodoo," and "You Groan To Fool the Devil."  Because of his talent and the preservation of his culture, Blake was inducted in the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artist in 1981.

Researched and rewritten by Samantha Sullivan.

Updated November 28, 2016 by NSU-Natchitoches Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Blanchard, Camille A, "Corn"

Cajun Dancer, Fisherman, Hunter, and Cajun Foodways

Mr. Camille Blanchard, who self-identifies as Cajun, is a native of rural Catahoula, Louisiana. He was born in 1931 and speaks French and English. Camille is an oil and gas plant operator and fisherman.

The Blanchard family has kept many of the Cajun traditions associated with swamp living in the Atchafalaya Basin. As a child growing up in the swamp, he learned from his family how to make nets, various types of fishing, hunting, wild game cooking, and dancing. Mr. Blanchard is a skilled carpenter and an excellent dancer. His main partner for dancing is his wife, Lillian. They are very knowledgeable about Cajun dancing, and dance weekly at various festivals and competitions.

Mr. and Mrs. Blanchard have performed at the Breax Bridge Crawfish Festival and the Catahoula Church Fair.

Updated November 28, 2016 by NSU-Natchitoches Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Blanchard, Lillian "Lil"

Cajun Dancer, Quilter, and Cajun Foodways

Mrs. Blanchard self-identifies as Cajun, and she speaks French and English. She was born in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana in 1932. Formerly a sales clerk and factory worker, she is now a homemaker in Catahoula, Louisiana where she resides with her husband Mr. Camille Blanchard.

Lillian is an excellent cook and is famous for her sweet dough tarts. She cooks with her sister Ollie Verret who is also very knowledgeable and articulate about Catahoula Easter time traditions, such as the Stations of the Cross and Pie Day. Lillian makes quilts with a technique she learned as a child from her mother and friends at quilting bees. Cajun dancing is another skill Lillian loves. She dances with her husband every week at local festivals and competitions.

The Blanchards have won many awards performing at numerous Louisiana competitions. As dance partners they have performed at the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival, the Catahoula Church Fair, and for a large group of Folklorists attending a folklife tour of Catahoula.

Updated November 28, 2016 by NSU-Natchitoches Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Booker-Coleman, Efzelda

Spiritual Church Ceremonial Robe Maker

Bishop Efzelda Booker-Coleman is a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, and her occupation and favorite pastime is working as a seamstress. She is also a Spiritual Black Hawk minister.

Bishop Booker-Coleman is one of a few ceremonial robe designers in the New Orleans area. She started learning this craft in 1956 by observing other artists. Many of her family members participate in the making of the robes throughout the year. The technique used in making the robes is hand sewing. They use needles, thread, sequins, stones, gems, cotton, brocade, silk, laces, and hot glue.

The Spiritual Black Hawk Ministry has made public appearances at the 1994, 1995, and 1996 New Orleans Jazz Festival and the Louisiana Crafts Program. They have toured in Cleveland, Ohio; LaGrange, Georgia; and Mobile, Alabama. Awards and honors include being featured in the Journal of American Folklore , Creole State Exhibit, and Best Robe by NLCC 1995 and 1996.

Updated November 29, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Boudreaux, Bonnie

Doll Maker and Chair Caner

Bonnie Boudreaux was born in New Orleans on November 11, 1933. She now lives in Carencro, Louisiana. Bonnie is the proud mother of six, three of which are now deceased.

Bonnie enjoys making dolls from scratch as well as caning chairs. She created her first doll when she was merely four years of age and began caning chairs in the 1980s. Bonnie's mother taught and encouraged her to sew, but she is largely self-taught in this art form. Audrey Bernard, on the other hand, taught Bonnie how to craft chairs. Bonnie utilizes a sewing machine, fabric, paint, and wood to complete her dolls. She then employs pegs, an awl, cane, water, and scissors for the caning process.

She has demonstrated her talents at the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival on numerous occasions.

Updated November 29, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Bourdier, Paul A.

Duck Decoy Carver

Paul Bourdier, a Cajun native of Lafayette, Louisiana, is currently a resident of Opelousas, Louisiana where he lives with his wife, Denise. He is a proud husband and father of two: Nicole and Paul II. Paul is also a worthy recipient of a BA in Architecture and is now a full-time architect who dabbles in woodcarving.

His hobby of woodcarving was acquired through hard work and self-determination. Paul carves duck decoys from wood and he grows and paints gourds. He is significantly self-taught, but he also learned some of his art from other decoy carvers in Louisiana. He employs handmade tools, sandpaper, and paint during the one to two hours a day that he enjoys carving and painting duck decoys.

Paul has participated in the Native Craft Festival.

Updated November 29,2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Bourg, Jessie

Miniature Boat and Net Maker

Jessie Bourg of Chalmette, Louisiana was born in Galliano in 1928. He spoke English, French, and a little Spanish. When Jessie retired he spent many hours on the craft he loved--building miniature boats.

He learned to make miniature boats from his family when he was a child in Cut-Off, Louisiana and by studying other boats. His intricately detailed models were made from cypress and other woods. His work included detailed Lafitte skiffs, simple pirogues, and trawlers, which are complete with nets and oysters. He also learned to make cast nets and other nets as a child, using No. 4 twine.

Mr. Bourg enjoyed teaching others about his culture and about model boat building. With his wife and partner Gloria, he has demonstrated his net making and miniature boat building at various places: the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Plaquemines Parish Fair and Orange Festival, the French Market in New Orleans, the Biloxi Museum, and at various schools. He did not sell his larger model boats, but did offer small model skiffs, pirogues, and small cast nets for sale.

Updated November 29, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Bourque, Elaine

Acadian Brown Cotton Spinner and Weaver

Elaine Bourque says that her crafts have developed out of her "first love," gardening. In her garden, she grows brown and white cotton for spinning and weaving. She also grows the bead-like seeds known as Job's Tears, from which she makes rosaries.

Born in Acadia Parish near Bosco, Elaine Bourque moved to Lafayette Parish as a teenager. With her husband, she has lived in Milton, along the Vermillion River, for the last 36 years. She feels strongly about her Acadian heritage and says that she hopes to help keep alive the tradition of Acadian brown cotton spinning and weaving.

Although her great-grandmother spun and wove both cotton and wool many years ago, the tradition of Acadian weaving had almost disappeared when Elaine Bourque was growing up. Mrs. Bourque learned her skill from master weaver Gladys Clark during the late 1980s, after becoming fascinated as she watched Mrs. Clark demonstrate at various festivals. She approached Mrs. Clark about teaching her to spin and weave in the Acadian style, and they were awarded a Folk Arts Apprenticeship Grant by the Louisiana Division of the Arts in 1989. Mrs. Bourque says, "When I watch Mrs. Clark spin, I think, surely, this is an art!"

Elaine Bourque spins her yarn on a new spinning wheel, but she is also repairing an old wheel handed down in her husband's family. She works with both white cotton and the coton jaune (brown cotton) which gives Acadian textiles their distinctive beauty. She says that she prefers to work with the brown cotton, which she considers prettier. Her first brown cotton was given to her by a friend, but now she grows it in her garden. The coton jaune is a soft, natural shade of brown and does not need to be dyed, but it is more difficult to gin than white cotton. Mrs. Bourque remarks that if brown cotton thread is boiled it turns a rich, darker shade of brown.

Using a loom set up in her house (she says that she likes to have it "close by" so that she can weave every day), she weaves table runners, napkins, coasters, placemats, rag rugs and rag placemats. She uses the same warp on the loom to make placemats, table runners, and napkins. She has also inherited a larger loom on which she hopes someday to weave cotton blankets.

Mrs. Bourque is careful to make her pieces subtly different from Mrs. Clark's, since she says that she hopes one day to be able to weave a placemat and napkin that will be difficult to distinguish from Mrs. Clark's. For instance, Elaine uses five white bands on her brown cotton place mats, rather than the four stripes that Mrs. Clark uses. She has experimented with using Job's tears in some pieces, and remarks that the beads blend nicely with brown cotton.

She does not sell her work, but has demonstrated weaving and spinning at Lafayette's Native Crafts Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival. She has also demonstrated rosary making in Vermillionville.

Updated November 30, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Bradford, Clarinda

Fishnet Maker

Clarinda Bradford was a native of Nebo, Louisiana and had been making fishing nets since the early 1930s. At the time of her death, Mrs. Bradford was one of a few remaining net weavers in Louisiana. She learned to weave nets after she married John Breland, "one of the Breland boys from the Catahoula homestead." She says she married the boy next door, although she pointed out that the doors were a little farther apart then than they are today. Her husband continued his family's tradition of making a living by commercial fishing in Catahoula Lake and Little River. After their marriage, she became the net weaver while her husband made the wooden frames for the nets and did the actual fishing.

There were several kinds of nets to be made for different fishing conditions. For example, the dip net had to be large because it was used to catch catfish up to 65 or 70 pounds. The hoop nets were another type of net used, especially in Little River when the current was strong. The hoop nets were funnel shaped with a large wooden hoop made of white or basket oak at the top, and a series of smaller hoops down to the end. The nets also had flues so the fish could swim in, but couldn't swim out. Among the other nets woven by Mrs. Bradford were trammel nets and seine nets.

Sometimes, nets would get torn or have to be cut if they got snagged on hidden logs. Mrs. Bradford would then have to repair the net by weaving in a patch. The weaving was usually done using cotton or linen. The cotton nets had to be dipped in tar so they wouldn't rot. Later, nylon was used so the nets no longer had to be dipped. The Brelands got their net making supplies from nearby Jonesville.

After John Breland's death in 1976 she married Spencer "Pete" Bradford in 1984. Mrs. Bradford didn't make the nets to sell anymore. Her one child, a daughter, didn't learn to make the nets, so it will likely become a lost art. Mrs. Bradford made nets for demonstration at folk festivals and craft shows.

Mrs. Bradford participated at the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival, the Catahoula Lake Festival, the Louisiana Folk Festival, and at local schools and museums. In 2000, the Louisiana Folklife Center happily announced that Mrs. Clarinda Bradford was inducted as one of the Hall of Master Folk Artists. Mrs. Bradford died May 9, 2012.

Updated November 30, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Brown, Maxine

African American Foodways

Ms. Maxine Brown cooks a variety of traditional African-American foods. Her specialties include greens, rice and beans, neckbones, and cornbread.  Ms. Brown has participated in the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival for many years, and many people come to the Festival in order to sample her excellent fare.  Ms. Brown learned to cook from her family members and others in her community.  She has catered many Natchitoches events, and her hot water cornbread has become a favorite of many.

Ms. Brown's cooking provides an excellent example of African-American foodways. She was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 2004.

Updated November 30, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Bryant, Bill

Musician

Bill Bryant is an expert dulcimer player. He was a Coordinator of Visual Art in the School of Creative and Performing Arts at Northwestern State University. He saw his first dulcimer in 1972, made one the following year and has been playing ever since. His passion with the dulcimer began in Lexington, Kentucky, while teaching at the University of Kentucky. Even though his interest in the dulcimer began as an adult, a lifetime interest in folk music and stringed instruments prompted him to learn to play this instrument. String band music was traditional in his family, which is probably why he also plays the fiddle, guitar, banjo, and Irish penny whistle.

Bryant began playing in an established band in about 1977 with Hurst Hall and Bill Hunt. Another band he participated in, called Mountain Music, which featured Bill Hunt, Kelly Knowlton, Valerie Clark, and Hurst Hall. Much later in the 1990s, Richard Rose, Michael Yankowski, and Karen Gordy joined them in a band known as the Back Porch Band. The Back Porch Band still participates in many events all over central Louisiana, including the Green Market and the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival. Because of his musical talent, Dr. Bill Bryant was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 2001.

Researched and rewritten by Samantha Sullivan

Updated September 5, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Byles, Mearle Smith

Quilter

Mearle Smith Byles had been quilting since she was about twelve years old. She had come a long way since she began quilting with her mother and other women in Robeline. In 1993, she was among the first women to be inducted in the Louisiana Folklife Center Hall of Master Folk Artists. The first pattern Byles remembered was the Nine Patch, a pattern which includes blocks made of nine two-inch squares of scrap cloth. While she was growing up, the most popular pattern that was used to connect the three parts of the quilt-the quilt top, batting, and lining-was the shell pattern made up of half circles placed about one inch a part. Byles liked both traditional and contemporary patterns: traditional Trip Around the World, Log Cabin, Sun Bonnet Sue, and Double Wedding Ring. Byles also liked using appliqued patterns that allow quilters to tell a story by attaching figures to quilt tops. She described the differences between traditional and contemporary quilting saying, "First, there's the batting. When I was a girl, I spent a lot of time carding batts from scrap cotton which made quilts uneven and heavy."

The use of floor frames rather than ceiling frames is another difference between traditional and contemporary quilting: "You don't see quilts hanging from the ceiling anymore. For example, I use floor frames which hold about forty-five inches of quilt rather than the regular eighty-one inches in the ceiling frame," explained Byles. One of the reasons why Byles used floor frames is because it's easier for her to sew good uniform stitches. She commented, "I like my stitches short, straight, and uniform, and so I use floor frames. It's just the way I like to do it. I knew a ninety-one year old lady who could sew just as straight as you please by just putting the quilt on her lap. But I can't do that."

Byles enjoyed incorporating more modern techniques with traditional modes of quilting but saw the pluses and minuses of both approaches to quilting, the quilting bee being one example. "I really like to associate with the other women and catch up on what's happening in the community," she explained, "but there's another side to it. Every woman has her own quilting style, and people who pay $500 for a quilt usually want it to be the work of one person and for the quilting to be uniform. So, in recent years I've chosen to do a lot of my quilting by myself."

When Byles first retired from her work as a hospital staff member, she amused herself with books and television but quickly returned to her first love. "There are lots of good movies and books out there, and I'll continue to watch TV and read, but it's the quilting and other types of sewing that satisfy me. That's what I'll keep on doing as long as I can," she explained. In recent years, she had been recognized not only for her quilting, but for her spinning, weaving, crocheting, tatting, and bobbin lace as well. She demonstrated her talents at area wide festivals and at the Pioneer Heritage Center at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. Her quilts sold for upwards of $400.  Ms. Byles died February 21, 2006.

Updated November 30, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Caesar, Penola

Gospel Singer: Dr. Watt's Style

Penola Caesar was from Monroe, Louisiana where she was a member of New St. James Baptist Church. She was very popular and in demand as a local cosmetologist. Her occupation as a cosmetologist was not Penola's only talent. She had the ability to project Dr. Watts style long-meter hymns, and frequently led workshops where she taught others to do the same.

Mrs. Caesar was born in 1943, daughter of Christine Head and Louis Head. When asked how she learned to sing, she said, "it was a gift," but she actually learned in early childhood in church and in school. She sang weekly in churches, at state and national conventions, and at political and charitable events. She performed at the Louisiana Folklife Festival in Monroe, and received numerous awards and honors for her singing. She passed away in 2004.

Updated November 30, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Callendar, Leon Bert

Chair Caner

Born in New Orleans and currently residing in Allen, Louisiana, Leon lives with his wife Adeline. Leon is an electrical contractor who enjoys chair caning, repair, and making spindles. He first began learning this skill from his father at the age of six. Leon continues this hobby in his living room during his spare time. He utilizes alligator clamps, needles, a bandsaw, and a jigsaw as tools for his beautifully made chairs.

Updated November 30, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Carnahan, Cliff

Bluegrass Fiddler and Songwriter

Mr. Cliff Carnahan, bluegrass fiddler and songwriter, was a lifelong resident of the Emmanuel community, which lies just west of the town of Cloutierville, Louisiana. Now deceased, Mr. Carnahan's first job when he left home was as a painter for the Texas and Pacific Railroad. He later worked as a pipefitter in Louisiana, in Texas on the King Ranch, and at Johnson Space Center.

Mr. Carnahan never had a formal music lesson. The music he played was a rich blend of various influences. The old melodies of Ireland came from his family, the Cajun music comes from an old accordion player he knew, a one-eyed African-American child taught him the blues, and from a cherished radio, he learned the new songs from the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Carnahan noted that his first music instructors were his father and an uncle, Thomas Coutee. Both Coutee and the elder Carnahan played the fiddle, and young Cliff played the rhythm guitar for them. Under their tutelage, Carnahan learned Irish jigs, waltzes and "old hoedowns" which "all go right back to Belfast..." says Carnahan. Although Cliff's introduction to fiddling came from his family, landing his first job away from home near Lebeau, Louisiana, also affected his music. Here he met and played with the late Cajun musician, Joe Falcon. In the late 30s and early 40s, he performed in Lake Charles and hearing the Hackberry Ramblers added a little more French to the Carnahan sound. Additionally, Carnahan tells of hearing an isolated old swamp-dweller play his accordion through long, hot nights, and of the one-eyed black child who played harmonica at the depot-these also added their flavor to Carnahan's music. This "fiddlin'" mixture still pleases the ear and tantalizes dancing feet as it has done since the 30s and 40s.

In addition to playing the fiddle, Mr. Carnahan has composed more than 200 songs, but these melodies are not actually written down. Carnahan says, "I keep all of them in my head." A number of these songs have been recorded by Jimmy Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys, the late Hank Williams, and the Whitstein Brothers.

One of Mr. Carnahan's songs, "Oceans of Diamonds," made it to the Top Ten list. He performed to great audience acclaim for the Natchitoches/NSU Folk Festival and for the Cloutierville Heritage Festival. Inducted in 1992 into the Louisiana Hall of Master Folk Artists, Mr. Carnahan is recognized as one of the finest musical artists of our state. More importantly, however, is that if you ask almost anyone in Cloutierville about music, you will hear Emmannuel or the Hill section and Mr. Cliff Carnahan. Both the area and the man are integral parts of the rich musical heritage of the Cloutierville area; both are inseparable parts of the fabric of local lives. Mr. Carnahan passed away April 22, 2001 leaving behind his great joy of music and its tune for others to enjoy decades after his passing.

Updated November 30, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Carter, Cecile Elkins

               1928-2011

Member of the Caddo Indian Nation of Oklahoma, Historian, Writer and Speaker

Ms. Carter was a member of the federally recognized Caddo Indian Nation of Oklahoma, after retiring she continued to work as a historian, writer and speaker. Her primary research focused on Caddo Indian history, culture and traditions. She wrote and spoke with authority based on thirty-five years of scholarly research and a collection of oral histories she began collecting from tribal elders in 1970. Before passing away in November 2011, she researched close to the Red River on the Oklahoma side of Lake Texoma and was actively engaged in Caddo cultural and historic preservation programs administered through the Caddo Nation headquarters near Binger, Oklahoma, about 47 miles west of Oklahoma City.

Her book, Caddo Indians: Where We Come From, published by the University of Oklahoma Press, is a well documented and easily read narrative detailing the history of the Caddo Indians. It won the Oklahoma State Historical Society History Book of the Year award in 1995 and was finally made available in a paperback edition in 2001.

Ms. Carter has held appointments as the Caddo Nation Cultural Representative and Liaison. She was also the Caddo Nation's first coordinator of the Native American Graves Protection Act, and was instrumental in establishing the Caddo NAGPRA office in 1995. Before her passing Ms. Carter was a Charter Member of the Caddo Heritage Museum Board of Trustees and served as the Board's Senior Advisor.

Updated November 30, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Castille, Hadley

Fiddler

Born and raised in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, Hadley J. Castille learned to play the fiddle as a young teen from his Uncle Cyprien Castille. An accomplished player, Uncle Cyprien instilled into Hadley a deep appreciation for the Cajun method of making a fiddle sing. Castille had grown and developed his music into a unique blend of old and new, including many original songs, that he wrote with his son Blake. His song, the autobiographic "200 Lines," was the winner of the Cajun French Music Association's Heritage Award. Keeping Cajun music alive and attractive for the younger generation was important to Hadley. His brand of music delivered all of the tradition of yesterday with a contemporary touch.

Hadley and his musicians entertained thousands throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe with a foot-tapping, thigh-slapping brand of music that makes sitting still a chore. They have performed at festivals such as the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Festival D'ete in Quebec, and the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival in Finland.

Castille's band was the first Cajun band known to perform with a full symphony orchestra. A Cajun Concerto world premiered to a standing-room only crowd, as Castille and his band opened for the Acadian Symphony Orchestra. The concerto in three movements was based on South Louisiana Cajun folk songs.

Hadley has been honored many times by his peers. He was inducted into the Louisiana Hall of Fame on April 14, 1996, and received the 1996 Acadiana Folk Heritage Honors from the Acadiana Arts Council. He has also been inducted into the Northwestern State University Hall of Master Folk Artists. Hadley has been featured several times on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Television, as well as ABC's Good Morning America, NBC's Today Show, and Louisiana Life magazine. Hadley and his band were called on to supply the necessary music for a Clint Eastwood movie, A Perfect World. Hadley also performed on acclaimed artist George Rodrigue's Blue Dog documentary, A Man and his Dog, featuring Whoopi Goldberg. Recently, Hadley supplied Cajun fiddle and performed in Dirty Rice, currently in post-production.

Over the years, Hadley had released seven recordings. His latest is Third Generation-La Musique de les Castilles, a collaboration with his son Blake, who co-wrote, produced, and arranged the album with Hadley. This newest release has become Hadley's most popular and fastest-selling album. The song The Old Share Cropper's House has already become a staple on Cajun radio stations throughout Louisiana and Texas.  Mr. Hadley died October 25, 2012.

Updated November 30, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Cavallero, Harold

Country Musician

Mr. Cavallero was born in 1930, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He learned to play the dobro in 1941, from Roger Filiberto at Werlein's. Harold began performing professionally at the age of thirteen, and remembers playing clubs on Bourbon Street at the age of fourteen. He jokes that now he has "come full circle, and he has gone from being the youngest member of the band in his youth, to one of the oldest in his present band, the "Evening Star String Band."

Country music is an almost lost part of New Orleans musical heritage. Harold Cavallero, is an exceptional New Orleans based musician, and he plays country music in the old style of the 1940s. He is a master on both the steel guitar and dobro steel guitar, which are instruments important to country music performances and are rarely heard in New Orleans today. Country music in New Orleans had its day in the 1940s, and its popularity continued for perhaps fifteen years after WWII. At that time, Mr. Cavallero performed extensively on local country radio jamborees and accompanied touring country music personalities when they appeared locally. He has made his music because of his love of jazz, blues, and rhythm and blues. Mr. Cavallero performs about fifty times a year on weekends at clubs, fairs, and in recording studios. He is a member of the "Evening Star String Band," which was formed to present Mr. Cavallero and Bob Lambert to new audiences in the area. These two men are referred to as, "the living links with the region's rich musical past." The band is a replay of early country music groups of the late 1930s and 1940s.

Mr. Cavallero's work is documented on "The Country Three," an album produced in 1986, by Pat Flory with support from the Louisiana Folklife Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and Abita Springs Water Festival, among other events. With the "Evening Star String Band," he can be heard regularly at the Piney Woods Opry, a highly acclaimed monthly live radio show in Abita Springs, Louisiana.Mr. Cavallero passed away January 28, 2007.

Updated November 30, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Charlie, Fred

Cajun Musician

Fred was born in Chataignier, Louisiana on October 5, 1948. He currently resides in Eunice, Louisiana with his wife, Delores. Fred belongs to a Cajun band, "Fred Charlie and the Acadiana Cajuns." He speaks and sings in both Cajun French and English. Fred Charlie is also part of a private supper club known as, " Dave et Ray's Camp Jam".

 The band of Cajun musicians has performed in the five-state area and in France, and also in festivals, at restaurants, and private engagements. They have won the 1991 Heritage Award and the 1997 "Continuous Contributions to the Cajun Culture and Music" award.Mr. Charlie also broadcasts on the radio stations 87.7 and 107.1 FM for four hours every Saturday morning starting at seven AM.

Not only is Fred Charlie a singer as well as a song writter but he is also the owner of Acadiana Sounds Recording Studio located in Eunice, Louisiana. Fred Charlie is a well accomplished musician who is widely known for his music in many areas of the world including places as far as Egypt and Japan.

Updated November 30, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Chenier, Roscoe

Blues Guitarist

Blues guitarist and vocalist Joseph "Roscoe" Chenier of Opelousas was born in 1941 and raised in St. Landry Parish. The son of Arthur and Philomen Chenier, he was a cousin of the late, Zydeco artist Clifton Chenier. He learned to play the guitar at the age of 17 from his cousin John Robinson, at John's home in Nolterville. For the next 37 years, Roscoe dreamed of making a big break in the music business.

Despite a single that became a popular, highly sought after collector's item recorded in 1962 in a home studio, Chenier had a long wait for a national recording deal. He remained faithful to the rhythm and blues music tradition for almost four decades. Backed by his former band, the "Blues Snapp Band," and now by his  last current band, the "Inner City Blues Band," he was a popular performer at southwest Louisiana clubs and festivals. His repertoire consisted of jumping boogie numbers, low-down blues tunes, and soulful scorcher numbers.

In 1994, Roscoe Chenier got the break he long dreamed of, he signed a four-record deal with Avenue Records, which is affiliated with Warner Brothers, Electra, and Atlantic Records. The company was based out of Los Angeles and handled national sales and distribution of Chenier's CD. It was titled, "Roscoe Chenier," recorded in the early days on Vidrine Records in Plaisance. "It's been so many years that I've been waiting for this, I just feel really, really good," he said.

He was a full-time musician who performed at least three times a week at clubs and festivals. He toured the United States and Europe, and played throughout Louisiana at events such as the Louisiana Folklife Festival.

Updated November 30, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Cibilich, Domenica Tesvich

Croatian Foodways and St. Anthony's Day Celebration

Domenica Tesvich Cibilich was born in 1955 in Port Sulphur, Louisiana to parents who were both born on the Dalmatian coast. In 1931, at the age of sixteen, her father, Ante Tesvich immigrated to Louisiana from Donja Vrucica. He became an oyster fisherman with his brother. On a return trip to Dalmatia in 1954, he met and married Tereza Jurevic, from nearby Sucuraj.

In 1967, when Domenica was in the seventh grade, the Tesvich family spent a year in Croatia. Although their Croatian house had no running water and they had to wash their clothes by hand, she says that she loved living there, because it was such a free life. Her cousins in Kuzma taught them to catch and prepare birds and snails for food.

Domenica is fluent in Croatian as well as English, and her four children can also speak Croatian. Her husband, Luke Cibilich, is a Croatian born oyster fisherman who has lived in Louisiana since 1969. Today her brother, John Tesvich, and her husband are partners in their oyster business.

Like many Croatian and Croatian American women, Domenica raises many of her own vegetables in her backyard garden. Her large yard also features a grape arbor and several of the fig trees traditional to Croatian gardens. Her mother always had gardens both at the camp and in Port Sulphur. Domenica also keeps a cow and three goats, and from her goats' milk, she makes a traditional pressed goat's milk cheese. Croatians usually make a hard goat's milk cheese which is aged for months and has a strong taste, but Domenica says that her cheese never gets that hard or strong tasting, because her family eats it before it can really age. She says the meals she prepares for her family are, "Just stuff that I learned from my mother's way of cooking, with a lot of fish, oysters, and collard greens." Collard greens were always raised in her garden. Other staple foods include beans, cabbage, chicken soup, and beef soup. She describes a dried codfish meal, which the family traditionally served on church days when, "You had to fast and only eat one meal a day."

Domenica is an active member of Louisiana Citizens for a Free Croatia, a relief organization formed to aid children in Croatia. She helps to organize the St. Anthony's Day Celebration each year at the St. Patrick's Church in Port Sulphur. St. Anthony is the patron saint of her mother's village, Sucuraj.

Her mother and mother-in-law both do needlework, a traditional skill among Croatian women. Domenica is interested in textiles and has a collection not only of her mother's and mother-in-law's work, but also some older linens from Croatia.

Updated November 30, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Clement, Hubert L. "Anatoo" Sr.

Cajun Humorist and Musician

Hubert Clement was born in Evangeline, Louisiana in 1929. He was the son of the late Laurent Clement and Ada Bertrand Clement and the grandson of the Jules Clement upon whose land the first producing oil well in Louisiana was discovered. He was also the grandson of the Alcede Bertrand, both of his families are of Cajun descent.

Anatoo's interest in music began at an early age in grade school when he began playing the French harmonica. He continued his interest in music, and in 1960, he developed his comedy act. His performances involve many areas of entertainment including comedy, music, Louisiana History talks, and anti-drug messages. He especially liked to use a mixture of all of these when he performed for the younger children, and his anti-drug performance was for teens.

Anatoo's Cajun dialect form of comedy included jokes and humorous anecdotes and satires. His musical presentations involved known French and English songs, and also many of his own original selections that he had written through the years and for which he held the copyrights. Anatoo's presentation on the history of the true discovery of oil in Louisiana was very unique and informative. He related the little known details of the event as it actually happened in 1901 on his grandfather's land in Evangeline, Louisiana, in Acadia Parish.

In the early sixties Anatoo became a regular member of the cast of the "Happy Fats' Marinee" show on KLFY-TY in Lafayette, Louisiana with his daughter, the late Grace Clement. In 1965, Anatoo and Grace recorded the "oldest known Cajun song" entitled "Papillon." In 1965, the father-daughter team performed at the International Rice Festival in Crowley, Louisiana. Anatoo worked with the Jeff Davis Parish Tourist commission and appeared at major festivals across Louisiana and at the Governor's Cajun Breakfast in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was in constant demand to perform at fund-raising events, schools, churches, nursing homes, private parties, and social gatherings. His touring experiences included visits to the Smoky Mountains, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and San Antonio, Texas. Mr. Clement passed away at his residence in Evangeline on Tuesday, May 31, 2016. He was survived by his loving wife of 14 years, Esther Mae Bourque Boone Clement.

Updated November 30, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Loisiana Folklife Center Staff

Clement, Terry

Cajun Musician

The "Clement Brothers," Terry on accordion, Purvis on violin, and Grant on guitar, started playing music at a very early age. They organized their first band in 1949. The brothers' interest in Cajun French music came from their father, mother, and uncles who were all musicians. In the early 1900s their father, Laurent, played the fiddle at many house dances.

The band members fell in love with the music of the late Cajun French musician, Nathan Abshire, and patterned their music after his. They found his music exciting, smooth and very different from any others. In 1952, on their way to play for a dance in Holly beach, the brothers began playing around with a few Cajun French words with a catchy little sound, which became "Diggy Liggy Lo." They took the song to Jay Miller's Crowley studio and in less than a month, "Diggy Liggy Lo" was being played on jukeboxes from Houston to Florida.

In the early days, the "Clement Brothers" played Cajun French music all over Southwest Louisiana, Southeast Texas, and Mississippi. During the late 1950s and early 1960s when Cajun French music lost its popularity, the Clement brothers and a brother-in-law, Ronald Goodreau, were joined by pianist, Everett Daigle. During that time they played country and rhythm and blues music until Cajun French music regained popularity.

Today, they are still making music together, performing for civic groups, weddings, and the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival.

Updated November 30, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Folklife Center Staff

Coldman, Rosemary "Betty" B.

Second Line Dancer

Rosemary Coldman is a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, where she is a high school assistant supervisor and a member of the Lady Prince of Wales second line dance or social club. She learned the art of second line dancing from attending parades and observing other family members. She was about nine years old when she actually began dancing.

The Lady Prince of Wales second line dance club perform on the streets of New Orleans only once a year. The club performed at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, several second line parades, and in park events.

Updated November 30, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Collins, Sherry G.

Native American Crafts

Sherry Collins was born in 1940, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and is, at present, a resident of Dubberly, Louisiana. Sherry Collins is a Louisiana State Roster Artist, Artist-In Residence with the Shreveport Regional Arts Council, Official Louisiana Performing Artist, and Visiting Artist with the Arts in Education Program of Louisiana Division of the Arts.

Of Choctaw descent, she is best known for her contemporary paintings based on traditional Native American themes for which she grinds her own pigments from the many colored clays of North Louisiana. She also makes pottery and pine needle baskets.

When making her pottery she uses the same technique her grandmother used. The pots are hand shaped using the coil method. Her materials consist of North Louisiana clay, sand, shell, and water.

Sherry has exhibited at the Museum of the Grand Village of the Natchez in Natchez, Mississippi; "Circle of Life;" Native Voices, an exhibition of contemporary Louisiana Indians; Center for Contemporary Arts; Shreveport, Louisiana; the Louisiana State Soybean Festival Arts Competition; Catahoula Lake Folk Arts Festival; and Germantown Arts Festival, Minden, Louisiana.

Updated November 30, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Collom, Wayne "Tookie"

Blues Harmonica Player

Wayne Collom, a native of Vivian, Louisiana, currently lives in Rayville, Louisiana with his wife Joelle. Tookie acquired the skill of harmonica playing from his grandfather and Bobby Weaver. He also learned the "Blues" from listening to the radio and records. He first started playing the harmonica when he was merely eleven years old, and now he is one of the leading figures in blues music.

Tookie's style of playing the harmonica has often been compared to famous musicians such as Little Walker, Sonny Boy Williams, and Junior Parker. Together with Po' Henry, they compose music that is described as "Old Delta Blues."

Po' Henry and Tookie play together at festivals and as opening acts such as: Gate Mouth Brown, Buckwheat Zydeco, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and the Bobby Blue Band. They have also been frequent performers at festivals: Baton Rouge Folk and Heritage Festival and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Updated November 30, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Colvin, Tom

Palmetto and Cane Baskets/Boat Builder

Tom Colvin acquired his skills as a Choctaw basket weaver from Sanville and Mathilde Johnson, a childless couple and the last surviving Choctaw in the Lacombe area.  Colvin, who is not Native American, met the couple in 1963 while they were selling their baskets along the highway.  Mathilde agreed to give Colvin a chance to learn the intricate weaves she knew would otherwise die out with her and her husband.  First, Mathilde taught Colvin how to gather the raw materials used in basket weaving; then, she taught him how to strip the palmetto leaves; and finally, he learned the intricate weaves of the traditional baskets.

Over the years, Colvin has completed most of the traditional baskets: the egg basket, the large pack basket, the heart and elbow baskets, sifters, fruit baskets, pocket baskets, sewing baskets, button baskets, match baskets, and lidded lunch baskets.  Occasionally, Colvin tackles the most difficult weave of all, the double weave, which holds valuables.  Colvin was also taught the art of mixing natural dyes from the yellow dock plant, red oak bark, black gum bark, mulberry, and walnuts, although he now uses a commercial dye for his baskets.

In addition to making beautiful cane and palmetto baskets, Colvin has become an accomplished cabinetmaker and has learned the rare art of carving dugout cypress canoes.  Tom Colvin continues many of the traditions of the Choctaw tribe by teaching his craft to others and is especially grateful for the opportunity to meet and teach a young member of the Jena band of Choctaw, George Allen.  "I was so glad to teach him because what I learned from the Choctaw, I was able to give back to the Choctaw," says Colvin, who also sells his baskets at regional craft fairs.  He says of his craft, "I enjoy making baskets, because I know whatever my fingers are doing, that's what the old people's fingers were doing in the years past."

Though both Sanville and Mathilde Johnson are no longer living, Colvin maintains their tradition through his work, as well as through his publication Cane and Palmetto Basketry of the Choctaw of St. Tammany Parish which is a treasure of previously unrecorded Choctaw lore.  Colvin currently lives in Franklinton, Louisiana where he crafts his boats and baskets.  Mr. Colvin was inducted into the Hall of Master Folk Artists in July 2003.

Updated December 1, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Conly, William "Bill" Sr.

Celtic, Bluegrass, and Country Musician

Mr. William Conly lived his life in Ringgold, Louisiana where most of the Conly descendants live today. He was a retired forester who loved to talk about two of his favorites, Irish and Bluegrass music.

The fascination with his Irish ancestry began with his great grandfather, Thomas Cullen Conly. In the 1830s, Mr. Conly came to the U. S. from County Antrim as a stow-away on a ship. Mr. Thomas Conly later married in Savannah, and moved his young bride to Ringgold, Louisiana.

Reflecting this Anglo-Irish ancestry, William Conly sings Irish songs, bluegrass, country, gospel, and he plays the guitar and the mandolin.

Bill's music career did not begin with the old ballads or even with the guitar. The first instrument that he played was a piano. As a student at LSU, he learned to play the guitar from his roommate. With the help of two nuns from Ireland, he developed as a singer of Irish songs. Reflecting this Anglo-Irish ancestry, William Conly sung Irish songs, bluegrass, country, gospel, and he played the guitar and the mandolin. Although traditional Irish folk music was Conly's favorite, he still enjoyed playing with the "Loggy Bayou Misfits," an old time Bluegrass group from Ringgold, Louisiana.

Mr. Conly, his son Bill Jr. and the "Loggy Bayou Misfits" performed at the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival, Slab Town Fest in Goldonna, Red River Revel in Shreveport, Enoch's in Monroe, the Texas Irish Festival, Civil War period dances, and other events throughout Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and Louisiana. Mr. William Conly was the family historian, loved storytelling and he oozed knowledge about his heritage and community. His legacy will be passed on to his daughter Stacey Lee Conly and son Bill Conly Jr.

Updated September 5, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Conque, Murray

Storyteller and Accordion Player

Murray Conque was born in Lafayette, Louisiana on February 15, 1950. He now resides in Carencro with his wife Arlene. Murray has four children: Ky, Lance, Esther, and Sarah.

Murray plays the Cajun accordion and presents humorous stories and speeches at conventions, banquets, seminars, festivals, and meetings. He performs often with Dave Petitjean and A. J. Smith. He presents, on average, two times per week all across the United States and Canada.

Conque has opened for many famous musicians, such as: Aaron Neville, Mel McDaniels, and Paul Rodriguez. He has appeared on "The Regis & Kathie Lee Show" and "The John Folse Show." Murray was also voted "Best Cajun Comedian" by readers of Lifestyle Magazine .

Updated December 1, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Cooper, Nancy

Horsehair Rope Maker

Nancy Cooper of De Quincy is a fifth-generation maker of horsehair ropes. She began making ropes with her mother and two brothers. The spinning process takes three people. One to feed the hair, one to spin it, and one to keep the strands straight as they are spun together. Cooper is the feeder in the trio, the most skilled role in the process. Cooper explains that the horsehair rope tradition came about from necessity rather than entertainment or novelty. Horsehair was a natural resource that cattlemen could use when other materials were too expensive. The cattlemen cut the horses' manes about twice a year and used the hair they cut to make ropes, saddle blankets, girths, and reins. "Our grandfather Zephrine Litttle," Cooper explains, "was one of ten children who grew up in the little home. He was one of the few who carried on the trade of making horsehair reins after modernization saw to it that other materials could be used for other ranching needs."

Cooper's grandfather hired his grandchildren to assist him in spinning reins that he later sold. Although the actual making of a rope only takes from forty-five minutes to an hour, preparing the horsehair for the activity takes hours. When her grandfather passed away, different members of Cooper's family tried to carry on the tradition, but no one could complete the process. It was during this time that Cooper perfected her feeding skills. Using a mechanical twister that her grandfather passed down to her, Cooper, her mother, and two brothers have continued the tradition. They have other tools they use to complete the process. A hand-paddle to twist the mane and sticks to put the strands together. Most of the horsehair that Nancy and her family use for making rope and reins is given to them by locals that know they still are doing the craft.

The continuation of this tradition is natural for Cooper. She comes from a family with a strong equestrian background and is closely tied to the horse industry. She rides competitively in barrel racing and other events, and uses her horsehair reins and girths in these competitions. She finds it very interesting to see how people react to an activity that she and her family have taken for granted.

Updated December 1, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Cormier, Lesa

Cajun Musician

Mr. Lesa Cormier self identifies as Cajun, and he speaks both French and English. As a child growing up, he lived in Elton, Louisiana, but has lived most of his adult life in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He is a proud member of the "Sundown Playboys" band.

Lesa is proud of Cajun traditions - the language, foodways, traditional music, and traditional dance. He was raised in a musical family, and has been the drummer with the "Sundown Playboys" since 1947. His father, Lionel Comier, was an accordion player and formed the original "Sundown Playboys." The family is in its third generation of music. Lesa's children are all musicians and currently play with the band.

The "Sundown Playboys" have received many awards and recorded many songs since 1951. They have performed at many festivals and concerts across the country. Performances include appearances at the Folk Music Festival in Chicago (1976), Louisiana World's Fair (1984), Sauce Picante Festival, Calcasieu Cajun Festival, 1994 Washington Mardi Gras, Chili Cook Off in Houston, Texas, Festival Acadienne Le Cajun Awards (1990), and many more.

Updated December 1, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Cousin, Peter M. Jr.

All Saints' Day Traditions

Peter M. Cousin, Sr. was born in 1927 in Lacombe. He listed his ancestry as Creole, Cajun, and Choctaw. He said that he was a descendant of Francois Cousin, one of the early European settlers of Lacombe in the 1830s. He spoke some French and Spanish, in addition to English. For many years, he was a builder in New Orleans, but he soon after retired from the construction business and worked for St. Tammany Parish's Assessor's Office.

He was an expert on the history and traditions of the area, especially such traditions as "La Toussaint," which is the traditional French Louisiana ritual honoring the dead on All Saints' Day. Mr. Cousin also made his own filé from sassafrass leaves that he picked from a tree in his yard. He was very interested in his Native American heritage and its lore. He made replicas of palmetto mosquito whisks and the pine tapers that were once used as torches by the Indians.

In preparation for All Saints' Day, Lacombe families gather in local cemeteries to beautify the graves of loved ones. They cut the grass, whitewash graves, and paint fences. Candles and flowers are placed around and on the gravesites. The graves are then blessed by a priest. As night draws near in, the sight of hundreds of candles flickering in the dark is a moving and remarkable one. Although the tradition of "La Toussaint" is a Catholic one, Mr. Cousin said that other religious groups in the area have also begun to clean their cemeteries on All Saint's Day.

Cemeteries in the Lacombe area are located on or near bayous and easily accesssible to boats. Before roads were built in the area, bodies had to be transported by boat to the cemetery. According to Mr. Cousin, the tradition of candle decorated graves began with the use of torches of pine knots used to light the way. Mr. Cousin took care of two family cemeteries, and he restored some of the old graves in his family's cemetery near Bayou Lacombe. This cemetery has the grave of Pere Roquette, an early Catholic priest in the area.

Mr. Cousin was active in preserving and educating others about his cultural heritage. He participated in a narrative session on All Saints' Day traditions at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and worked with other community members to develop a cultural museum in Lacombe.

Updated December 1, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Cox, Bill

Storyteller and Oral Historian

Bill Cox is a current resident of Ruston, Louisiana who enjoys telling stories and oral histories. Until 1996 he worked as the Director of Athletic Facilities at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, where he also received his degree.

He is a member of the Ruston Rotary Club in which he is a Paul Harris Fellow.  He is a recipient of the Robert E. Russ Award, Bill Best Humanitarian Award, Outstanding Lincoln Parish Schools Volunteer, Betty Robbins Volunteer of the Year Award/Junior Auxiliary with many awards during his time working at Tech in the Athletic Department.

 One of his great loves is entertaining groups with his "slight-of-hand" tricks, card tricks and all the while punctuatiing the tricks with humorous stories--some true, some ficticious.  Mr. Cox has spoken at the Senior Citizens' Expo for Lincoln Parish using his humorous stories.  He entertains at many school functions, church functions and civic club functions, personal parties and athletic teams' functions.  For years, while he worked at Tech he helped with football recruiting by doing both the cooking and then entertaining the athletes with his stories and card tricks.

    Mr. Cox was raised in Smackover, Arkansas, came to Louisiana Tech and never left after he graduated.  His love for this area is great.

Updated December 1, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Daigle, Paul

Musician

Mr. Daigle was born in 1958, in the country near Church Point, Louisiana. He is fluent in both English and Cajun French. Mr. Daigle is presently a resident of Branch, Louisiana and his main occupation is as an auto body repairman. Paul also plays the accordion, which he has played since he was ten years old.

Paul is a member of "Cajun Gold." The band is among the most popular bands in dance clubs across the south. Paul is known as one of Acadiana's most talented accordionists. The "Cajun Gold" band has had several regional hits, such as: "Tee Bec Doux" and "The New Anniversary Waltz."

Mr. Daigle has performed with other renowned Cajun musicians like D.L. Menard and Ken Smith. Paul has toured with D.L. Menard in China, Denmark, and throughout the United States. In addition to touring, Paul's band also plays throughout the state of Louisiana and has been featured frequently at the "Rendez vous des Cadiens" live radio show at Eunice's Liberty Theater. They performed at the World's Fair and have been featured at the Louisiana Folklife Festival.

Updated December 1, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Daigle,Thelma

Cajun Storyteller and Humorist

Thelma Daigle of Scott, Louisiana acquired her stories when she was a child listening to her father and friends. Thelma actually began her career as a joke and storyteller quite by accident. One day in 1989 she received a call from Teasie Cary of Church Point, asking her how she felt about participating in the International Joke Telling Contest which was to be held in Opelousas. Thelma, always modest about her talent and never having performed in public, said "Oh no! I could never do that!" Well, Teasie said, "You'd better get ready, because the Cajun Ladies have already paid your entry fee." So, Thelma went along with the joke. She notes that for her first appearance on stage she thought she had a drum roll, but it was only her knees knocking.

Mrs. Daigle has performed at the Oyster Festival in Foley, Alabama (1995); Cajun comic relief, Lafayette, (1996); the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival; and at the Festival of Life in Quebec, Canada (1999).

Updated December 1, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Darbone, Luderlin

Cajun and Country Musician

Mr. Darbone was born in 1913 in Evangeline, Louisiana, and was a resident of Sulphur, Louisiana. Luderlin was a member of the "Hackberry Ramblers." Their band played both Cajun and Country music. Mr. Darbone played the fiddle. He acquired his music skills through the New York School of Music, in New York City.

When the band was first organized, they played their music only in Southwest and Southeast Louisiana. They played throughout the US. They have performed at the Berkeley Music Festival(1965); The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (1987-2000); Superbowl (1996); President's Summit on America's Future (1997); and at the Grand Ole Opry (1999). Mr. Darbone died November 21, 2008.

Updated December 1, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Darden, John Paul

Chitimacha Split Cane Basket maker

In South Louisiana, near Charenton, on a twenty-three acre reservation, live many members of the Chitimacha Indian tribe. John Darden is a member of this ancient culture, and he practices one of the surviving art forms of his ancestors. John knows the importance of preserving and passing on his cultural traditions and art forms. John and his wife, Scarlett, are two of the few remaining Chitimacha who practice split-cane basketry. John learned this craft as a child by listening, watching, and practicing as his grandparents created their traditional basket art.

Using only his teeth, a sharp knife, water, and canes, John makes some of the best and most beautiful split cane baskets in the state. Around the muddy bayous of Charenton, Louisiana, the piya, a bamboo-like cane, still grows thick and tall. Canes with widely spaced joints are more desirable than other types because they have fewer knots and will produce smoother baskets. After gathering the cane, the long, tedious job of splitting and peeling the cane begins. The cane must be kept damp until splitting time.

For splitting, a round stalk is notched at one end with a sharp knife, then twisted in a wringing motion with both hands. Strips of cane are split and split again until each is about one-half inch wide. The next step is to peel off the smooth outside layer of the cane. Peeling is done with the teeth and a sharp knife, as this is the most practical way of removing the cover from the pithy inside layer. These peeled strips are placed outside in the dewy grass for about two weeks to bleach out the natural green color of the cane. After two weeks, the cane is ready for dyeing.

Traditionally the red, black, and yellow dyes were made from plants growing wild in the area, but because of a scarcity of natural dyes, commercial fabric dyes are now used. After the dyed cane strips have dried, another layer is peeled off to produce a flexible, weavable strip. Now the real work begins! Chitimacha baskets are traditionally of a double weave, but a single weave is also done. A large, double, weave basket, which is woven from the bottom up, may take as much as a month to complete. The designs, perhaps their most distinctive feature of a Chitimacha basket, are reminiscent of woven fabric figures. Usually, the design faithfully mimics the living creature it symbolizes: black bird eyes, snakes, hearts, turtles, alligators, and little fish abound. So symbolically important are these designs that the Chitimacha are the only people besides the North Carolina Cherokee to retain the symbol names. The reasons for the exclusive use of red, yellow, and black are, unfortunately, lost in time.

John and Scarlett Darden, along with John's sister, Melissa, are preserving the traditional craft of an ancient culture. Through their participation in and demonstrating at festivals like the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival and the 1995 Louisiana Folklife Festival in Monroe, they are sharing their culture with the rest of the world.

Updated December 1, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Darden, Melissa M.

Chitimacha River Cane Basket maker

The Chitmacha Indians of St. Mary Parish have long been counted among the most skilled basket weavers in the Southeast. Their single weave and double weave baskets of split river cane woven in centuries' old patterns are prized for their beauty and craftsmanship. Today only a handful of women and men continue to weave these cane baskets.

Melissa Darden is from Charenton, Louisiana and is the granddaughter of renowned Chitimacha basket maker Lydia Darden. Like her brother, John Darden and her sister-in-law Scarlett Darden, she is actively helping to preserve this traditional aspect of Chitimacha culture. As several of the master Chitimacha basket weavers passed on or became less active over the years, younger tribal members like Melissa realized that it was important for their generation to continue making river cane baskets in the traditional way. Melissa makes baskets for sale and demonstrates basket making at festivals, fairs, and museums.

She learned some of the basket weaving process at five years of age, and began weaving baskets more seriously in January of 1992. She weaves with traditional techniques using a knife, her hands, and teeth. She first learned the basics from Lydia Darden and learned the traditional designs from studying as many other Chitimacha baskets as possible. She notes that she is, "always seeking for more of the older designs." About the tradition, she says, "I feel that this is a way of preserving the natural history of my culture." Traditionally, baskets were woven for use by the makers and as a source of income. This remains true today, she says, "My basket weaving provides a better living for my family."

The techniques, patterns, and materials of Chitimacha basketmaking have changed little over the last two centuries. Creating a basket is a time consuming process. First, river cane must be collected and then split into the thin strips used for weaving. Today, commercial dyes may be used to create the distinctive red, black, and yellow hues of the baskets, but the ancient patterns like Alligator's Entrails and Snake Eyes remain unchanged. The most difficult baskets to make are the double woven baskets, in which one basket is woven inside another. Melissa makes double woven as well as single woven baskets.

Melissa's work has been featured at the Louisiana Folklife Festival, Jazz Fest, Festival Acadien, Red Earth, Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., the Louisiana Native Crafts Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and the Prairie Acadian Culture Center in Eunice. In 1993, she received a Louisiana Folklife Apprenticeship grant to teach basket weaving to apprentice Paula Darden, and she won first place in an art competition at the Red Earth Pow-Wow in 2000.

Updated December 1, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Day, William "Bill"

Honorary Member
(1933 - 2003)

William (Bill) Day was born in Louisiana in 1933, and was destined to lead an eventful life.  As a child, Bill performed opera.  He won the 4-H talent contest when he was eighteen, representing the state of Louisiana in Chicago.  After finishing high school, he attended Northwestern State University, where he graduated with a BA Degree in Anthropology. His interests did not stop there, as he taught astronomy classes at LSUA and closely followed the manned space program.  His love of space and flying may have been one of the reasons he became a licensed pilot.  He was also an avid sportsman, as a Catahoula Lake duck hunter, an expert fly fisherman, and a lifelong conservation activist.

Bill Day worked as a radio personality for various stations in central Louisiana, and at WAFB radio in Baton Rouge.  His broadcast career lasted over thirty years, working for NBC's KALB and ABC's KLAX in Alexandria. Bill was News Director for KALB Radio and well known for his "Great Day in the Morning" show and newspaper column, "Both Barrels". Because Mr. Day  left his mark, he received countless awards, citations and proclamations for his work in broadcasting with both local communities and national organizations.

Mr. Day held many positions in his lifetime; he worked in the rites, repatriation and conservation of Native American history and artifacts and was the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Poarch Band of Creek Indians of Alabama and the Jena Band of Choctaws of Louisiana. He was the founder and Director of the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, the Chair of the Governmental Affairs Committee, and the Chairman of the Culture and Heritage Committee of the twenty-four Tribes of the United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc.  He designed and constructed the only full scale Artifact Conservation laboratory on an American Indian Reservation staffed by its tribal members.  He also oversaw the design of the Tunica Treasure Museum and served as its Director for ten years, participating in the successful legal battle to recover the Tunica Treasure, one of the largest collections of Colonial period Indian Trade goods, from Harvard University. Bill was the president and owner of Chief Consultants, Inc., a consulting firm that specialized in American Indian government relations.

He was the Chief Warrant Officer in the Louisiana State Guard, and in 1971, he led a delegation to the Paris Peace Talks to secure the release of Vietnam POWs.

Mr. Day was as much a conservationist as he was a humanist.  As a past president of the Rapides Wildlife Association and Ducks Unlimited, he successfully campaigned against the indiscriminant pollution of Little River, large scale clearing of Central Louisiana's bottomland hardwoods and illegal netting of the Saline-Larto complex.  He was also the owner and Publisher of "Southern Outdoors", one of the largest outdoor magazines.  Because of his lasting influence, William Day was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 1984.

Researched and Rewritten by Samantha Sullivan

Updated December 1, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Dean, Marie Billiot

Palmetto basket Maker

Marie Billiot Dean was a member of the Houma Indian tribe, and lived in Dulac, Louisiana. She was reknown for her skill in weaving palmetto into hats, baskets, mats, fans, and whisks. She also weaved hats of timothy grass and made dolls of cured Spanish moss. The Catholic, French-speaking Houma Indians are the largest group of Indians in Louisiana. Living mainly in Louisiana's coastal parishes of Terrebonne, Lafourche, Plaquemine, and Jefferson, many maintain traditional lifestyles based on hunting, fishing, and trapping. Indian and French traditions are especially strong in the Dulac area of Terrebonne Parish.

Like most Houma Indians of her generation, Mrs. Dean primarily spoke  French. Her twin brother Lawrence Billiot, now deceased, was a boat builder. Her family also included a net maker and a carver of blowguns. She learned palmetto weaving and doll making from her mother. Making her baskets, hats, and dolls is slow work because the moss and palmetto must first be gathered and cured. The palmetto palm grows especially abundant in marshy regions near bayous and swamps. It is traditionally used by the Houmas for building huts as well as for crafts. Mrs. Dean preferred palmetto growing in the wild because the plants grow much bigger. She collected only the heart of the palmetto plant, cut it just before the plant separated into fans. Because if the fans open, the fronds are too stiff to braid.

The fronds are left to dry in the sun from ten days to several weeks. When she was ready to begin a piece, she tore the individual fronds into 1/4 inch strands and began to plait them into strips that could be as long as sixty feet. The number of strands in a braid ranges from three to seven, depending on the style and design of the piece. Mrs. Dean then coiled the braid into a basket or hat, overlapped the edges and sewed the rows together with narrow, colored ribbon. Palmetto baskets and hats are water resistant and very durable.

To make dolls, Mrs. Dean collected Spanish moss from trees near her home, hosed it down in her back yard, and then hung it on a clothesline to dry. When the gray outer coat drops off, the cured black core is ready to fashion into dolls. Only a few strands of moss at a time are used to form and shape the dolls. Marie Dean's dolls sport button eyes, pigtails tied with cheerful yarn or ribbon, and are usually dressed in palmetto skirts. She also made dolls holding moss infants in their arms as well as Christmas tree ornaments of palmetto.

Mrs. Dean participated in a number of school programs, where she taught  students about her culture as well as the basics of palmetto weaving. Roy Parfait, a wood carver, often accompanied her. She participated in numerous museum programs and festivals, including the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife, the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and the Native Crafts Festival. Mrs. Dean died September 23, 2010.

Updated December 1, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Delafose, John

Zydeco Accordionist

Mr. John Delafose was born in Duralde, Louisiana. He was born April 16, 1939. Delafose learned how to play many instruments as a child and young teenager, including the harmonica. Mr. John also learned how to play the button accordion around the age of eighteen. Before John began playing music in the early 1970's he pursued a career of farming. Soon after farming, Mr. Delafose turned back to his old ways of music and began serving as an accordionist or harpist for many Zydeco bands. Not only did he play in other bands but, throughout his lifetime he developed a band that was known as "John Delafose and the Eunice Playboys". Delafose was extremely talented and was well known for his music. He passed away September 17, 1994 leaving behind many memories and an excellent name for himself.

Updated December 1, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Dennis, Errol, J. "Fish"

Duck Caller

Mr. Dennis was born in 1940, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is a resident of Chalmette, Louisiana, where he lives with his wife Janice Salles and their three children: Errol Jr., Scott, and Steven. His main occupation is being a residential contractor.

While growing up in southern Louisiana, his father taught him seasonal hunting. When he was approximately sixteen years old, his father taught him the art of duck calling.

Errol has performed at local duck calling contests and the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival.

Updated December 1, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Dollar, Susan

Tatter

Susan learned to tat from her eighty-eight year old maternal aunt. She had never seen tatting before watching her aunt. Ms. Dollar, who was fascinated by the craft, asked her aunt to teach her to tat. Susan learned the basic knot in a week, but she said it took six months of practice before she was ready to try a pattern. She says, "There's not a lot going on in Itta Bena, Mississippi so you learn to tat and chat at the same time."

Tatting has been handed down by the maternal aunts in Susan Dollar's family for a number of generations. Ms. Murphy "Sister;" her sister Willie, who is now deceased and known as "Bibi;" were taught to tat by their great-aunts. Each summer Sister and Bibi's great-aunts came to stay with the girls and their family, and they used this time to teach them to tat. Sister and Bibi's father rode his horse to town to buy the girls their first tatting shuttles. Susan now has possession of her aunt's first tatting shuttle. Ms. Dollar plans to carry on her family's "aunt tradition" by teaching her young nephew who has shown interest in learning to tat.

Tatting is a form of lace made by tying knots in thread with a shuttle. Some believe it originated from knots that fishermen tied in their nets. Tatting is known as "poor man's lace" because it is inexpensive to produce. A tatter only needs thread, a shuttle, and a pair of scissors to create a beautiful piece of lace.

Shuttles are made from many materials. Sister and Bibi's first shuttle, cerca 1915, were made of celluloid. Later shuttles were made from metal while most modern shuttles are made of plastic and resemble the early celluloid versions. Ms. Dollar's shuttle collection contains wooden, horn, and bamboo shuttles.

Patterns may be the most creative aspect of the craft. Ms. Dollar and Ms. Murphy have invented a way to keep up with all of the designs they tat. They each have a book containing a photocopy of each design they use and the pattern directions for recreating it. The women find designs in books, leaflets, and in old pieces of tatting they find in antique shops and museums. Ms. Murphy likes to make changes in these patterns to enhance their design or to make them more appropriate for her uses. She then writes these improved patterns in her book and shares them with Susan, who prefers the traditional patterns because of their link to the past. She also prefers to tat bookmarks because of her love for books and the utilitarian qualities of the finished work. Susan likes to experiment with coloring her thread with natural dyes such as tea and red cabbage.

Ms. Dollar has participated in the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival where she was entered into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 1999.

Updated December 1, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Dorsey, Henry

Blues Musician

Henry Dorsey was born on May 11, 1928 in Oak Ridge, Louisiana. He was an only child, and his father was a sharecroper. His first instrument was a one-string wire which was strung up on the side of a house or general store. The instrument was made of clothesline wire stretched between the house and pegs in the ground.

Dorsey now performs with blues harmonica player, Tookie Collom. Henry has a pleading vocal style and plays a powerhouse guitar.

Known across Louisiana as "Po' Henry," he and Collom have played a large number of venues including folk festivals and parties. They have also performed as the opening act for Gate Mouth Brown, Buckwheat Zydeco, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and the Bobby Blue Band. They are frequent performers at the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival, the Louisiana Folklife Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and the Baton Rouge Folk and Heritage Festival.

Po' Henry and Tookie play a style of blues reminiscent of the great old blues legends. Po' Henry's style has been compared to John Lee Hooker, and Collom's style has been compared to Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williams, and Junior Parker .

Updated December 5, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Doucet, Michael

Fiddler

For more than two decades, Cajun fiddler Michael Doucet has been a leader in the renaissance of Cajun music. With his band, Beausoleil, he has given a new sound to Cajun music and has become one of the best-known Cajun musicians in the world.

Born near Lafayette in 1951, Michael Doucet grew up with a variety of musical influences. The first one he recalls is his uncle, Will Knight, who played Cajun music on the fiddle, banjo, and bass. Inspired by Knight, Doucet began playing the banjo at the age of six and the guitar at eight. Many other styles of music influenced Doucet's music including artists such as Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, and Tennessee Ernie Ford. Doucet says he learned from cousins, aunts, uncles, and from classical musicians to rock-and-roll musicians to Cajun musicians. "I heard a gamut of sounds back then and went with the flow."

His first band was formed with friend Zachery Richard when they were 12 years old. They played mostly folk rock. However, Traditional French music was always around, especially at family gatherings. He rediscovered the value of Cajun music during a 1974 trip to France with Richard. They met young French musicians playing traditional Cajun music. Doucet remarked, "Here were serious musicians in their twenties playing and relating to Cajun music in terms of what it could be. I began to understand what we had and what we stood for."

Michael Doucet returned to Louisiana, found an old Acadian house in Lafayette to restore, and began to play the fiddle. He says he "wanted to understand the guts of the music. If I was going to play Cajun music, I wanted to play Cajun music. And if I was going to change Cajun music, I had to be sure of the directions." He set out to meet and learn from some of the masters he had heard of in France: Dewey Balfa, Varise Connor, Canray Fontenot, Hector Duhon, and especially Dennis McGee. In 1975, Doucet received a Folk Arts Apprenticeship Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to learn Cajun fiddle styles from some of these masters.

With friends, Doucet formed the innovative band, "Coteau," which played a synthesis of country, Cajun, blues, and rock. During the same period, he performed with friends Kenneth and Sterling Richard in a group they named "Beausoleil." The group had a strong traditional base with a wide range of influences like classical, jazz, and bluegrass. From early field recordings of Cajun music and older Cajun musicians, "Beausoleil" learned to play the old songs, in what Doucet calls a "search for the spirit of Cajun music." After "Coteau" disbanded in 1977, "Beausoleil" came into its own. Over the years, membership in the band has changed, but "Beausoleil" is now perhaps the most popular Cajun band in the world. With his wife Sharon, Doucet recorded an album of French children's songs. In 1977, Doucet began working with Dewey Balfa to educate children in the public schools about Cajun music. As an adjunct professor at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette, Louisiana, Doucet designed and taught the first course on Cajun music.

The group has performed at Carnegie Hall and played nationally and internationally at major festivals, concert halls, and clubs. Six of their many albums have been nominated for Grammy Awards and Michael Doucet was named a master folk musician by the Louisiana Folklife Center as well.

Updated December 5, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Dupont, Huey

Furniture Maker

Calling himself a "simple" person who comes "from the woods at Big Bend and that's behind Simmesport," St. Landry Parish's furniture maker Huey Dupont seems to embody the Cajun culture itself. It takes only one visit with this talented craftsman and his family to make the visitor recognize the strength, common sense, practical wisdom, and the need to offer advice which are all part of Dupont's culture and his product.

Huey Dupont, who is a self-taught furniture maker, fashions love seats, flower pot stands, chairs, doll furniture, beds, swings, sofas, baskets, and other items from willow, ash, cypress, and scrap lumber (what the ordinary person would throw away). Building either from his original design or from a rough sketch provided by a customer, Dupont constructs with ease. He makes each stress point work with the other and he makes the braces do their job. Quality is guaranteed with this kind of planning and care. Strength and durability are the end results of Mr. Dupont's work.

Using simple tools:a blade made into a machete for cutting wood, a pruning tool for snipping wood into shape, a kitchen knife for whittling ends and stripping bark, a hammer, and galvanized and waxed nails-Dupont works willow which comes from the sand bar islands on the Mississippi River to fashion furniture of intricate design. He forms ash or willow into loops and curves which resemble rattan but are much more durable.

If Dupont is making an item intended for outdoor use, he will use the natural wood. If the product is intended for indoors, he will use an immature stripped willow or ash from which all bark has been removed. Dupont notes that he uses immature ash or willow which he bends with the bark shortly before using. If bent too long before using or if tree is too mature, the bark is harder to strip and, "It won't bend for me," says Dupont. Conservation seems to be a part of Dupont's philosophy. He stresses that he cuts only what he can use up in a very short period of time-he doesn't want to "waste" his wood!

Although Dupont is self-taught, he and his twelve siblings were always encouraged to work with their hands. He is passing this on to his teenage son, Mark, who has already begun to construct bent willow baskets and simple items of furniture. Lucille, Huey's wife, is also learning her husband's craft. She has become quite adept at fashioning wood creations and flower arrangements made from wood.

All of Dupont's wood products come with two things: his brand -HD- and advice on how to care for them. He suggests spraying this hand crafted furniture with a mixture of linseed oil and turpentine every few years to provide a rich, glossy finish and longevity.

Although Huey Dupont has only been practicing his craft for a couple of years, he has already been discovered by New Orleans and by Paul Prudhomme who owns a Dupont original and who plans to feature Dupont's work in his catalogue of Cajun items. Be on the lookout for this newcomer into the state's artistic circles!

Updated December 5, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Durocher, Joan L.

Household Goods Maker

Joan Durocher was born on August 15, 1950 and resides in Thibodaux, Louisiana. She is married to Robert and has three children that go by the names of Laura, Ross, and Ken.

At the age of twelve, she learned to crochet from her great-aunty. Using only a crochet hook, scissors, fine thread, and yarn. She creates her own patterns and makes crochet collars, baby clothes, jewelry, sweaters, and decorative pieces.

Updated December 5, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Early, Hezekiah

Blues Musician

Hezekiah Early was born in Natchez, Mississippi, on October 7, 1934. He had seven brothers and sisters with Hezekiah being the youngest of the boys. He found his love for music while listening to his father's fife-and-drum field band.

Hezekiah's father, Wilson Early, played a fife that was made by hand from switch cane that could be easily found close to home. His father would heat up a nail and burn out the holes that would be used to form the notes. The fife is a small, high pitched, flute that is similar to the piccolo. It was one of the most important musical instruments in America's Colonial period and was a favorite among early African-American Blues artists. By the age ten, Hezekiah was marching and playing the fife right alongside his father and the band.

Hezekiah added to his musical talents as he learned to play the 50 cent harmonicas that his father would bring home after trips into town. Ever seeking to expand his musical abilities, he crafted for himself a make-shift guitar out of an empty wooden cheese box. He would strum away on the strings that he tightly stung across the box, forming chords and melodies along with his friends. Early took the chords he learned on his make-shift guitar and began to perform locally with other musicians. Before long, their group got themselves a raggedy, patch covered set of drums, and just like he did with the fife, harmonica, and guitar, Early taught himself to play the drums.

Early never felt that his music would get out of Natchez until he and his band "The Houserockers," recorded their first album, "Since Ol' Gabiel's Time," in 1982. The trio uniquely mixes together the sounds of the drum, trombone, guitar, and harmonica. According to several reviews, the band's sound calls to mind the river blues of the early steamboat jazz and country blues bands originating in the lower Mississippi River Valley. Early's talents have led him and his band on 13 tours abroad and numerous jazz and blues festivals across the U.S.

Hezekiah Early was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists, during the 30th annual Natchitoches NSU Folk Festival. Dr. Pete Gregory, professor of anthropology and cofounder of the Folk Festival, accepted the award on behalf of Early, who was unable to attend. Dr Gregory and Dr. Shane Rasmussen, director of the Louisiana Folklife Center at NSU, presented the plaque to Early at his home in Natchez, Mississippi, August 6, 2009.

Flory, Patrick A.

Country Musician

Mr. Flory was born in 1948, in New Iberia, Louisiana working as or being an architect and is presently a resident of Metarie, Louisiana. He works as an architect and his pastime or working hobby is music. Patrick learned to play music from listening to radio, old traditional country musicians, and his great uncle John Holloway, who was an important early Mississippi fiddler.

Patrick's real fascination with music began when he was listening to country music stars such as Hank Snow, Red Foley, and Hank Williams on the radio and on records that his brother brought home. Around the same time, he purchased the first of many guitars he owned. While in high school, he learned to play the guitar and most country music. Mr. Flory plays the banjo, mandolin, fiddle and dobro. He plays mostly with the "Evening Star String Band", but he also plays solo.

Mr. Flory's first stage performance was in 1966 on a live radio show with regional country music bands, which was also his first time to hear bluegrass. Over the years, Mr. Flory has played music with a number of bands. He calls the music he plays today, "southern music." Patrick says, "if I have to single out anything to mention with special pride, it is the Piney Woods Opry Live Radio show, which I co-founded with several other people in 1992, in Abita Springs, Louisiana to promote old fashioned country music."

Patrick has toured and played individual shows in California, New York, Texas, and New Mexico. He has also performed at the Piney Woods Opry, the New Orleans Jazz Festival, and at monthly coffeehouse shows.

Fontenot, Stacy

Tatter

Stacy Fontenot was born in Colorado on October 28, 1973. She now resides in Natchitoches, Louisiana with her husband and daughter. Currently a student at Northwestern State University, she enjoys tatting in her spare time. Her mother-in-law, Rita Fontenot, taught her about this art form in 1996.

Stacy participated in the 1999 Festival Francofete and the 2000 Festival Folk Traditions in the New Millennium. She both demonstrates and sells these crafts.

Ford, Thomas Edison "Brownie"

Ballad Singer, Storyteller, and Craftsman
(1904 - 1996)

Thomas Edison "Brownie" Ford, who was of Comanche and Anglo-American descent, was a Louisiana legend.  Dynamic at the age of 91, he was without peer as a master of cowboy crafts, a singer of ballads, and a gifted storyteller.

Born in 1904 at Gum Springs in the Oklahoma territory, Brownie Ford spent much of his life as a working "woods cowboy" and rodeo rider in Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas.

He began breaking horses at the age of eight, and at the age of twelve, he left home and joined a Wild West show.  He lived on the road much of the time from 1920 through the 1950s, working as a bronco buster and clown for rodeos and a sharpshooter and rider for Wild West and medicine shows.  During the off-season, he worked as a cowboy.  He recalled that he was twice reported dead after accidents in the rodeo arena.  "Sometimes I'm amazed at what I walked away from," said Ford.  Rodeos and medicine shows also gave him a chance to sing during intermission.

After a decade in Baton Rouge in the honky-tonk music scene, he settled down in Hebert, Louisiana, in Caldwell Parish, where he and his wife Cody ran a bait shop and grocery store for many years.  Until about 1991, he worked horses part-time.  Brownie repaired saddles, made girths, chaps, bridles and other pieces of tack, plaited rawhide, and crafted hide-bottomed chairs by hand.  He learned these crafts on his own and continued them all of his life since the age of about ten or eleven.  His greatest gift was his deep, mellow voice and his extensive repertoire of cowboy songs, frontier ballads, medieval ballads, blues-based classics, country music of the 1940s and 50s, and parlor ditties of the 1880s and 1890s.  He began playing the guitar as a boy, although his father, a sharecropper in East Texas, disapproved.  However, it wasn't long before he was playing for house dances, then road houses and honky tonks, and Saturday night dances.

He said, "There was a time when my whole life was playing music, ranch work, rodeos and Wild West shows.  It was a rough life but a long adventure."  Brownie Ford learned British and American ballads from his family and cowboy songs while working in the rodeo and Wild West shows and on ranches.

His debut CD, Stories from Mountains, Swamps, and Honky-tonks was released by the Louisiana Division of the Arts in 1991 as Volume 8 in the Louisiana Folklife Series.  Brownie Ford was awarded a prestigious National Heritage Fellowship in 1987 and named a national "living treasure" for his songs and his contributions to American folklore.  He toured, demonstrating his crafts, and captivating audiences with his ballads and true stories of round-ups, busting broncos and Wild West shows.  He performed all over the country at Folklife festivals and was featured on two month-long "Cowboy Tours" of the western states, sponsored by the National Council for the Traditional Arts.  In 1983, he was invited to participate in a program sponsored by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists.

Forestier, Ledel "Blackie"

Accordion Player and Musician

Mr. Forestier was born in 1928 and lived much of his life in Jennings, Louisiana. He self-identified as Cajun and spoke both French and English.

Mr. Forestier was successful at many professions. At the age of thirteen he worked as a rice farmer, later he became a cutting horse trainer, and finally, he retired as Chief Investigator of the Jefferson Davis District Attorney's Office.

Ledel was an accordion player and a member of Blackie and The Cajun Aces. He learned to play the accordion at home while listening to and watching his oldest brother play. When he was growing up, he also attended the local dance hall where all the Cajun families in his community gathered to play music and dance. As an adult, the whole time he worked, he also played music. He once stated, "It has been with me probably all of my life."

Mr. Forestier and Blackie and the Cajun Aces toured the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia. Blackie was inducted into the Cajun French Music Association Hall of Fame, the Belizaire's Restaurant Hall of Fame, and Louisiana Cajun Music Hall of Fame. He was included into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 1999. Forestier died in 2000.

Franklin, Barbara

Multicultural Folk Doll Artist

Ms. Barbara Franklin, began working with her hands at the young age of 7 or 8 years old and has been creating cloth dolls for the past 38 years. She was inspired to create cloth dolls as she was passing the French Quarter and admired a variety of little black dolls. Barbara handcrafts all of her dolls from her home. She has participated in the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Black Heritage Festival, the Celebration of the African Child in Congo Square, and others around the state, including Sugarfest in Port Allen, Melrose Arts and Crafts Festival, and FestForAll in Baton Rouge, and she participates in the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge's Arts Market. Ms. Franklin also conducts educational workshops in libraries so that educators can teach their students how to make the dolls. She has stated, "I refer to myself as 'Barbara W. Franklin, African American Multicultural Folk Doll Artist.' That means that I make dolls of all different cultures."

Updated July 20,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Franzuela, Nanette

Nanette Franzuela

Filipino Traditional Dress and Religious Celebrations

Nannette Franzuela was born and raised in Manila in the Philippines. She speaks English, Spanish, and Tagalog. Nannette holds a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing as well as an MBA. She came to the United States in the 1980's and moved to New Orleans in 1988.

Filipinos in Louisiana maintain many aspects of their traditional culture, including the celebration of religious and seasonal holidays. Most Filipino-American celebrations in the New Orleans area have several themes in common. Religion is an important aspect of these festivities and a mass is often held. Family participation is strongly emphasized. Sharing is an important part of Filipino tradition and traditional foods are plentiful. Dishes served usually include Filipino roast pig (lechon), noodle dishes (panzit), and sweet rice-based dishes. Music and dance are also part of most celebrations, both popular American songs and dance, and traditional Filipino dances and songs in Tagalog.

The Filipino festival of Santa Cruzan is observed by many New Orleans area Filipino-Americans. Santa Cruzan is traditionally observed in May in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, often merging with another Filipino celebration called Flores de Mayo. The regional festival's roots are Spanish-Moorish and Malaysian occuring at the beginning of the rainy season in the Philippines, when flowers are in bloom.

Details of the Santa Cruzan/Flores de Mayo festivities vary from group to group. At the center of the celebration, however, is a procession of Reinas. Reinas are beautiful young women representing biblical characters or "accolades of Our Lady" such as Morning Star, Mystic Rose, and Queen of Justice. The highlight of the event is the celebration of the Elena, a Reina who represents the long-ago Empress Helena. The Reinas are accompanied by flower girls and pages. As the Reinas are announced one by one, they proceed under arches decorated with flowers, and are carried by male escorts. Many of the young women in the procession wear long Filipino gowns or white embroidered clothes.

Mrs. Franzuela and her family are active participants in the New Orleans area Santa Cruzan/Flores de Mayo celebrations. She is also involved in organizing the Feast of San Lorenzo Luis celebration, another Filipino holiday taking place on September 27. The Franzuelas sponsored the 1999 Feast of San Lorenzo Luis.

Nannette Franzuela has been involved in Santa Cruzan/Flores de Mayo celebrations for many years. She learned to maintain these festive traditions through practice of the rituals since childhood. At home, her parents and grandparents passed along their knowledge of cultural traditions like Santa Cruzan by word of mouth, example, as well as learning from teachers and other community members. Mrs. Franzuela supplements her first-hand knowledge of Filipino traditions by reading sociological books.

Although a nurse by profession, she is mainly occupied these days with raising her children. Her oldest son was born and brought up in Manila. Her daughter participates in festive Filipino traditions wearing clothing that Nannette decorates. She is eager to give her daughter the opportunity to participate in these celebrations, because only the well-connected were able to participate in Manila when she was growing up.

As a Roman Catholic, Nannette enjoys singing at church and at Filipino gatherings. She is an active member of the Philippine-American Women's Association, the Philippine-American Sports Association of New Orleans, and the Philippine-American United Council of Louisiana. She and her family attend functions put on by all Filipino organizations.

Frugé, Gerald

Cajun Mardi Gras Capitaine

Mardi Gras runs or courirs de Mardi Gras take place each year in almost two dozen Cajun and Creole communities in Acadiana's prairie parishes. In one of Louisiana's most richly dramatic traditions, masked and costumed riders on horses, trucks, or wagons ride from house to house in their community begging for contributions to their gumbo that night. At each stop, they entertain their hosts by singing, dancing, and clowning in exchange for donations.

The small rural Acadia Parish area known as "Tee Mamou" has hosted an all male Mardi Gras run for as long as anyone can remember. Gerald Fruge' has been its head capitaine for over twenty-five years. When the women in Tee Mamou decided they wanted to form their own Mardi Gras run more than twenty years ago, they approached Gerald Fruge' about being their captain as well. He continues to captain for the women's run each year on the weekend before Fat Tuesday. As captain, he remains undisguised and, assisted by five or six assistant captains, is responsible for maintaining discipline and order among the group of costumed Mardi Gras riders.

As a boy, Gerald Frugé watched his older brothers run Mardi Gras, as participating in the courir is called, and had always hoped to mask himself one day. However, by the late 1960s, the popularity of the local MardiGras run had waned and the group no longer had a capitaine to lead them. With his wife Linda, he attended a Tee Mamou Mardi Gras dance at the old FourCorners Club and was recruited as a temporary captain for the dance. Afterwards, he agreed to be their capitaine the following year and hassle the maskers, who ride on a brightly painted, converted cattle trailer, on their route through the countryside each year since then.

At only 24, he was young to be a head capitaine, but he felt strongly that the tradition should be kept alive for those who wanted to run. As he says, "When I saw it [about to] die out, I knew what it meant to me to try to have a Mardi Gras, and I was always looking forward to being able to run Mardi Gras when I got out of school.... And I guess that's what...motivated me to be a captain so that other young people that wanted to run Mardi Gras wouldn't be in the predicament that I was."

Under Frugé's leadership the run underwent some reorganization and has steadily grown. The men's Mardi Gras run on Tuesday typically draws at least forty to seventy participants and the women's Saturday run usually attracts at least thirty runners. A downtown festival in the nearby town of Iota on Mardi Gras day is timed to coincide with the Mardi Gras run's triumphant march into town and thousands of locals and visitors line the streets to watch their approach. Mardi Gras is truly a family tradition for the Frugé's today. Gerald's wife Linda often participates in the women's run, as do his two daughters. His two sons usually accompany him as assistant captains. The weeks before Mardi Gras are busy ones for the family, spent handling numerous last minute arrangements and working on costumes and masks. Although being capitaine is a great deal of work, Frugé says that seeing people "from all walks of life" get together and "all have fun doing the same thing" makes it worthwhile and "keeps me going."

The Tee Mamou Mardi Gras association has performed at the Jean Lafitte park in New Orleans, the Louisiana Folklife Festival, and the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival.

Gandy, Roy

Walking Stick Carver

Roy Gandy was born in Homer, Louisiana, in 1914 and and lived in Winnfield, Louisiana. Roy worked for Kansas City Southern Railroad as a yardmaster, retiring in 1975.

After retirement, Roy began woodcarving as a hobby. He would use any suitable roots, branches, and sapling trunks in order to carve personalized walking sticks. Roy's hobby had become almost a full-time job. He sold many of his sticks from his home, at folk festivals, and through the Baton Rouge Tourist Bureau.

Roy made his sticks from hickory, pine, oak, maple, black gum, ironwood, dogwood, hedge vines, and other types of wood. His work tools included a carpet knife, a small hand saw, an ice pick, a rasp, and sandpaper. The process began with the soaking of the wood for two days to loosen the bark so it can be peeled without difficulty. After the bark is stripped, the stick was shaved. Mr. Gandy then took an ice pick and removed any vines that grew into the sides of the stick. He put the final touches on the stick with sandpaper.

Mr. Roy Gandy had demonstrated his craft at the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival, and the Louisiana Folk Festival; he also assisted cancer survivors by participating in the Blue Bird Festival held annually south of Waskom, Texas. Mr. Gandy died December 10, 2008.

Gauthier, Rhonda

Mestiza foodways, sewing, gardening, and Adeasonos Storyteller

Rhonda Remedies Gauthier is from Zwolle, Louisiana, Sabine Parish. She has a BA in Anthropology and has worked in different capacities at NSU for several years.Her family is descendant of the families who lived at the eighteenth century Spanish outpost, Los Adaes. She self identifies as an Adeasonos and is a member of the Choctaw-Apache Tribe of Ebarb, Louisiana and the affiliated tribes of Northwest Louisiana. Rhonda learned mestiza foodways, sewing, gardening, and story telling from her mother, father and grandparents.

Gentry, Robert

Owner and Publisher

Robert Gentry, owner and publisher of the Sabine Index in Many, Louisiana, founded Rebel Park (currently known as Rebel State Commemorative Area) in the piney woods hills near Marthaville, Louisiana, his home town.  The significance of the area goes back to the Civil War and the death of an unidentified Confederate soldier who was killed and buried in the woods.  For nearly 100 years, the Barnhill Family cared for the buiral site.  In 1961, Robert wrote several newspaper articles about the grave and the following services in honor of the Unknown Confederate Soldier.

Robert produced and directed numerous bluegrass, gospel, country, and folk music shows for many years at Rebel.  Local performers, as well as nationally known artist, have performed on the amphitheater stage, including former governor of Louisiana, Jimmie Davis, the Oak Ridge Boys, Bill Monroe, Roy Acuff and the Smoky Mountain Boys, Ernest Tubb and the Texas Troubadours, David Houston, Slim Whitman, George Jones, Aaron Neville, Granpa Jones, Nat Stuckey, Claude King, Tom T. Hall, Charlie Louvin, the Wilburn Brothers, and the Sullivan Family.

Among his interesting pursuits throughout life, he was the last Public Relations Coordinator for Louisiana Governor Earl K. Long.  Currently, in addition to being involved with his mueseum in Many, he owns Sweet Dreams Publishing Company and has written, co-authored and published numerous books.  In 1984, Robert was inducted into the Hall of Master Folk Artists for his numerous accomplishments.

Updated Febuary 20, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Gibson, Vernie

Net Maker
(1914 - 1995)

Like most people who live off the land, Vernie A. Gibson could do a little bit of everything, including shingle riving, tool making, and gourd carving. His major area of expertise, however, was the building of john boats and bateaux, as well as building webbing traps and hoop nets for catching catfish.  Gibson, who was reared on a houseboat by his father Arthur and his mother Minnie on Catahoula Lake in LaSalle Parish, referred to himself as a "river rat."  Gibson once said, "I've lived on the river all my life. I learned how to make traps and boats about 50 years ago by watching and asking questions."

His cage-like traps, which are usually baited with cheese, are fashioned from white oak and cypress. The intricate hoop nets are made with nylon.  His boats are also made from wood, as his first boat was built "under the hill at Hannah's landing out of good cypress."  Gibson once said, "In them metal boats you don't have anything to hang on to. I prefer me a wooden boat."

Living off the land for Gibson meant depending on the now fragile ecosystem of Catahoula Lake which is composed of marsh, open water, and a complex river system. The area is now somewhat diminished, but Gibson still had plenty of people who needed his traps, nets and work boats. He and his wife Annie were, "tied inextricably to the seasons and moods of the water," Dayna Bowker Lee explains.

Gibson, like his father and grandfather, made his own traps and wove his own nets.  He used them to fish from the lake in wooden work boats that he built himself.  On many occasions, he discussed, among other things, the dwindling number of people left in Louisiana who can make the cage-like traps which are made from white oak and cypress or weave the nets used to snare catfish. To help carry on the tradition that he learned from his parents and grandparents, Gibson taught his craft to his children and grandchildren.

Gibson participated in many festivals, including the Pineville Catahoula Lake Festival, the New Orleans World Fair, the1985 American Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., the Shreveport Red River Revel, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival. Because of his amazing talents and representation of traditional folk crafts, Mr. Gibson was inducted into the Louisiana Hall of Master Folk Artists in 1987.

Updated December 7, 2016 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Researched and Rewritten by Amber Hendricks and Samantha Sullivan

Gilmore, Nalda

Hunting Horn Maker

Nalda Gilmore lived in West Monroe, in Ouachita Parish. He began making hunting horns over forty-five years ago. Blowing horns were used to call hunting dogs and for communicating with other hunters. Mr. Gilmore used hunting horns for hunting with beagles.

As a young man, Gilmore learned to make blow horns from the late V.A. Capers of West Monroe, a master blowing horn maker. They worked together and perfected the craft. Nalda has been making hunting horns ever since. He said, "I never cease to love making horns."

Gilmore made cattle and goat horns, which he bought in bulk "in the rough." Cattle horns are slightly curved and smooth, and goat horns are ridged and spiral-shaped. Ideally, he said, "You look for a long, clean, pretty form with a tapered neck for making a blowing horn." The horn can be tuned by sawing it off to different lengths.

When making a blowing horn, Mr. Gilmore waited for the bony substance at the base of the horn to slide out naturally, leaving the horn hollow. A drill bit was then used to bore a hole in the horn's tip. Next, a mouthpiece about two and a half inches long would then be added; Mr. Gilmore made three different kinds of mouthpieces for his blowing horns. He added what he calls a "turn-around," another piece of horn, to the tip or attach a fiberglass mouth. The mouthpiece can also be part of the hunting horn itself.

The rest, he said, "is cosmetic." The horn was sanded on three belts and then buffed with a polishing compound similar to jewelers' rouge so that the natural beauty of the horn could show. He commented, "Even a horn that looks unremarkable in the rough can become beautiful as it is worked on, and the more you sand it, the prettier it looks." The colors in the polished horn come from the pigment of the animal's hide, he explained. Nalda also made power horns as well as a distinctive horn covered in deer hide. In addition to blowing horns, he and his wife used scrap pieces of horn to make articles such as shoehorns, earrings, keychains, thimbles, necklaces, barrettes, and key chains. His wife and daughters added paint and scrimshaw to some of the crafts. They also used the powder from the horns to fertilize the garden.

Mr. Gilmore participated in craft shows and festivals such as the Louisiana Folklife Festival in Monroe and the Natchitoches/NSU Folk Festival. His demonstrations included horns in various stages of preparation so that visitors could see each step. Mr. Gilmore died October 3, 2004.

Updated January 19, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Folklife Center Staff

Giroir, Alex, A.

Boat Maker (1932-2008)

Born in 1932 in the Assumption Parish community of Pierre Part, Alex Giroir grew up speaking Cajun French and English. As an accomplished carpenter, he was skilled at making the wooden boats traditional to Atchafalaya Basin. He learned from his father Alexander Giroir who was a master boat builder. Alex has said, "I was born into the boat building tradition, and I knew carpentry work before I knew anything else."

Using hand and power tools, Alex made a variety of wooden boats, including pirogues and rowing skiffs. He sometimes worked with his nephew, Raymond Sedatol.

Mr. Giroir's father ,at one time, made traditional dugout pirogues from cypress logs. Around the turn of the century, the elder Mr. Giroir started building what they called "plank boats" or pirogues constructed of cypress planks because of the waste involved in making dugouts. Dugout pirogues used more than half of a large cypress log and a boat builder could make about 15 plank boats from the same wood. Giroir pointed out, "Today, good cypress is hard to find and most wooden pirogues are now made of plywood--but even plywood planks are becoming hard to get." Occasionally, he and Mr. Sedotal made aluminum pirogues used for fishing and hunting in the swamps.

Mr. Giroir's wide-bottomed pirogues were exceptionally stable. He pointed out that he sets his seats differently than does Raymond Sedotal. Raymond set his seats from one side of the boat to the other, but Mr. Giroir left an opening on each side of the seat. That way, if the boat tips, the seat wouldn't get wet. Alex Giroir did not make as many full-sized boats as he made miniature boats, which he used as visual aids when he described boats rarely seen today, and to talk about life in the swamps as it used to be. Mr. Giroir built an old-fashioned ferry for use at Vermillionville in Lafayette, he also made cypress swings but found it hard to get enough good wood to make many of them.

As a master boat builder, Alex Giroir was a member of the Louisiana Crafts Program and received many honors for his maintenance of this art. He demonstrated boat building at festivals through out the United States and Louisiana, including the Smithsonian's Festival of American Folklife, the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans, the Louisiana Folklife Festival, and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Mr. Giroir's wife Mazie is a traditional cook, and often accompanied her husband to festivals. Mr. Giror passed away in 2008.

Updated January 19, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Giroir, Mazie

Cajun Foodways

Mazie Pipsair Giroir was born in Belle River, Louisiana. While filling the position as the manager at a drugstore, she also owned her own business for two years. She learned to cook traditional Cajun staples like white beans and homemade bread as a teenager from her mother, Phileomene Pipsair. After she married Alex Giroir of Pierre Part, she learned to make a number of other dishes from her mother-in-law. She still cooks these traditional dishes for her family as well as demonstrating them at festivals throughout Louisiana and the United States.

One of Mrs. Giroir's specialties is stuffed crabs, a dish she learned to make after she married. Her ingredients include crabmeat, bread crumbs, with seasonings like onion, celery, bell pepper and garlic. She points out that "We don't use a filler, but make a small roux to hold the ingredients together." She is also known for making Louisiana specialties, such as turtle sauce piquant, fried fish, cracker pudding, white beans, and red beans and rice.

Mrs. Giroir's husband, Alex Giroir , is a master wooden boat builder who demonstrates boat building at festivals throughout Louisiana and the United States. Mazie Giroir often accompanies him to demonstrate home style Cajun cooking. She has participated in the Smithsonian's Festival of American Folklife, the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans, and the Louisiana Folklife Festival, among other events over the years.

Updated January 19, 2017 by Natchitoches- NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Gonzales, Antoinia M. "Toni"

Storyteller

Mrs. Antonia M. Gonzales was born in 1933 in New Orleans, but was a long time resident of Chalmette, Louisiana. Antonia was of Canary Island descent and spoke both English and Spanish.

Antonia's art form was storytelling. She learned to tell stories as a child listening to the elders in the community where she lived. The only materials needed for this art is a microphone and an audience. Mrs. Gonzales used her storytelling art on a day to day basis as a tour guide. She performed at the Isleno Festival and for local schools. Mrs. Gonzales Passed Away on Febuary 10, 2008.

Updated January 19, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Gonzales,Herman V. Sr.

Isleño Guitar Musician

Herman Gonzales was born in Merauxville, Louisiana in 1929 and was a long time resident of Chalmette, Louisiana with his wife, Antonia. He was also the proud father of three sons and one daughter. Herman served as the National Park Maintenance Work Leader.

Herman first began to play guitar at the age of sixteen. Herman belonged to the band known as "Canary Island Descendents Association." They performed for the Isleño Festival, Crippled Children's Event, Worlds Fair, weddings, and anniversaries. Mr. Gonzales passed away on Febuary 23, 2005.

Updated January 19, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Goodly, Ezolia, Ann

Zydeco Musician

Zydeco accordionist and vocalist Ann Goodly was born in 1971 in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where she still lives. She describes herself as a self-taught musician and has been performing for many years. She has traveled the world sharing her love of zydeco.

The daughter of Davis and Mildred Goodly, she learned to play the accordion at the age of nine when her father brought an accordion home. She had never seen an accordion before and found it fascinating. She taught herself to play by listening to recordings. "I sat down every day and listened to zydeco records over and over again. I practiced and practiced. It took me a little while, but once I caught on, I didn't stop," she said.

With her band, she has performed at festivals and clubs throughout Louisiana and the United States; including Plaisance Zydeco Festival, the New Orleans Heritage and Jazz Festival, Natchitoches/NSU Folk Festival, the Jambalaya Jam in Philadelphia, the Louisiana Folklife Festival, and events in Tennessee, California, and Arkansas. The band has also had a successful European tour, performing in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and France. Audiences were so enthusiastic that they sometimes threw tables over and broke bottles of wine "screaming at the top of the lungs wanting more."

She has a recording called "Miss Ann Goodly and the Zydeco Brothers." She says that her playing "come[s] from the heart ... you have to have something in you to play this kind of music. You can't take lessons."

As the mother of a young daughter, Mildred Rachel, and as a born-again Christian, Ann Goodly does not perform publicly as frequently as she once did. She no longer has her own band, but still loves the music and often accepts invitations to play with other bands.

Updated January 19, 2017 by Nathitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Greely, David

Fiddler and Vocalist

David Greely is a versatile Breaux Bridge based fiddler and vocalist who plays Cajun, country, swing, Irish, and traditional style fiddle. A longtime member of the popular Cajun band, Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, he sometimes performs solo or with old-time country bands like the Evening Star String Band.

Born in Baton Rouge in 1953, David grew up in Denham Springs, Louisiana and played gospel and country music for years. His grandfather, Eddie Theriot, was a farmer and amateur Cajun fiddler from Ascension Parish. David has played Cajun music since 1985. He learned first from recordings and then later from friends and colleagues from the Mamou area. His favorite artists included Dewey Balfa and Varise Connor. He says he learned to play from Dewey Balfa, Steve Riley, Vorance Berzas, and recordings.

Motivated by a desire to study and promote the growth of the traditional music of his ancestry, he applied for and received a Louisiana Folklife Apprenticeship grant that he received in 1992. The grant was for the study of Cajun fiddle playing and traditional songs with master Cajun musician Dewey Balfa. David says, "Dewey Balfa's music moves me more than any other Cajun artist. He relates his knowledge of the music, culture, and lifestyle of his people richly and eloquently." This apprenticeship enabled Greely to study Mr. Balfa's extraordinary fiddling style and technique and expand his repertoire of Cajun songs. His apprenticeship enabled him to learn more about traditional Cajun culture and the background of these old songs.

He began playing with Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys after meeting Steve during a Saturday morning jam session at the Savoy Music Center in Eunice. David Greely's vocals and fiddle style are an important component of the band's sound today. Greely says, "I would like to find a way to get more people interested in Cajun music. I'd like to find a way of having it still belong to Louisiana and belong to everybody at the same time." In addition to his several recordings with the Mamou Playboys, David Greely has a solo album, La Taille des Ronces , which was released in 1991 and dedicated to his grandfather's memory. The band's latest album, La Toussaint , has been enthusiastically received by critics and listeners.

With the Mamou Playboys, he has performed at festivals, concerts, and dances throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. He has also performed with the Evening Star String Band at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and on the Piney Woods Opry show. He says he is available for solo performances when, the Mamou Playboys, are not touring.

Updated January 19, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Stafff

Gregory, H.F. "Pete"

Co-Founder of the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival, Researcher and Writer of Louisiana Cultures, Professor of Anthropology, Curator of the Williamson Museum

H.F. "Pete" Gregory, like co-founder Don Hatley, probably had little idea that the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival he worked so hard to produce in 1980 would become a tradition for more than 37 years.

Gregory, who is a Professor of Anthropology, has conducted research in a variety of Louisiana Cultures in addition to his work with the Folk Festival.  Gregory has written numerous articles regarding Native Americans and has co-authored book length studies relating to the Southeastern Indians.  His work with the Creole Community in the Cane River area augmented the founding of the Louisiana Creole Heritage Center at Northwestern State University.

Gregory has tirelessly dedicated documentation of their folk and cultural traditions.  Gregory curates the Williamson Museum and has accrued, through donations and purchases, one of the most extensive and rare collections of Native American basketry and artifacts.  Gregory continues to teach courses in Anthropology, and each semester, his many students praise his skill, knowledge, and teaching.

In 2004, Gregory was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists.

Updated January 19, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Grillier, David L.

Clarinet and Saxophone Musician

David Grillier is a lifelong resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, where he lives with his wife and two children. David acquired his talent through intense study at the Loyola University's music school, and at the University of New Orleans.

David belongs to the Young Tuxedo Brass Band which has participated at the 1985 Festival of American Folklife in Washington D.C.

Updated January 19, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Grimsley, Marcel "Tex"

Fiddle Player and Maker

Marcel "Tex" Grimsley hails from Shreveport, Louisiana. He has been playing the fiddle since he was seven and making fiddles since he was fourteen years old. Tex learned to play the fiddle from his uncle, Butch Spraggins. In the more than seventy years that he played Grimsley worked his way across the country. He and his wife Mary are self-described fiddling addicts.

Grimsley humorously explains the difference between fiddles and violins: "You carry a violin in a case, and you carry a fiddle in a gunny sack." In actuality, he explains, "There is no difference between the two."

Tex was stubborn about leaving any project unfinished. Once he started, he was reluctant to leave a fiddle or a song unfinished. "Something makes me whittle like it makes me play music, I can't quit. You have a feeling of doing something you've always wanted to do. And you're going to make a fiddle or bust."

Although Mr. Grimsley could have been more successful, he chose not to stay on the pro circuit. His wife, Mary, offers a good explanation why, "Hank's dead and other musicians such as Jim Reeves - airplane wreck, and on and on. Tex Grimsley is at home making fiddles and drinking coffee. Does that explain it?" His life was so busy between repairing and playing fiddles that coffee was all he really had time for.

Mr. Grimsley played with many top name performers across the country. He played with the Bailes Brothers, the Tennessee Mountain Boys and Kitty Wells, the Mercer Brothers, Hank Williams in Longview, Texas, and of course his band Uncle Tex and Texas Showboys  was one of the first bands to perform at the legendary Louisiana Hayride. Additionally, he was a member of the New Red River Ramblers. Tex has won a few awards including being the Louisiana Fiddle champion four times. He played at Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival and other festivals. Grimsley passed away in 2002.

Updated January 19,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Guidry, Jules "Nonc Jules"

Cajun Band Leader and Musician

Nonc Jules was born in Church Point, Louisiana. He was raised and lives in Carencro, LA. As a child he only spoke French and he had to learn English when he started his first grade in school.

After graduating from Carencro High School in 1962, he attended USL in Business and then began his State Government career working for the Lafayette Charity Hospital in Lafayette filling the position of accounting. Guidry also served his country in the Louisiana Army National Guard, 256th Infantry Brigade Headquarters Company from 1964 to 1970. He transferred his State employment to the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) IN 1981 to 1988 as there Accountant. He retired from State Government in 1988 after having served for 35 years.

Since June 01, 1983 every Sunday afternoon, 12 Noon to 3 PM, Nonc Jules has been a fixture at KRVS 88.7 FM Radio Acadie as the producer Host of the very popular French Radio Program "Le Bal de Dimanche Apres-Midi" (The Sunday Afternoon Dance). Nonc Jules plays Cajun, French & Creole music by all of the recorded artists and also interviews musicians and various guests. KRVS is also listened to worldwide on www.krvs.org . Nonc Jules has a very large listening audience and receives calls locally and worldwide.

Occasionally Nonc Jules can be seen hosting the live Rendezvous des Cajun Saturday evening show at the Liberty Theater in Eunice, LA. Jules plays his accordion, sings and explains the Cajun music, language and culture to visiting tourists on weekdays at Vermilionville Bayou Historic Museum (BVD) in Lafayette. Nonc Jules has also led the Cajun Music Band "Nonc Jules & Lachez-Les" since 1986 and has performed at festivals, restaurants, organizational events, etc.

Nonc Jules is one of the pioneers in organizing Cajun music jam sessions in the Lafayette area which focused on helping the talents of younger aspiring Cajun musicians; many of those  who later developed into professional well known musicians. Those jam sessions began with a small group of about fifteen friends that gathered at someone's house to play Cajun music. Then suddenly developed into a very large group of families and friends getting together every first Saturday of the month from 1985 thru 1987. Many memories and many new friendships were made during these times.

Nonc Jules is a religious family man and enjoys spending time with his wife and best friend Mary Lou Vincent Guidry, his daughter Kimberly Guidry, his son-in-law Guy Guidry and his grandson Ian Reese Guidry. Nonc Jules also enjoys gardening and continues to enjoy meeting new friends and promoting and preserving our Cajun heritage, music and culture.

Updated January 19, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Habetz, Clara

German American Traditions

Miss Clara Habetz resided in Rayne, Louisiana. She was born in 1914, in Roberts Cove and learned her German traditions from her parents. She kept the German language alive in her family by encouraging relatives to speak German at home and by corresponding with relatives in German. Mrs. Clara visited Germany twice and was soon later asked to act as an interpreter for German visitors.

As a community leader, she was very active. Habetz served as a sacristan at the St. Leo Catholic Church for forty years, cook and housekeeper for the rectory for the last forty-five years, and an organist for the church choir for more than fifty years. Miss Habetz served in community leadership positions, including president of the Acadia Parish Homemakers' Council.

Miss Habetz and the St. Leo Catholic Church's choir maintained German culture by singing German hymns, carols, and folk songs. For more than fifty years, the community celebrated the coming of the Christmas season with an Old World St. Nicholas celebration. On December fourth, the eve of the feast of St. Nicholas, members representing Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, and Black Peter (a Turkish boy who assists St. Nicholas); visit homes where they are welcomed with lavish meals. Santa Claus and Black Peter then enter and give the children candy, and the choir sings carols in German.

The Roberts Cove community members demonstrated the St. Nicholas procession at the 1992 Louisiana Folk Festival and the St. Leo Choir performed, singing many German carols. Miss. Clara Habetz passed away August 22, 2006.

Updated January 19, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Hall, Hurst

Musician

Hurst Hall grew up in Toccopola, Mississippi, a little town located between Oxford and Pontotoc. His family had a farm, located forty miles below the Tennessee state line, and raised  cotton and corn. Hall was often allowed to pick scrapping cotton, what was left after the cotton had already been picked, for extra money. At the age of five, he picked enough scrapping cotton to buy his first guitar. It was an "old Sivertone from Sears and Roebuck that cost $4.75 back in 1934". Music would come naturally for Hall, as he had music in his blood. His father played the piano and the violin, and his mother played the organ.

This musical inspiration rubbed off on Hall, as he and his brother played music together after learning by ear from listening to what was played on the radio. Batteries were expensive, so Hall's father allowed the boys to listen only to the news and the Grand Ole Opry on their 1935 battery-powered radio. Hall and his brother copied what they heard on the radio and what others played, which is why the two played a variety of music, including old time country, mountain music, gospel, and parlor songs or "tear jerkers" like "The Prisoner" and "Letter Edged in Black", around the house and at community events. They would often play at school house concerts that charged five cent admissions. Hall later joined with local groups in Mississippi and played with people like Arkansas Slim. He continued to play in college at Ole Miss and in the Air Force.

Hall later moved to Natchitoches in 1959 to get a job at Northwestern State University in the Psychology department, where he taught for forty years.  This is where he met Dr. Bill Bryant and Dr. Bill Hunt in the Creative and Performing Arts Department. The three created a band called Mountain Music. Mountain Music performed at the Slabtown Festival, the Rebel State Commemorative Park, and the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival on several occasions. During this time, Hall also learned to make banjos, guitars, and Irish harps, all of which he learned to make from Bill Bryant, a master builder.

The band later became known as the Back Porch Band when others joined the group. Back Porch is an interesting group of musicians, as some members have formal training, can read sheet music, and know how to play classical music, while others like Hall can not. To this day, Hall still plays by ear and memorizes his music for performances. Back Porch plays at festivals and churches in Texas and central Louisiana, and at the Natchitoches Green Market. Hurst Hall was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 2000.

Updated January 19, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Researched and rewritten by Samantha Sullivan.

Harding, Denise Colette

Cajun Foodways

Ms. Denise Harding lives in Carencro, Louisiana, where her occupation is a pastry chef and a cookbook author. In addition to her culinary skills, Denise also braids woolen rugs.

Denise learned to work with woolen materials at home watching her mother, Margaret Harding, who had learned from her aunt. Mrs. Margaret Harding demonstrated the making of braided rugs for twenty years, prior to her death in 1995. Denise uses the same techniques and materials her mother used when demonstrating her rug making. She begins by dying woolen materials, which are usually blankets cut into strips. Denise then uses an 1800s manual sewing machine, a wooden guide, some thread (waxed twine), and needles to braid and sew the strips together into a rug.

Ms. Harding has also made Cajun and Creole pastries for eight years and has authored two Cajun and Creole cookbooks based on her grandmother's recipes, most of which are over a hundred years old. Denise learned to cook pastries from her grandmother. She  longer demonstrated her braided rugs.

The artist has participated in the Festival Arcadian, Magnolia Mound, and Omellete Festival. Her husband, Dale Pierrotte, is her partner, and he demonstrates bousillage wall building.

Updated January 19, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Harris Family

Split White Oak Basket Maker

The craft of split oak basketry is in at least its fourth generation in the Harris family. Edward Harris Sr. of Washington, Louisiana, learned this art when he was about seven years old from his grandfather, Robert Robinson. Mr. Harris is not sure from whom his grandfather learned the craft of weaving, but he believes that his father taught him. Carrying on the tradition, Mr. Harris has taught his wife, his sons, a son-in-law, his daughters, and at least twenty-seven grandchildren split oak basketry. Some just weave; some just market, but most family members are directly involved in both the artistic and commercial aspects of their craft.

As a farmer who worked hard to support his large family on his forty-seven acres of land, Edward Harris had little time to spend on basket making. Occasionally, when he or one of the children ran a little short of cash, Harris would make a few baskets to sell. When he retired, Mr. Harris became heavily involved with his craft. As he explains, "This is something that is hard to learn, but easy after you learn it." Harris begins the life of a basket by searching for a good white oak tree that will split into long, narrow strips. In order to find a strippable tree, Harris uses a wedge and a mallet made from white oak. If the tree strips easily, he cuts it down. The next step is to split the tree into halves, then quarters, and finally, using a pocketknife the quarters are cut into strips, which are one half to one inch in width. These still-green strips are woven into baskets of every imaginable shape and size. These baskets are beautiful, as well as functional, and are practically indestructible. Many members of the family have contributed ideas for basket forms. They create egg, mail, bushel, Easter, bread, laundry, sewing, and even made-to-order baskets.

Mr. Gilbert Harris now represents his family at various festivals. The family has participated at the Natichotoches NSU-Folk Festival, Plantation Day at Magnolia Mound in Baton Rouge, in Beaumont at the Gladys City Spindletop Boom Days, and at other local festivals. In 1992, Edward Harris, Sr. was inducted into the Hall of Master Folk Artists at NSU.

Updated January 19, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Harris,Edward Sr.

Split White Oak Basket Maker

Ask almost any person in South Louisiana or East Texas who owns a handcrafted white oak basket who wove that particular piece and his or her answer will probably be "One of the members of the Harris family." Yes, the Harris family - a family whose lives are as tightly interwoven by the practice of its traditional craft as are the strips of its beautiful and functional baskets.

The craft of split oak basketry is in at least its fourth generation, in the Harris family. According to patriarch Edward Harris Sr. of Washington, Louisiana, he learned this art when he was about seven years old from his grandfather, Robert Robinson (sometimes spelled Robertson). Mr. Harris notes that he's not sure who his grandfather learned weaving from, but he believes that his father taught him. Carrying on the tradition, Mr. Harris has taught his wife, his sons, a son-in-law, his daughters, and at least twenty-seven grandchildren split oak basketry. Some just weave; some just market, but most family members are directly involved in both the artistic and commercial aspects of their craft.

As a farmer who worked very hard to support his large family on his forty-seven acres of land, Edward Harris had little time to spend  basket making. Occasionally, when he or one of the children ran a little short of cash, Harris would make a few baskets to sell. Upon his retirement, however, Mr. Harris became completley involved with his craft. As he explains, "This is something that is hard to learn but easy after you learn it." Harris begins the "life" of a basket by searching for a "good" white oak tree that will split into long, narrow strips. In order to find a "strippable" tree, Harris uses a wedge and a mallet. He gives a tree "one good lick" with the tools that he has carved and created from white oak. If the tree strips easily, he cuts it down. The next step is to split the tree into halves, then quarters. Finally, using a pocket knife, Harris splits it into one half to one inch wide strips. These still-green strips are woven into baskets of every imaginable shape and size. These baskets are beautiful as well as functional and are practically indestructible. Since so many members of the family contribute ideas, the Harris's have created egg baskets, mail baskets, bushel baskets, Easter baskets, bread baskets, laundry, sewing baskets, and even made-to-order baskets.

Over the last twenty years, the Harris family has participated in and demonstrated their craft at the Natichotoches Folk Festival. Edward and his family have also participated in Plantation Day at Magnolia Mound in Baton Rouge, in Beaumont at the Gladys City Spindletop Boom Days, and at other local festivals. In 1992, Edward Harris, Sr. was inducted into the Hall of Master Folk Artists at NSU.

Updated January 19, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Hatley, Donald

Founder of the Louisiana Folklife Center and Co-Founder of the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival, Founded the Master of Arts in English: Folklife/Southern Culture Track, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts

When Donald W. Hatley came to Northwestern State University as an English Professor some forty years ago, he probably had no inkling that he, along with H.F. "Pete" Gregory would be the founders of one of the most successful and longstanding Louisiana festivals, the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival.  Hatley holds a Ph.D. from East Texas State University and has long been interested in American and Southern Literature and Folklore.  Hatley conceived the idea of what today is known as the Master of Arts in English: Folklife/Southern Culture Concentration.

He founded the Louisiana Folklife Center and worked diligently to insure its status as a permanent agency of Northwestern State University.  For twenty years, he dedicated himself to the Festival and the Louisiana Folklife Center gradually accruing over 5,000 hours of audiotape and a substantial array of resources which continue to be used by researchers.  Hatley served as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, and he was active in fundraising. Although he is now retired, he continues to assist with the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival.

In 2004, Hatley was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists.

Updated by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center staff on January 18, 2017.

Hatley, Sue

Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival Ticket Manager

Mrs. Sue Hatley has long been the driving force behind the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival's volunteer crews.  In the early years of the Festival, she oversaw all ticket and concession sales for the Festival.  She would often take a week of her vacation time from the Natchitoches Parish School Board in order to prepare the drink machines and clean the Prather Coliseum concession areas for the Festival.  She has scheduled volunteers, has overseen ticket sales, has tracked attendance numbers, and coordinated workers for every Folk Festival.  Her husband Don Hatley, co-founder of the Festival, fervently believed in making the event a family affair, so their children ---Lesa and John---along with Sue worked many long hours to make the Festivals successful and enjoyable for visitors.

Mrs. Hatley continues to work with the Festival, and her contributions have been invaluable to the event.  Her organizational skills and ability to keep things running smoothly in the ticket sales area only reflect a small part of all the work she has done for the Festival.  She was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 2004.

Updated January 29, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Helaire, Major

Blues Musician

Helaire was born Major Helaire in 1937, in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. Helaire went into the service at Fort Hood in central Texas and served briefly in Germany. Major came back to Natchitoches because, as he says, "This is home and I can't get away from it." At that time, he began playing blues music and took to the stage. He re-named himself B. B. King Helaire. The name was in honor of the blues-man B. B. King.

Helaire grew up in a blues tradition. Both his mother and uncle played the guitar. Growing up during the 1950s, he was influenced by records and the radio. He listened to great artists like Lightning Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, and Robert Johnson. With tips from his mother and uncle, and listening to Mr. Clifford Blake Sr., a gospel and blues singer at work, Mr. Helaire learned to play the blues.

His brother-in-law made his first guitar. He used a piece of plywood to construct a homemade instrument for Helaire. Eventually, Helaire started getting gigs and was able to buy a Silvertone from Sears Roebuck.

Oddly enough, music is the one class he skipped in high school. According to Helaire, "a blues player quickly learns to depend on playing by feeling. The musician who feels sad will play sad music, and if he's happy he will play happy music." Helaire considers B.B. King, by far, the greatest influence on his sound.

1964 marks the year Helaire began playing professional gigs.  He started playing in a band with Overton Owens, known locally as Dr. Drip Drop.  In Natchitoches Helaire played with Owens and Ocie Shields as part of a band called the "Natchitoches Blues-men."  Later, Major helped form a band called "Phil Davis and the Unique."  He also played in a band called the "House-rockers" and later his band was called the "B.B. Majors Blues Show."  Major was sometimes called upon to open for such stars as Bobby "Blue" Bland, Millie Jackson, and even his idol, B.B. King.

Major gradually developed a following outside the Natchitoches Blues scene through his appearances in Rapides Parish and at the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival.  He wrote his own music and looked forward to the day when he could record an album of his own music.

On Sunday, October 19, 2008, Image Helaire, Jr. (also known as Major Helaire or B.B. Major) passed away in Natchitoches, Louisiana.

Updated January 23, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Henderson, Helen Brousek Locker

Czech Needlework

Ms. Henderson was born in 1916 in Linwood, Nebraska, but she has been a long time resident of Alexandria, Louisiana. She self identifies as a Czech and is fluent in both German and English. Ms. Henderson is a retired L.P.N. and her religious affiliation is Catholic.

Helen's craft is needlework. She learned to sew as a little girl by watching her mother. Later in life, she became very skilled at needlework and produced many decorative pieces of art. Helen uses only needle, thread, and fabric to do her embroidery and crocheting. Her needlework is a hobby that she can do at home. Many of her pieces have been given as gifts or as donations to church bazaars.

Ms. Henderson has attended the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival, the Catahoula Festival, and Czech Heritage Days.

Updated January 23, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Henry, Rebecca

Creole Folk Medicine

Rebecca Henry lives in Opelousas, where she is a teacher's aide working with children with language disorders. Born in Leonville in 1941, she grew up on the countryside around Opelousas and speaks both English and French fluently. A sharecropper's daughter, she spent her youth picking cotton in the fields with her three sisters and two brothers. Today, she spends much of her time trying to preserve the Creole traditions she grew up with, especially folk medical traditions and educating others about Creole culture. Conserving the oral history of the culture is essential, she believes.

Mrs. Henry learned about home remedies from her mother. She says, "We lived in a rural area where there were no doctors. This was our only means of medical attention." Her mother learned it from her mother and grandmother. Mrs. Henry is passing on her knowledge to her own granddaughter as well as to the public. She practices her remedies at home with her family and "throughout southwest Louisiana" as well. She notes that Creole culture and healing traditions includes African, French, and Spanish influences. Creole healers in the past were usually women, sometimes midwives, who passed tradition along orally.

The home remedies depend on plants, roots, and household items. For instance, a traditional cure for an earache involved blowing cigarette smoke into the ear, then placing a piece of cotton coated with Vicks Salve in the ear to keep the smoke in place. Other remedies include a homemade syrup of baking soda, honey, whiskey, and lemon juice for coughs; using earwax to cure cold sores; roach grease for skin sores; and a poultice of chopped okra flowers for boils. Her mother put salt in her hair and tied a scarf around her head for headaches. Broken limbs were coated with mud, which hardened to form a cast.

According to Mrs. Henry, everyone knew home remedies when she was a girl. In addition, there were traiteurs who were specialists in particular areas of healing and who used prayer to treat. Traiteurs were considered skilled healers. She recalls being fascinated by healers as a child. "Things were done around me and the more I saw, the more I wanted to know. My great-aunt Tilya was a traiteur and a midwife, and I got a chance to see it all," she said. Mrs. Henry enjoys making the remedies she remembers from her youth, and says, "I like things of the Earth. I like to go out to the woods and gather weeds and herbs. I just like the outdoors." She adds that traditional medicine worked and that its effectiveness should not be underestimated. Mrs. Henry feels that folk remedies should be better researched today.

Mrs. Henry is a columnist for the monthly "Creole Magazine" and is presently writing a book on Creole traditions. She is active in the Holy Ghost Roman Catholic Church and has received several awards for community service, including the Martin Luther King Service Award from the Diocese of Lafayette. She has demonstrated her traditional remedies at festivals, universities, elementary schools, and at Vermillionville in Lafayette. Mrs. Henry is also interested in the origins of certain Creole foods and cooking, family traditions like storytelling, and the use of the French language in families. She is also a storyteller and a maker of dolls. She teaches a class on folk medicine at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette.

Updated Febuary 6, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Herrera, Cesar

Latin American Music

With his brother Julio, guitarist Cesar Herrera plays the traditional music of his native Guatemala and other parts of Central America. For years, the Herrera brothers led "Grupo Kaibil," one of New Orleans' most popular and busiest Latin bands until it disbanded. For many years they have also performed together regularly as "Julio and Cesar." This acoustic trio features the Herreras' guitars backed by percussion.

Julio and Caesar can be heard five nights a week at Augie's Glass Garden in Metairie. The Herreras have performed at numerous festivals and clubs in Louisiana and other states, including the Louisiana Folklife Festival in Kenner and Eunice and Kenners' annual Mensaje Festival.

Updated Febuary 6, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Holman, Jack N. Jr.

Storyteller and Humorist

Mr. Jack Holman was born in 1923, in West Point, Mississippi, but he is currently a resident of Minden, Louisiana. As a retiree from the Boy Scouts of America, Jack now spends his free time telling stories.

Jack began telling stories when he was twelve. He tells ghost stories, Civil and World War II stories, and jokes. Most of his art form was learned while attending scout camps, listening to other storytellers, and participating in writer's clubs. He tells stories at schools, camps, R.V. resorts, and civic clubs.

Mr. Holman has made numerous public appearances. The highlight of his career was an appearance on the Barbara Mandrell Show.

Updated Febuary 6, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Hunt, William "Bill"

Musician

Bill Hunt's parents, siblings and extended family were all musically inclined, so the love of music was instilled in him at a young age.  As a child, he was often selected to participate in singing contests in his native southeastern Oklahoma, where he was born.  By the age of ten, he began playing the piano.  Hunt says that in the small town where he was reared, children had to find and invent things to do, so he decided that his childhood passion would be music.

Hunt's love of music led him to a career in the field.  He received a music scholarship from Texas Wesleyan and earned a Batchelor's degree there.  He then worked as a choral director in public schools in Texas for about eleven years.  In the meantime, he worked on advanced degrees at the University of North Texas.  He had formal training in music by studying with fellow musicians, so he learned to play many new instruments.  Hunt can play the trombone, the stringed bass, the guitar, and a variety of other instruments.  After working briefly at Tarleton State University and the University of Oklahoma, he settled at Northwestern State University and has held a wide variety of administrative and teaching positions over the past thirty years.

Hunt's talents as a musician are remarkable, but he has also arranged and written numerous lyrics and musical scores.  His arrangements have been published and are frequently the material for many choral groups nationwide.  He has also dedicated a tremendous amount of time and energy to researching traditional ballads and other music forms.

Hunt is a member of the well-known musical group, the Back Porch Band.  The acoustic band plays country folk music at several places around central Louisiana, including the Green Market in Natchitoches.  This group frequently performs at the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival, as well as other venues around the state.  Because he has illustrated his commitment to folk traditions and folk music, Hunt was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 2002.

Updated  Febuary 6, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Researched and rewritten by Samantha Sullivan.

Huval, Kemis James

Crawfish Traps and Foodways

Mr. Huval was born in 1945, in southern Louisiana and speaks Cajun French and English. He has worked in various occupations, including dirt works and commercial deep water crawfishing.

Kernis also makes traditional, standard crawfish traps (les carlets) and he cooks wild game Cajun style. His son Travis has been learning these skills from him and sometimes helps with presentations. They often demonstrate traditional black pot camp cooking.

Kernis has been crawfishing and cooking all his life. He learned these art forms by watching and practicing what he saw other fisherman and cooks do. Mr. Huval runs about one hundred and fifty traps in the Atchafalaya Basin year around. Most of the crawfishermen use ponds for fishing, but Kernis works out of the Basin. He leads guided Atchafalaya Basin tours in small groups to hunting and fishing camps.

Mr. Huval has demonstrated his skills at the New Orleans Jazz Festival, the Louisiana Folk Festival, and the Festival Acadians.

Updated Febuary 6, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Huval, Terry

Cajun Musician

Fiddler Terry Huval, leader of a very popular Jambalaya Cajun Band, is one of Cajun music's finest fiddlers and songwriters. He is the composer of well-known tunes such as "Huval's Reel" and "Oh Ma Belle." In addition to the fiddle, he plays the guitar, mandolin, dobro, steel guitar, and bass guitar.

An engineer and Director of Utilities for the City of Lafayette, Terry Huval was born in 1956 in Port Arthur, Texas. His family is from St. Martin Parish, from the Breaux Bridge area where he lives now. He speaks both English and Cajun French. He says, "I learned my music when I was ten years old." He has performed for the public every weekend since 1977. Terry and his brother, drummer Tony Huval, formed the "Jambalaya Cajun band." Since that time the band has been joined by accordionist Reggie Matte, Bobby Dumaitrait, and Rick Benoit. Cajun music enthusiasts flock to hear them because of their high energy performances and recordings. Most of their music is original compositions.

Terry Huval's distinctive red cap and agile footwork are hallmarks of the band's live performances. The "Jambalaya Cajun Band" is a favorite among dancers in Louisiana and other states. The band plays at festivals and clubs throughout the United States as well as at home. Their recordings include Laisse les Jeunes Jouer ("Let the Young Ones Play"), The Jambalaya Cajun Band, and The Jambalaya Cajun Band Instrumental Collection. They are also featured on Nouvelle Esprit de la Musiqueon Swallow Records. Their recordings mix Cajun standards like "Les 'Tites Yeux Noirs" ("Little Black Eyes") with newer songs like "Merci Mr. Dewey" (in honor of the later master Cajun fiddler, Dewey Balfa), "Ces Femmes des Musiciens" ("Those Wives of Musicians"), and "C'est Fun".

Updated Febuary 6, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

The photograph of Terry Huval is courtesy of Swallow Records and can be found on Swallow SW 6115-2, Laisse Les jeunes Jouer! Photograph by Ronald Guidry Photography, Lafayette, Louisiana.

Hymes, Ganey "Pop"

Ganey "Pop" Hymes

Musician

Mr. Ganey "Pop" Hymes began playing the drums in his high school band around the age of 15. Hymes has also been surrounded by music his entire life. His main inspiration to pursue music originated from watching bands perform in local parades. His father plays the harmonica and his grandfather played the guitar recreationally and at church gatherings, gearing Hymes' curiosity towards music. Mr. Hymes is passionate about his work through the great pleasure he receives when others enjoy and appreciate his music. He finds playing the drums pleasurable and relaxing. His advice to anyone beginning music is to be strong, keep going, and to let nothing stop you.

Jackson, Clyde

Deerskin Tanner

Clyde Jackson is a full-blooded Choctaw and a member of the Choctaw Tribe in Jena, Louisiana. He was also a past chairman of the Jena Band of Choctaw. The tribe has retained the ability to do beadwork and traditional tanning of deerskins. Clyde Jackson has endeavored to preserve as many tribal crafts and as much art as possible. He learned to tan hides along with several others in his tribe. The oldest tanner, Anderson Lewis, has been instrumental in helping to preserve these skills. The hides produced by the Jena tribe are often sold or given to other Native Americans to be made into ornaments or rugs. Clyde has tanned deer hide in the Creole State Exhibit from the Louisiana Folklife program.

As with many Native American groups in the United States today, there is a concentrated effort to preserve the heritage of the Choctaw people while living and working with non-Native American neighbors. And with members like Clyde Jackson, the Choctaws will be able to teach another generation of their children as well as our children about their culture.

Updated Febuary 6, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Jagnenaux, Andrew

Accordion Maker and Player

Mr. Andrew Jagneaux is from a place near Church Point, Louisiana. Mr. Jagneaux is a musician as well as an accordion maker; judging from his sound, he's an expert at both. Mr. Jagneaux began making accordions when he retired from Freeport Sulphur Company in 1987. What began as a hobby has turned into an almost full-time job. Before making his first accordion, Mr. Jagneaux talked to well-known accordion makers Fred Cormier and Randy Vasseaur. They shared their accordion making techniques and encouraged Mr. Jagneaux to make his own accordions. Mr. Jagneaux studied an old accordion by taking it apart to see exactly how it was put together. He then built his first accordion, which he still plays.

Mr. Jagneaux says, "When I build an accordion, I want only the best. Being a musician myself, I know music, and I know the sound I want to get. I get the bellows and handcrafted reeds from Italy. There are cheaper ones, but I use only the best. I want the accordion to speak for itself." Jagneaux uses highly polished, exotic woods like teak, mahogany, and purple heart to house the music making components of his accordions, making them both musical and an artistic treasures.

Mr. Jagneaux learned to play by listening to others and by trying to imitate those he considered to be "tops." Since he has no children, Andrew is teaching a nephew from Baton Rouge how to play. Beaming proudly as this he demonstrates his talent, Andrew knows his style will be carried on!

Mr. Jagneaux has participated in the Natchitoches/NSU Folk Festival and other festivals around the state. This offers festival-goers a chance to hear a master accordionist playing; since Mr. Jagneaux also delights in telling and showing people just how he goes about making his one-of-a- kind musical instruments. He frequently demonstrates his craft for the public. In addition, he plays at local clubs, church for the Cajun French Choir, the nursing home, and private dances. Andrew Jagneaux and "Cajun Roots" often play for KSLO's live Saturday night broadcast and at the Liberty Theater in Eunice. Jagneaux is active in other Acadia and St. Landry chapters of the Cajun French Music Association of which he is a charter member.

Updated Febuary 6, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Jardell, Robert

Cajun Musician

Cajun accordion player Robert L. Jardell was born in 1957 in Crowley, Louisiana. He learned to play the accordion when he was about ten from masters like the late Nathan Abshire and Ozanne Guidry. He was especially influenced by Nathan Abshire's music.

A professional musician, Robert Jardell plays music every weekend at clubs like Mulate's and at festivals throughout Louisiana and the United States. He has toured Europe and has recordings on the Flat Town Music label. Presently, he prefers to perform with his own band - "Robert Jardell and Pure Cajun."

Mr. Jardell also knows and can perform some of the old Louisiana French ballads he learned from older members of his community. The unaccompanied ballads were one of the earliest forms of music in French Louisiana. These songs shared love stories and humorous tales. Ballads were performed at weddings and funerals, and sung informally for small groups of people at house parties. Their beauty lies not only in their haunting melodies, but in the songs' story lines and rich vocabularies. The home-based, unaccompanied musical tradition of balladry has almost disappeared as instrumental dance music has gained in popularity. Robert Jardell and other singers keep the ballad tradition alive, singing the stories of love and life in French Louisiana that they learned by word of mouth.

Updated Febuary 20, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Jenkins, James W.

Blacksmith

Mr. James Jenkins is a life-long resident of Tickfaw, Louisiana where he lives with wife Maxine and their five children. Born in 1937, Mr. Jenkins was reared as a devout Baptist.

James taught himself blacksmith work, which is his present occupation. He has passed many of these skills down to one of his sons. In the tradition of blacksmiths, James surrounds himself with the tools of his time-honored trade and those of blacksmiths before him. James is able to make most anything he desires. He uses iron, steel, and wood to create gates, fireplace tools, door hinges, latches, and s-hooks for potholders, cooking utensils, lantern holders, wagon wheels, and knives. The tools he uses to make these items are a forge, anvil, hammer, and punch tongs.

Mr. Jenkins is not only a blacksmith, but he is also a broom, a cane syrup, a pitchfork and an ox-yoke maker. At the family home outside of Tickfaw, James works in the fields with draft horses and holds an annual sugar cane grinding and syrup making day.

James Jenkins has performed at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival, and has had displays at various festivals across the state of Louisiana.

Updated Febuary 20, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Johnson, John

Fiddler

Ten-year-old John Johnson and his father were out riding one day and they happened upon a bluegrass festival. A number of musicians were performing that day, but unbeknownst to the crowd, a significant event would take place that day off stage. While Jewel Lasyone was on the stage playing the fiddle, one member of the crowd was having a life-changing experience. John Johnson was spellbound and told his dad he wanted to learn to play the fiddle. His father was a little skeptical as fiddles are a significant investment and almost every child flirts with a musical instrument that ends up in the closet. However, John's grandfather happened to remember that he had an old beat up fiddle in a closet somewhere and he rescued it for John. The family arranged for a few private lessons by an area musician and John was on his way. These events led up to the development of one of the finest fiddlers in the state of Louisiana, as evidenced by his numerous awards.

That was in 1980 and since that time, John Johnson has won awards not only for his fiddling, but also for playing the harmonica. John Johnson won the Louisiana Harmonica Championship in 1983, and was the Louisiana Grand Champion Fiddler in 1985. The song he won with was a tune called "Black Night Rag." It was actually written by the musician John beat in the championship. John plays a few other instruments as well: the guitar, mandolin, accordion, bass, and spoons. In one song, "Rolling in My Sweet Baby's Arms," he plays all of these and even sings a verse in Cajun. John didn't stop at learning to play these instruments. He also taught his father to play the guitar so he'd have someone to accompany him.

Today, John has begun to write both Cajun and country music, and is playing for people all across the South. He has traveled to Kentucky, Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri to play for the crowds. When he was 13, John was invited to play at the Louisiana World's Fair, and he has played for Fanfare in Nashville. Presently John Johnson is attempting to "make it" in the music business. He currently lives in South Carolina and is trying to catch on as a single act. He returned to the 1995 Louisiana State Fiddling Championship and was named the Grand Champion Fiddler once again. It's safe to say that Fiddlin' John Johnson has gone from child prodigy to an accomplished musician.

Updated Febuary 20, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Jones, Mary Jackson

Chinaberry Necklaces and Ribbon Shirts (1934-2005)

Ms. Mary Jackson Jones, one of ten children, was born, reared, and educated in the LaSalle Parish area.  An elder and member of the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians from Trout, Louisiana, Ms. Jones was educated from the ages of 12 to 18 at the Penick Indian School. She spoke no English when she entered school, but did learn some English through her education.  She was reared speaking the Choctaw language, which she taught to the younger generation of her tribe.  Noticing how the Choctaw culture was beginning to disappear because of assimilation, Ms. Jones became a proponent of spreading and retaining her culture.

Ms. Jones was well known throughout Louisiana as a Chinaberry seed necklace maker and a maker of ribbon shirts.  These shirts, usually worn by men and children as casual shirts, were previously used as a ceremonial shirt.  Ms. Jones used woven cotton and ribbon to make her shirts.  With her necklaces, she used the Chinaberry seed, a soft, mushy seed that she boiled down to extract the harder, center seed.  She learned her craft from tribal heritage as a child. She performed these crafts at festivals and tribal events.

Not only was Ms. Mary Jones famous for her crafts, but she was also a fluent speaker of Choctaw language and traditions.  She often worked with linguists and tribal officials in preserving the history and language of the Choctaw Indians.  She has been on the tribal council, was a mental health referral trainee/consultant for her tribe, and was a renowned folk artist.  She has traveled around the U.S. urging Native American people to maintain and preserve their cultures.

Ms. Jones participated in many festivals, including the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival, the Louisiana Folklife Festival, the 1985 Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife in Washington D.C., the Grand Natchez Village at the Natchez State Park, and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Because of Ms. Jones, the Louisiana Folklife Center has been able to help retain and document the native Choctaw culture, heritage, traditions, and language, so that others might see and understand the importance of preserving these diminishing cultures.  Ms. Jones was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 1993.

Updated Febuary 20, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Researched and rewritten by Samantha Sullivan

Juneau, Anna Mae

Pinestraw Basket maker, Doll Maker, and Storyteller

Anna Mae Juneau, who passed away in 2001, was a member of Louisiana's Tunica-Biloxi tribe, the daughter of late chief Joseph Pierite (of the Tunica and Biloxi tribes) and Rose Jackson Pierite (Choctaw and Biloxi). She spoke both English and French.

Mrs. Juneau made baskets for about fifty years. She learned to weave river cane and honeysuckle baskets at the age of eighteen from her parents on the reservation. Her mother, in turn, had learned from her mother. "This is how we made our living," she said. She made coiled pine needle baskets, using many of the techniques learned as a child. "When I was young, our Indian people could not get jobs and we could not go to the white or black schools. They did not have schools for us Indians. We learned to make the baskets" for income.

She continued the traditional forms including lidded baskets, vases, trays, and even some newer forms. She also practiced several other crafts, Native American dollmaking, making leather moccasins, beadwork, and storytelling. She said, "Basketmaking has always been a traditional art and craft from among our tribe and other American Indians. For many years, we had many people who learned to do these things. This is no longer the case, and now it is necessary that we be careful that we do not lose these things of our ways." Her two sisters also make baskets and her late brother Joe Pierite made Indian drums.

She had also learned some of the traditional stories once told by her father who had assisted anthropologist John R. Swanton in his research on Louisiana Indians. She knew the traditional tales, ones about the turtle and the ant and the legend of the Indians' promise from the sun, but rarely performed them in public by Juneau.

Anna Mae Juneau was a member of the Louisiana Crafts Program and received a Folklife Apprenticeship grant to teach her basketmaking to apprentice Melissa Sampson. She demonstrated her art at many festivals, including the Fête du Ble in Marksville, the Louisiana Folklife Festival, and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Updated Febuary 20, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Kennedy, Willie Mae

Gospel Singer

While performing with the Gospelrettes (Mertis Redden, Vermeda Fisher, Lillian Baptiste, and Sarah LaCaze), Willie Mae Kennedy traveled throughout the ArklaTex area, with special performances at the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival.  She retired from the group after fifty years, but continues to sing African American gospel in various venues.

Kennedy began singing at age eight in church with her aunts and grandmother.  She has sung with many groups over the past sixty years, and her specialty has always been a capella music.  She still uses hand claps and foot stomping in order to keep the beat in her songs though musicians who play the keyboard, drums, and guitar accompany her in some of her songs.  She now performs as a solo act or with family members at churches and other events.

Kennedy believes that the Lord has given her a gift.  More than one listener has told her at the end of a performance that he or she has been healed through the songs or has felt the call of Jesus.  Kennedy feels this is her anointed ministry, and that is what motivates her to sing.

In 2006, Willie Mae Kennedy was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists.

Updated Febuary 20, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Kent, Sarah McKinney

Storyteller

Sarah Kent was born in New Orleans on November 22, 1944, and she now lives in Greensburg, Louisiana. She has a master's degree in social work and is currently a social worker. She was first exposed to storytelling in her home as a child and has carried on the tradition.

Sarah considers her dialect as, "fluent redneck, passable English." Sarah is depicted in Swapping Stories .

Updated Febuary 20, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center

Kerry, Kenneth

Split White Oak Basketmaker

Mr. Kenneth Kerry was born in 1943, in Derry, Louisiana. He learned to make white oak baskets by watching and imitating his father, Thad Kerry. His son, Ken, Jr., is presently learning the same techniques for constructing baskets, turkey calls, and knives from his father.

When asked about the process of making split oak baskets, Ken said that the most important thing was to pick the right tree. Trees should be free of knots so they will split straight, and they should be about ten to fifteen years old. Trees should be cut in the summer because the they have more sap in them, which makes the wood more flexible and easier to work with and it does not dry out as fast. A tree should be cut no more than a week before basket construction is to begin. If cut earlier, the wood will dry out and it won't split properly.

Mr. Kerry used a knife and his bare hands to split off wooden strips from the tree. The wooden strips are then cut into different sizes, according to their place in the basket. Rib strips, which are strips that form the skeleton of the basket, must be wider than the strips that are used for weaving. Every piece of oak used in the basket must be dressed and kept wet and pliable for easier weaving. This constant need for pliability often causes delays in the weaving process. After weaving each damp strip and packing it down, Mr. Kerry had to wait for it to dry before he could apply the next strip. This delay is necessary if the sides of the basket are to be tight and free from gaps, a medium sized basket takes at least twelve hours to make.

Mr. Kerry had problems finding suitable oak trees, and attributed the shortage to the clear cutting of forests by the timber companies, the logging tractors bruise the grain of white oak saplings, and they do not split straight.

Mr. Thad Kerry passed away in 1998, but his son Kenneth Kerry and his grandson Ken, Jr. carry on the tradition of basket making. Three generations of this remarkable family have participated in the Natchitoches/NSU Folk Festival and the Cloutierville Heritage Festival.

Updated April 24,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center

Key, Lionel J. Jr.

Filè Maker

Lionel Key Jr. was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1948. Mr. Key learned to grind dried sassafras leaves into the seasoning known as filè from his great uncle William Ricard in 1982. Using a 92-year-old mortar and pestle he inherited from Mr. Ricard, he pounds the leaves by hand into a powder.

Uncle Bill's Creole Filè originated in 1904 with William Ricard of Rougon, Louisiana. Mr. Ricard was born blind in 1894. Known as "Blind Willie," Mr. Ricard also made brooms and mops. As a child, he cut sugar cane on Alma Plantation in Lakeland.

Lionel Key Jr. didn't think too much of the old ways growing up, but knew about Uncle Bill's Creole filè all of his life. In 1982, he became interested in his great uncle's custom of gathering sassafras leaves each year and grinding them to make filè. He asked his great uncle to teach him how to make it so he could carry on the tradition. He learned Mr. Ricard's tricks of making filè very carefully and has preserved his methods and tools ever since. When Mr. Ricard died in 1984, Lionel was given all of his tools to use, which included Mr. Ricard's mortar and pestle that were made in 1904 by Mr. Ricard's uncle, a carpenter.

Mr. Key continues to make filè once a year just as his Uncle Bill did. He keeps the family's secret of just when the leaves are harvested and how they are cured. He will gladly show people the final step of the process, grinding the leaves into filè by hand. As Mr. Ricard used to tell his great nephew, "A lot of people make filè, but they don't make it like me."

Lionel Key, Jr. has demonstrated filè making at the Louisiana Folklife Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and at the Louisiana State Museum at the Cabildo.

Updated September 5, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center

Khawaja, Norma

Pinestraw Basketry

Norma is a member of Louisiana's Tunica-Biloxi tribe, the daughter of late chief Joseph Pierite (of the Tunica and Biloxi tribes) and Rose Jackson Pierite (Choctaw and Biloxi).

She learned to weave river cane and honeysuckle baskets from her parents on the reservation. Her mother, in turn, had learned from her own mother Ana Mae Juneau, Norma's sister, and also a basketmaker, commented on the impact of the basketry craft and her tribe, "This is how we made our living. When I was young, our Indian people could not get jobs and we could not go to the white or black schools; they did not have schools for us Indians. We learned to make the baskets for income. Basketmaking has always been a traditional art and craft from among our tribe and other American Indians. For many years, we had many people who learned to do these things. This is no longer the case, and now it is necessary that we be careful that we do not lose these things of our ways." Rose White, another of Norma's sisters, also make baskets and her late brother Joe Pierite made Indian drums.

Updated Febuary 20, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Kirkpatrick, Charles Billy

Old Time Country Musician

Mr. Charles Kirkpatrick was born in 1928 and was a longtime resident of Shreveport, Louisiana, where his occupation was being a house painter and a construction worker. His part time working hobby was being a member of the "Louisiana Hayride String Band."

Charles played the guitar, fiddle, and bass. He learned the basics of playing the guitar from his brother, who bought him his first guitar and fiddle when he was a child. He learned to play the fiddle listening to old-time fiddle players. As a music enthusiast, Charles taught his son to play the fiddle and said that they practice everyday. They played old time country music breakdowns and waltzes, western swing, and Cajun music from south Louisiana.

"Fidlin Bill", has performed with the Beavers Family, the "Louisiana Hayride String Band," and the "Army String Band." He has also played on radio shows and has appeared at the Louisiana Hayride, the Louisiana Worlds Fair, and the Louisiana Folklife Festival.

Updated Febuary 20, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Klaveness, Gerd

Norwegian Foodways

Gerd (pronounced "Gaird") Klaveness was born in Trondheim, Norway in 1920 and immigrated to the United States with her family at the age of three and a half. As an adult, she returned to Norway for five years as Executive Director of the Fulbright Exchange Program at the American Embassy in Oslo. In addition to Norwegian and English, she speaks Swedish and Danish. Gerd it a teacher, principal, and district superintendent, she holds a master's degree in education.

A long time Louisiana resident, she remains dedicated to preserving and maintaining her Norwegian heritage. Gerd's specialty is traditional Norwegian dishes, especially baking and decorating the kransekake or ring cake, which is the traditional Norwegian wedding cake. She is also known for her skill of making Norwegian cookies and pancakes. She learned to make these pastries from her mother and other Norwegians and from "experimenting with Norwegian recipes." She has been cooking various types of Norwegian foods since she was a child. She says, "I make hundreds of the ring cakes each year." She makes these delicacies for the Norwegian Seamen's Church in New Orleans, as well as for the Norwegian consul several times a year: "The consul maintains that mine is the best in the world!" Ms. Klaveness uses a set of 18 different sized rings for making the kransekake . The rings are assembled and decorated with miniature Norwegian flags.

Ms. Klaveness' business card features a drawing of a Viking ship next to a ring cake. She notes that, "The Viking ship has a special meaning in our family. Actually, there are two famous ships in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. One is the Gokstad ship, the other the Ekeberg ship. My father's family is the Gokstad branch of the Klaveness family. The Gokstad ship was excavated from my grandfather's estate in Sandefjord, Norway at Gokstad, his home."

Gerd Klaveness received an Image Award from the Norwegian American Chamber of Commerce.

Updated Febuary 20, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Knight, Vicki

Oral Historian

Vicki Knight currently resides in Franklinton, Louisiana, where she works as a school librarian and teacher. She received a Master of Education degree with an emphasis in reading and a school librarian certification from the University of Louisiana - Lafayette in Hammond. A fun and rewarding pastime for Vicki is hearing and telling oral histories. She employs both audio and video recording devices for interviews with elderly Washington Parish residents. Vicki has interviewed Zuma Magee and Daunton Gibbs.

Updated Febuary 20, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Knobloch, C.J. Jr.

Wood Carver

Mr. C. J. Knobloch, Jr. self-identifies as a Cajun, and speaks fluent French and English. He was born in 1935 in Raceland, Louisiana and is now a resident of Thibodaux, Louisiana.

C. J. is a wood carver; he learned to carve when he was a small boy. C. J.'s father was a blacksmith who taught him to carve wood using only a knife. Mr. Knobloch uses tupelo gum, cypress, and basswood for making wooden figurines and toys.

Mr. Knobloch does not sell his art; however, he shares his knowledge on wood carving by providing demonstrations across the state for various schools and festivals.

Updated Febuary 20, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Kramel Hazmark, Mary Francis

Needlework

Mrs. Mary Frances Kramel Hazmark is of German and Czech descent. She has resided in Libuse, Alexandria, Beaumont, Lake Charles, and now resides in Deville, Louisiana. She and her husband have two daughters, one son, and four grandchildren. The type of needlework that Mary does is diverse. She can crochet, embroider, knit, and sew. Mary first learned to use her sewing hands from her mother and now self-creates many of her designs. Unfortunately, she is unable to continue her needlework because of severe arthritis in her hands.

Hazmark has worked tirelessly to promote, document, & preserve Czech culture. She has participated in many festivals, including the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival and Czech Festival.

Updated Febuary 20, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Labbie, J.C.

Cajun Band Leader and Musician

J.C. Labbie, a Cajun, was born April 10, 1938 in Eunice, Louisiana. He is still a resident of Eunice, where he lives with his wife Delores. He is the proud father of three married daughters: Clara, Emily, and Jennifer. He has four grandchildren: Bryan, Joshua, Hali, and Kristi. His parents, who are now deceased, were Joseph Labbie and Clemance Thibodeaux.

When he started school, he could not speak English. He had to master the language quickly, because Cajun children were punished if they spoke French while either on the school grounds or in the classroom. Just like his language, Cajun music in his family was passed down through several generations. Family members from both his father and mother's sides could play the fiddle, triangle, and accordion. J.C. has some triangles that were handed down to him by his mother, which belonged to his great-great-grandfather. J.C. began playing the accordion at the age of 23. He bought his first accordion from Marc Savoy; it wasn't new, but it was a sterling tuned in the C key. The original owner was LeRoy Broussard, who had left the accordion with Marc Savoy with hopes of finding a buyer for it. J.C. now owns two hand-made accordions crafted by Marc Savoy.

J.C. has played Cajun music in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Austria. He continues to play Cajun music on a regular basis for festivals, restaurants, clubs, private parties, and at weddings.

Updated Febuary 20, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

LaCour, Lair Laetter

Doll and Quilt Maker

Mrs. Lair LaCour, known as Mama Lair, is the "Official Doll Maker" of the Cane River community. She was born in the Cane River community of Isle Breville in 1915. She married at the age of sixteen and raised ten children, three of whom still live in the Isle Breville community. Mrs. LaCour learned her craft as most young women in the South did, from her extended family. Her mother and grandmother were an integral part of the socialization of their grandchildren. In this way, they were able to pass on skills necessary for a life in the South. Mrs. LaCour has passed on these skills to her own children. Her youngest daughter, Mrs. Anastasia Christophe, worked with Mrs. LaCour making quilts, dolls, and other crafts.

The dolls Mrs. LaCour made are similar to those made by her grandmother, but she added some innovations. Mrs. LaCour did most of her sewing on a sewing machine rather than hand stitching as her grandmother did. The majority of her dolls have faces made of embroidered cotton cloth, for the body; yarn for the hair and shawls; calico or gingham for the dresses and bonnets; lace for the borders; a stiff white cloth for the pantaloons, slips, and stockings; leather for the shoes; and polyester for the stuffing. Mrs. LaCour used a variety of tools including a sewing machine, scissors, sewing needles, and a stick used to stuff the dolls.

Mrs. LaCour's grandmother used to make dolls one at a time or as time permitted. The art was Mrs. LaCour's full time hobby. She made the dolls in stages. For instance, she made the bodies and dresses on one day, embroidered the faces on another day, and then finally stuffed and dressed the dolls. Mrs. LaCour made several types of dolls such as the patented "Ma-Man Dolls," "Little Mischief," "Granddaughters," "Cooks," and "Clowns".

The other part of Mrs. LaCours's enterprise was quilt making. Before the ready availability of electricity, gas heaters, and store-bought bedcovers, quilts were a wintertime necessity. Quilts are now viewed as pieces of art, which still have a practical use. The quilts fashioned by Mrs. LaCour's mother and grandmother were primarily scrap quilts made from various fabrics left over from dressmaking and other sewing tasks. Although those quilts were designed to be functional, the appreciation for beauty was always important. Mrs. LaCour began making quilts with her grandmother and other women in the community through quilting bees. She used several traditional patterns such as the nine-patch, block, or windmill patterns. She has also redesigned the traditional wedding ring pattern, which is especially popular today. When she had enough scraps from making dolls, Mrs. LaCour would make a scrap quilt much as her grandmother did.

Mrs. LaCour was continuously working with her craft. She has participated at the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival and was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists for her doll making. Mrs. LaCour died September 4, 2008.

Updated Febuary 7,2017 by Natchitoches -NSU Folklife Center Staff

Lambert, Robert

Old Time Country and Gospel Musician

Mandolin master and singer Bob Lambert was born in 1923 in Mississippi, but is a long-time resident of Washington Parish, Louisiana. Mr. Lambert still performs an early style of country music and gospel that characterized the years before World War II, a transitional style between the old-time string bands and bluegrass music.

As a boy, Mr. Lambert learned his music in church, at social gatherings, and from radio performers. He grew up in the Pentecostal church, where his father was a music director, and where he recalls attending brush arbor church meetings with old-time gospel singing as a boy. He began playing the tambourine for church services at the age of seven and has played the mandolin for more than fifty years. He also plays the guitar.

Mr. Lambert recalls "growing up in the poorest family in the poorest state. Times were hard, you didn't know anything but farming." At night, he and his brother listened to the radio, especially the popular brother duet acts of the time: like the Louvin Brothers, the Callahans, Charlie and Bill Monroe, and the "Blue Sky Boys." These groups usually featured two singers performing sentimental duets in close harmony, accompanied by guitar and mandolin. "Ira Louvin was perhaps my biggest musical influence," Mr. Lambert says.

With his older brother, guitarist and singer Willard Lambert, Bob performed on the radio near their home in the late 1930s and 1940s. In 1940, the two left their home in Mississippi, hitchhiked to New Orleans, and won five dollars in a talent show at Pontchartrain Beach. In the late 1940s and early 1950s he played in several duets with guitar and mandolin on radio and then television.

Making a living as a country musician in the New Orleans area was difficult. Mr. Lambert worked on the docks of the Mississippi River to support himself playing occasional gigs before he gave up performing and became a construction engineer with Boh Brothers Construction Company. For years his mandolin remained untouched in his attic and he played only occasionally among friends using other musician's instructions. Finally, he retrieved his mandolin from the attic, repaired it, and taught his wife, June, to play upright bass. After his retirement, the Lambert family began traveling the festival circuit. When Willard Lambert decided to start singing again, the three began performing together on occasional Sundays at the Baptist Church in Isabel, Louisiana.

In the early 1990s, Bob Lambert began playing with the "Evening Star String Band."

He plays the mandolin in a pre-bluegrass style that has almost disappeared. Of his mandolin playing he says, "Rather than fast-paced blues phrases and fiddler tunes, I play with a lot of tremolo double-stops which follow the melody. This fits in well in old-time gospel and sentimental songs, like the Louvin Brothers and others performed." His music evokes memories of his own upbringing and of the Anglo-American rural southern culture in which he grew up. He has written some songs throughout the years including one titled "City of God."

Bob Lambert can be heard regularly at the Piney Woods Opry in Abita Springs. With his wife June and the "Evening Star String Band," he has performed at the Louisiana Folklife Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and the Abita Springs Water Festival. In 1994 he received a Louisiana Folklife Apprenticeship grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts to teach old-time country mandolin playing to Joe Manuel. He received an Artist Fellowship Award in 1995-1996 in recognition of his contributions to traditional Louisiana music. His playing has been documented on "The Country Three," an album produced in 1986 by Pat Flory with support from the Louisiana Division of the Arts.

Updated Febuary 7,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center

Langley, Bertney

Storyteller

Mr. Bertney Langley currently lives in Elton, Louisiana, where he owns a Native American arts and crafts shop. He also attended Jeff Davis Vocational Technical School in Elton. Mr. Langley enjoys telling narratives and speaking about Koasati traditions around his home, at festivals, and at POW WOW's. He first began to show interest in storytelling when he listened to his uncles, Gilbert and Bel Abbey.

Bertney has exhibited his storytelling skills throughout Louisiana and the U.S. He was one of four storytellers in Les Raconteurs: Treasure Lore and More.

Updated Febuary 13,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Langley, Lorena

Basketmaker and Pottery Maker

Mrs. Lorena Langley, a member of the Koasati Tribe, was a source of inspiration to her people and to all of the people who came to know her. She and her family perpetuated the language and arts of her tribe and have shared those creative skills with the rest of the world.

Mrs. Langley was a pine needle, white oak, and cane splint basketmaker. These are skills she learned from people with whom she grew up with. She and her family raised these skills to the level of an art form. She was virtually the last known Koasati potter, and she was still producing the vessels that her family made to hold traditional sacred medicines, many of which could not be made or stored in metal containers. Few southeastern Native American tribes have retained so much of their cultural heritage as Mrs. Langley and her family. Mrs. Langley not only maintained her own skills, but she also trained her children and grandchildren in the craft. Since very little of Native American culture has been well documented and recorded, many of the skills used by the various tribes have been lost as innovation and technology made those skills appear to be less important for survival. Mrs. Langley embraced her cultural heritage and attempted to share it with her family as well as with the rest of the world. Her efforts emphasized the social and cultural importance of those skills even as their survival benefits have decreased.

Mrs. Langley won awards for her crafts at national shows like Red Earth in Oklahoma City, the New Orleans Jazz Festival, the Southeastern Indian Celebration in Columbus, Georgia, and many others. Her basketry and ceramics are to be seen in both public and private collections from Maine to Louisiana. She demonstrated her skills for the National Park Service at Macon, Georgia, Jean Lafitte National Park, and for museums in Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas. She also participated in the Folk Arts Apprenticeship programs in both Louisiana and Texas. She and her family are now nationally known, and Mrs. Langley was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists. Mrs. Langley died September 10, 2001.

Updated Febuary 13,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Latour, Raymond

Zydeco Musician

Raymond LaTour is both culturally and linguistically Creole and African-American. He and his wife, Lillie, now live in Sulphur, Louisiana. Ray is a retired carpenter who currently performs with the band "Sulfur Playboys." The group performs locally, as well as throughout the states of Louisiana and Texas. They have participated in the 1984 Worlds Fair in New Orleans, Louisiana and received an award at the event.

Updated Febuary 13,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Launey, Suson

Needle Point Mardi Gras Mask Maker

Suson Launey's distinctive yarn masks have become a common sight in both the men's and women's Mardi Gras runs in Tee Mamou, located on Mamou Prairie near Iota, Louisiana. Iota is home of the most conservative Country Mardi Gras Run in all of Louisiana. Runners are required to attend meetings during the year, and outsiders are not allowed to run in the official Mardi Gras run on Fat Tuesday.

Launey grew up with the rural Mardi Gras traditions of Iota. The participants of the run mask themselves and go from house to house in the rural countryside to beg for ingredients for the communal gumbo that is cooked, eaten, and celebrated at the dance on Mardi Gras night. The gumbo dinner and dance signal the beginning of forty days of Lent.

Part of the running of the Mardi Gras includes the wearing of screen masks which Suson found uncomfortable and left scratches. She decided to experiment with plastic to make a plastic screen for the base. She used needlepoint to make the design onto the plastic screen base. This type of mask was comfortable to wear and left no scratches at the end of the day.

Using designs and colors found on traditional screen masks, Launey's needlepoint masks became popular and in demand with other participants of the Tee Mamou Mardi Gras Run. Launey has years of experience making regular size masks as well as miniature masks used as jewelry pins. While visiting with Launey as she works on a mask, a mischievous smile sometimes appears as she pulls the needle through the small holes of the screen. Buyers purchasing one of Launey's creations, receive more than just a Mardi Gras Mask. They receive a part of her love of the craft and the Mardi Gras run itself.

Suson Launey has made and exhibited her masks at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Festival International, the Natchitoches/NSU Folk Festival, the Native Crafts Festival in Lafayette, and the official Louisiana Folklife Festival held the last three years in Monroe, Louisiana.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

LeDoux, Joseph "Boo"

Saddles and Equestrian Tack

Joseph "Boo" LeDoux lived a colorful and interesting life.  A self described "retired-swamp-cowboy," he learned his trade at the age of seven from his Cajun father.  In the early 1930s, Boo was a rodeo bull rider and was generally considered one of the best.  At the age of 60, he competed in several rodeos, bull-riding, just to prove to himself that he could still do it. Boo was a wagoneer for the Louisiana wagon during the 1976 Bicentennial wagon train trek to Valley Forge, PA.  The trip lasted six months, and the group traveled 2450 miles at four miles per hour.  He drove every inch of the way, and this fulfilled one of his greatest dreams.

LeDoux participated in the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the St. Landry Folklife Festival in Opelousas, the Arts and Crafts Show and the Liberty Radio Show in Eunice, the Louisiana Folklife Festival in Baton Rouge, the Festival Acadian in Lafayette, the 1984 Louisiana World's Fair in New Orleans, and the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival.  At these festivals, he practiced leather saddle making and repairing, usually accompanied by his wife Priscilla.  Because of his major talents and accomplishments, LeDoux was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 1983.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Lees, Curtis

Cherokee Crafts

Curtis Lees is a Cherokee who resided in Jena, Louisiana, where he made traditional Cherokee bows from native locust trees. He made arrows and blowguns from native cane. Lees also made ceremonial turkey feather fans and headdresses.

Lees used tools that he made himself to continue the craft that his ancestors perfected so they could catch ducks and geese along Catahoula Lake in Central Louisiana. Curtis explained how important his work is to him in an earlier interview: "When I make a bow, part of me goes with it." He is also passing on the traditions of his people. Curtis continues, "I'm keeping alive something my people did."

Despite his interest in preserving his heritage, Lees's grandchildren are interested in other things, which worries the Louisiana Cherokee. Although Lees's bows and arrows could be used for hunting, most of them are bought by collectors. The same materials used by Cherokees and Choctaws go into his bows, arrows, and blowguns.

Using native Louisiana switch cane, Lees makes blowguns. He makes his darts from pine splinters and feathers them with cotton. Lees demonstrates his crafts at festivals across Louisiana and has appeared frequently at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Louisiana Folklife Festival, and the Natchitoches NSU Folk Festival. People from as far away as New York and Oregon have interviewed him for books and articles. Many of his crafts are in public and private collections and museums.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Lefleur, Harry

Musician and Cajun Foodways

Harry LaFleur was born on October 23, 1933, in the small community of Swords near Eunice, Louisiana. He now lives with his wife and family in Eunice. Mr. LaFleur's interest in the fiddle began when he was a boy of approximately 6-7 years old. He learned from his grandfather, Frank Brown, who was a cousin of the renowned Cajun fiddler Dennis McGee. Harry's older brother, Raymond, played music with the legendary Ira LeJeune. Both Raymond and Ira influenced Harry's playing style. LaFleur is a talented musician who not only plays the fiddle but also the piano and guitar as well. Early in his career, 1959, he hosted a radio show on the KSLO station. He was able to demonstrate his command of both French and English languages.

Soon after becoming a professional musician, LaFleur became one of the original members of the Pine Grove Boys, the late Nathan Abshire's band. Harry is also a songwriter. Among his songwriting credits include two songs written for a film entitled Allie Baines Meets the Cajun that was released in England. He has also performed with legendary Cajun musicians such as Dennis McGee, Ira LeJeune, Leopold Manuel, Wallace "Cheese" Reed, and many others.

Over the years, Harry and his music have been used in various music documentaries to promote Cajun music. He was one of the founders of the Cajun French Music Association, which is active in all areas of the Cajun Culture. Harry never tires of educating people about the Cajun music and culture. His picture can be viewed in a local museum exhibit that honors various Cajun pioneer musicians who were responsible for his musical heritage. Although, many of these musicians are deceased, Harry as well as others continues to entertain and to teach the younger generation about their heritage. Mr. LaFleur is also known as a very good cook. He has participated in the Louisiana Folk life Festival in Monroe, Louisiana, the art of outdoor cooking.

Harry is known for his love of French music and he continues to tour periodically. He played at the 1982 World's Fair in New Orleans as well as a number of festivals in Louisiana, including various universities through out the country. As a master fiddler, he was recently awarded a Folklife Apprenticeship Grant to teach Cajun fiddling. Occasionally Harry performs with, Larry "Bubba" Frey, a friend and student, at the Acadian Cultural Center in Eunice.

Master Cajun fiddler Harry LaFleur is one of the few remaining Cajun musicians who can still play the traditional reels-all mazurkas that were part of Cajun musicians' repertoires in the early twentieth century.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Leonard, WIlliam "Buddy"

Farrier

Master farrier William "Buddy" Leonard has been part of the racetrack life since about 1955. At around age 22, he apprenticed himself to master blacksmith Emory Detray at Magnolia Park (now Jefferson Downs.) He apprenticed for four years shoeing horses and then spent the next forty years or so making his own horseshoes and tools. A native of New Orleans, he traveled the state shoeing horses. Farriers were hired by a racing stable and would follow that stable's horses from track to track. He says that he has "just about shod every type of horse there was," and is an expert on the special corrective shoes needed to keep racehorses sound.

The important role of farriers at the racetrack is reflected in Buddy's stories of how knowledgeable bettors would check on what kind of shoe a horse was wearing before placing their wagers. Mr. Leonard is one of the few remaining traditional blacksmiths who is knowledgeable about corrective shoeing for racehorses and he has created a board with examples of the different shoe types to assist in demonstrations. He also makes other forged items like tools and hinges.

He remarks that farriers in his youth had to serve much longer apprenticeships than young blacksmiths do today. They forged all of their own horseshoes rather than buying ready made shoes like many farriers do today. His necessary tools include his forge, files, and other blacksmithing tools. Mr. Leonard even made some of his early tools.

According to Buddy Leonard, "Blacksmithing has become a lost art and people are interested in bringing it back. Blacksmithing is part of St. Tammany Parish for the horses in the area and also for the horse racing industry. The tool making and working with the forge has become the forgotten art."

Retired since 1987 after a car accident, Buddy Leonard lives with his wife in Covington, Louisiana, but stays busy and active. He was recently awarded a Louisiana Folklife Apprenticeship Grant as a master craftsman to teach the art of blacksmithing to an apprentice. He has demonstrated his skill at the Louisiana Folklife Festival, at the Louisiana Native Crafts Festival, in the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, various school programs, and programs at the Louisiana Nature Center.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Lewis, Gerald

Gospel Musician

Gerald Lewis currently resides in Monroe, Louisiana where he sings gospel music. He did perform at the 1995 Louisiana Folk Festival.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Lirette, Claude J.

Wood Carver

Claude Lirette was born in 1926, in Chauvin, Louisiana. Mr. Lirette is Cajun and speaks both English and French. Claude has been carving for over twenty years, a craft he learned from friends while working in the oilfield.

Mr. Lirette makes miniature pirogues, a type of lightweight, flat bottom boat that can be used for hunting and fishing in very shallow water. His pirogues include detailed objects such as paddles, poles, ice chests, decoys, and sand and shell buckets all carved from wood. He also carves wooden toys. Claude uses a knife as his only tool, and he enjoys working with cypress and tupelo gum to make his Cajun crafts. He belongs to the Louisiana Craftsmen Association.

Claude and his wife Merle enjoy traveling across the state of Louisiana together with their crafts. They have presented at the New Orleans Jazz Festival, the Tomato Festival in New Orleans, the Food and Heritage Festival in LaRose, Louisiana, their local television stations, and the Louisiana Folk Festival in Monroe, Louisiana.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Los Adaes Foundation

Quilting and Other Crafts

The Los Adaes Foundation was formed in 1972 to coordinate special activities at Los Adaes near the Robeline Community. In order to represent the area, they decided to form a quilting club. The ladies continue to quilt and exhibit their work.

Although quilts were originally made to provide warmth, it has become more than a necessity. The Los Adaes Foundation uses a number of quilting patterns that have survived over the centuries. Some traditional designs include: the vine patch, odd fellow, light and dark, sun flower, log cabin, rocky road, star quilt, double wedding ring, drunkard's path, streak of lightning, and flower basket.

The Los Adaes Foundation quilters have received much recognition for their efforts. In 1982, they were featured in Louisiana Life magazine and in 1983 they were filmed for Portrait of America. The segment was aired in 1984, and in August of 1984 and the members were invited to Baton Rouge for the premiere of the show. They also exhibited two quilts in the Louisiana World's Fair. The same quilts are presently on exhibit in a museum in Baton Rouge. In 1985, the club made a quilt for former governor Jimmie Davis that was fashioned from his neckties. This quilt is on exhibit in the Jimmie Davis Museum in Hammond, Louisiana. The club continues to quilt for the pleasure and social value, and members are often in attendance at the Natchitoches Folk Festival each year.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Luster, Janie

Palmetto Basketry

Janie Luster, a member of the United Houma Nation has spent her most of life in Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes. Descended from a famous traiteur or medicine woman who taught her not only traditional aers and crafts, but also the rich knowledge of plant life and curing passed on by her people, Mrs. Luster has single-handedly managed to revive the traditional Fuegiau palmetto basketry lost for almost a generation. Mrs. Luster and her daughter are widely known for these beautiful baskets. She has demonstrated her art, taught others to do it at many fairs and festivals including the Jazz Festival, the Louisiana Folk Festival and Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival. Mrs. Luster's devotion to her people, her traditions and to passing those on to others certainly merits her induction in the Louisiana Folk Artists Hall of Fame

Updated October 24, 2017 by the Natchitoches- NSU Folklife Center Staff

Manuel, Allen

Cajun Mardi Gras Screen Mask and Costume Maker

Allen Manuel was born in Eunice, Louisiana. A masonry contractor. Allen and his wife Georgie prepare Cajun Mardi Gras masks and costumes together in their spare time or when needed. Allen first learned this craft as a child from his father who attained it from his father. There is a total of five generations that know and practice the craft of making masks and costumes.

Allen utilizes handmade molds, a small hammer, a piece of window screen, and paint to create the masks. The costumes are made with old cloth and feed sacks. He has demonstrated his creativity at Jazz Fest '96; Festival of Arts in Eunice; Festivals Acadian in Lafayette; Louisiana Folklife Festival in Eunice, Monroe, and Natchitoches; Red River Revel in Shreveport; Cajun Music and Heritage Festival in Lafayette; Craft Days in Lafayette; St. Landry Parish Heritage Festival in Opelousas; French Market Festival in Abbeville; and the International Festival in Baton Rouge. He was also featured in By Southern Hands, by Jan Armore and received an award at the Creole State Exhibit.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Manuel, Georgie

Cajun Mardi Gras Screen Mask Maker

Georgie Manuel, a native to Eunice, Louisiana, was taught to make screen masks by grandmother, Alman MeGee. The Manuel family represents five generations of costume and screen mask makers. Based on family stories and research, the ancient screen masks appeared in southwest Louisiana in the late 1800s.

The Cajun Mardi Gras celebration is believed to have developed from celebrations of medieval peasantry. Historians believe that the peasants would construct makeshift masks and costumes to wear as they traveled in groups from house to house to beg for food. In imitation of the fashion of the Queen and other wealthy and powerful citizens, they would fashion conical hats much like a dunce hat, which are called capuchins. The masks used to hide their identity were made from whatever materials available.

Georgie and her husband, Allen, use the same technique that Mrs. McGee used. Each mask is individual; color combinations and expressions follow no set pattern. The masks evolve as they work through the process. Mr. Manuel begins the process using metal screening. The screen is cut into an eight to ten inch square with a three-inch slit cut in the bottom where the chin will be formed. Using a ball peen hammer, he carefully pounds the screening into the contours of a mold. The mold is made from a two by twelve-inch piece of pine. Eyes, nose, and chin emerge in three dimensions. Mrs. Manuel staples the pieces of the rounded chin together, and sews fabric over the edges so the weaver will not be scratched. After refining the impression, she paints facial features on the mask using enamel paint. She tries to leave the wire screen as free of paint as possible so as to make the mask cooler for the masker. According to Roshto, Mrs. Manuel's masks "demonstrate a smooth, fluid stroke, and the painted features appear as caricature, almost cartoon-like." Since these masks are painted quite simply, they show dramatic, almost theatrical, intensity. The exaggerated impressions around the eyes provide the masker with a mysterious, other world look. If Mrs. Manuel applies a base coat of enamel to the wire, it invariably suggests Caucasian skin tones. Mrs. Manuel notes that she adds either mask elastic or the more traditional ribbon or cloth strips to hold the mask on. Some of her masks might sport fabric strips or decorative fringe; such as the ribbon and fringe found on Mardi Gras capuchius and costumes.

Georgie and Allen Manuel love Mardi Gras. They spend the year demonstrating their craft at various fairs and festivals like the Louisiana Folklife Festival, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Red River Revel, Louisiana Native Crafts Festival, Natchitoches-NSU Folklife Festival, and CODOFIL Cajun-French Celebration Cajun Heritage and Music Festival. Georgie and Allen are included in By Southern Hands and in Louisiana Folklore Miscellany, and are recognized by the state of Louisiana as Louisiana Craftsmen and Louisiana Division of the Arts juries their work.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Marsalis, Ellis

Jazz Pianist

Ellis Marsalis is an African-American from New Orleans, Louisiana where he resided with his wife Dolores. He has now moved out of state. Ellis received a B.A. in music from Loyola University and thirty hours towards a Masters degree. His profession includes both Jazz musician and high school music teacher. He is a freelance musician and works alone - he does not belong to a group.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Medford, Claude W., Jr.

Basketry
(1941 - 1989)

Claude Medford, a traditional southeast Indian artist and craftsman of Choctaw ancestry, learned to plait cane splint baskets in traditional styles at an early age.  He was taught basketry by his Choctaw grandfather, a medicine man, who was born along the Camino Real between Natchitoches, Louisiana and Nacogdoches, Texas.  From this point on, Medford became interested in the traditions and crafts of his tribe, as well as other Native American tribes.

Medford earned the Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology and art history at the University of New Mexico.  After finishing school, Medford decided to go on the road and travel the states, from tribe to tribe, to research the heritage of his people.  He lived with many Native American tribes, including the Alabama, Tunica-Biloxi, Coushatta, Pamunkey, Caddo, Delaware, and Yuchi.  He learned to speak many Indian languages, including Alabama, Coushatta, and Choctaw, while staying with these tribes.  He learned each tribe's style of basketry, which was important to him because of his grandfather's influence.  Medford also learned pottery, woodworking, shell working, metal working, finger weaving, bead work, feather work, horn and hoof work, brain tanning of deer hide, leather working, and gourd work of each tribe.

Medford strove to preserve the heritage, culture, traditions, and languages of his people, as he worked with the Indian Program development.  He taught classes and workshops at the American Indian Archaeological Institute in Washington, Conneticut, and the Clifton Choctaw Indian community west of Alexandria, Louisiana.  Medford also received a fellowship from the Louisiana State Arts Council of the Louisiana Division of the Arts.  This fellowship allowed him to return home to teach any Indian from the five surviving tribes of Louisiana that was interested.  On his return to Louisiana, he became an artist-in-residence for the Williamson Museum and the Louisiana Folklife Center at Northwestern State University.

Medford participated in several festivals, including the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival.  Because of his contribution to preserving the heritage of his people and his talent in basketry, Medford was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 1983.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Menard, D.L.

Chair maker and Cajun Musician (1932 - 2017)

D. L. Menard was born in 1932 in Erath, Louisiana where he resided with his wife, Louella. They had seven children and fourteen grandchildren. D. L. Menard was one of the most respected music artists in French Louisiana today. His song, "La Porte dans Arriere" (The Back Door) and "Jole Blon" became a Cajun national anthem. In the eighteen years since "La Porte" was first recorded, it sold over half a million copies.

D. L. stated, "The singing and music came natural...people said I sang like Hank Williams, but it was just my way of singing." D. L. sang at festivals in Quebec, France, and scores of Louisiana honky-tonks. He has recorded for Louisiana and French labels as well as northern folk labels in the United States.

Along with his music art, Mr. Menard owned D.L. Menard chair factory. The furnishing of Louella's kitchen are the products of his chair factory. D. L. was a master craftsman and his chair factory was as remarkable as the chairs themselves. D. L. concocted a small factory from materials such as old washing machine motors. He made most of the chair parts from the finest ash wood obtained from the local sawmill and his wife weaved the chair seats. He used seasoned hardwood rungs, which were locked tight by drying ash in the traditional way. His inventory included platform rockers, high back rockers, sewing rockers, ladder-back chairs, bar stools, and children's furniture. In 2010, D.L. was inducted into the HOMFA.

Photograph of D.L. Menard courtesy of Rounder Records. The photograph can be found on the cover of Rounder Records 0198, Cajun Saturday Night.

Updated October 24, 2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Mercer, Nova

Quilter, Soapmaker, and Ballad Singer

Nova Mercer is a native of the Hill Country of North Central Louisiana. As a child she grew up steeped in the traditional culture of the area around the Weston Community in Jackson Parish. She heard the old ballads and remembered them. She also learned to do the basic things which girls of her time and place learned-quilting, all forms of sewing, soapmaking, and cooking. Nova has been recognized for her many art forms through invitations to perform at state and national folk festivals including the Festival of American Folklife in Washington, D.C. As a girl, Nova learned simple quilt patterns including the "nine patch." After her children were grown, she began to make what she calls the "fancier" quilts. She also worked hard to improve her stitching techniques. She bought special fabrics and used these fabrics in making such complex patterns as the "radiant star."

Although Nova still quilts her pieced and appliqued tops on a frame suspended from her living room ceiling as she did in her early days, she rarely makes simple everyday quilts. Instead, she produces finely stitched quilts which she exhibits and saves for heirlooms.

While Nova has become nationally famous and she maintains strong local ties, working with such important cultural preservationists as Sybil Womack who has struggled for many years to preserve and present the folk traditions of North Winn and Southern Jackson parishes. Several times a year, Nova presents her traditional art at festivals organized and promoted by the Backwoods Village Inn located on Louisiana Hwy. 126 between Readhimer and Brewton's Mill.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Metoyer, Allen "Al Gator"

Rock and Roll Musician

Mr. Allen Metoyer was born in 1936, in the Isle Brevelle Community in Natchez, Louisiana. Although he lived in several other places like Illinois and California, Isle Brevelle became his permanent residence and home. His parents were Severine and Edward Metoyer, both of whom taught Al how to speak some French.

Al worked as a security guard and a barber, but he has also played the keyboard with several bands over the past years. He learned to play rock and roll music in the 1940s and 1950s from Duma and Uke LaCour.

Al Metoyer's band has played many times monthly in the local community for many different occasions. Members of the band are: Preston Conant, sax; Doc Coutee, lead guitar and vocal; Tony Arceneaux, drums; Patric Dupree, bass and lead guitar; and Al Metoyer, keyboard and vocal.

The group has performed for dances at Wood Dance Hall, Natchitoches Jazz and Blues Festival, NSU Folk Festival, Natchitoches, and many other festivals within Louisiana. Big Al died in March 2005; his humor and love of the cane river are legendary, and he is greatly missed by the community and all who knew him.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Metz, Carl "Dump"

Shingle Maker

The Metzes have been a part of the West Feliciana community of Solitude since Carl "Dump" Metz's grandfather Christian Metz moved there in 1908. Boll weevils had destroyed the cotton industry solidifying the family's decision to head into the countryside and make a living harvesting timber.

Carl Metz's grandfather made cypress shingles. His son and grandson continue the tradition. Carl learned the craft from his father Jesse. "Pappa used to sell shingles for a living. He used to get $4.00 a square," Dump explains. His father made about $6.00 a day which was enough money to raise eight kids during the Depression. Metz doesn't make shingles for a living; he makes them for his own use and for others.

Metz makes the cypress shingles in a shed behind his log cabin. Although he describes the process saying, "Ain't nothing to it, nothing but hard work." The process takes more than hard work. Metz works with the "heart of cypress." He explains: "They [logging crews] call it sinking cypress. When it would flood many, many years ago, these logs would sink to the bottom. They were covered with silt and mud. By the time we dug them up, all the sap had rotted away." What is left is the core. The process takes hundreds of years.

Art critic Rod Dreher describes the process of making the shingles as follows: "With his left hand, Dump takes the frow, a short-handled cleaving tool, and positions it atop the block about a quarter-inch from the edge. No measuring needed; he instinctively knows where to put the frow to guarantee shingles of a near perfect width. A smooth, forceful blow from a mallet separates a thin slab of the moist, sweet-smelling wood from the block as cleanly and quickly as a butcher slicing beef." After he completes this "riving" process, Metz shaves the edges and flat sides with a graw knife, a narrow two-handled blade. The shingles usually measure 18, 27, or 36 inches, and barring fire, can last a lifetime.

Metz has roofed his own home and a log cabin he began building the day his father died with his handmade shingles. They are layered three deep on the roof, so there is no need for chemical sealants. As the shingles age they turn a light green. "The green can be so pretty." Leola, his wife, says.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Meyers, J.C.

Bluegrass Musician

Mr. J.C. Meyers is a lifelong resident of Livingston, Louisiana, where he lives with his wife Alvie E. Meyers. J. C. is retired but spends a lot of his spare time playing music with the Driskill Mountain Boys.

J. C. learned to play at home and church at the age of six or seven. His uncle George Laflin was an important influence at home. Mr. Meyers plays the banjo, mandolin & guitar; and also repairs and builds musical instruments of all kinds.

Mr. Meyers has toured in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Indiana with the Driskill Mountain Boys. Public appearances and performances with the band include the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans, Louisiana Heritage Festival, and the Blue Grass Festival.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Meziere, Becky Thomas

Pinestraw Basketmaker

Becky Meziere was born in 1975 in Pineville, Louisiana. Ms. Meziere is a pine straw basket maker. She is a graduate of Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, LA and is currently working towards a master's degree.  Becky and her family are members of the Clifton Choctaw Native American Community in Clifton, Louisiana.

Mrs. Meziere learned her craft from her mother when she was about eleven years old. She uses a coil technique where the pine needles are coiled around and sewn together. Her tools consist of needle, raffia, and longleaf pine straw. Each basket is unique and has little designs resembling flowers sewn onto the finished basket. She uses natural dyes and some supplementary materials, such as commercial dyed raffia, to give color to the pine needle baskets.  She is known for her beautiful hand woven baskets that can be seen all over the world in both private collections and museums.

The artist's most recent public demonstrations were at Basket Day at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana and The Cane River National Heritage Area Commission Crafts Program on the riverfront in Natchitoches, and at the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival.

Updated 1/30/2018.

Miller, Jackie

Prairie Cajun Mardi Gras Screen Mask and Costume Maker

Jackie Miller of Iota, Louisiana in Acadia Parish grew up among old-time Cajuns. She listened to their recipes, remedies, stories, music, and their traditions. As a young girl, she watched her mother, various aunts, relatives and friends, spend quite some time before the start of the Lenten season preparing costumes and masks for the men and teenage boys to wear in their courir de Mardi Gras.

This rural Mardi Gras run is quite different from the New Orleans Mardi Gras celebration. In fact, the courir, as celebrated in Tee-Mamou, is thought to have its roots in medieval peasantry. Historians believe that the peasants would construct makeshift masks and costumes to wear as they traveled in groups from house to house to beg for food. In imitation of the fashion of the Queen and other wealthy and powerful citizens, they would fashion conical hats much like a dunce hat, which are called capuchins. The masks used to hide their identity were made from whatever material was available.

In southwest Louisiana since the 1850s, cardboard box material, cloth, needle and thread, horsehair, wool, screen, and plant parts have been used. Today Jackie makes her masks either from wire screen or from plastic mesh or canvas. This screen is cut into a six to eight inch form that fits over the face. The mask is then decorated with acrylic yarn, paint, or any other found material and with lots of imagination. Ribbons, braid, sequins, bone, pom-poms, and old wigs ensure that each wire mask is unique. An elastic strap attached to each side of the wire holds the mask snugly in place.

For the capuchins, a piece of poster board is shaped and taped in a long, conical shape. This is then covered with brightly colored cloth. Another quarter yard of cloth is gathered and attached to the bottom, back edge of the cone, extending around to each side of the face area. This loose hanging cloth drapes over the back and shoulders of the person, covering the neck and the sides of the face. The capuchin is then decorated with ribbon, braid, ruffles, bells, sequins, pom-poms, lace and anything else one can imagine. Each mask and each capuchin is unique and original and if not a thing of beauty, at least a thing of wonder!

Jackie makes masks and capuchins for herself, her five sons, and for their friends. Jackie has an apprentice to whom she is teaching this unique craft. Jackie demonstrates her craft at various fairs and festivals throughout the state, including Louisiana's 1995 Folklife Festival in Monroe. Jackie has been officially recognized by the state of Louisiana as a master craftswoman by being accepted into the Louisiana Crafts Program.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Miller, Larry

Accordion and Triangle Maker

Larry and Jackie Miller were both born of predominately Cajun ancestry and have lived in Arcadia Parish all their lives. Both grew up speaking Cajun French and English. Larry is a retired school administrator from Iota, Louisiana. Mr. Miller loves to educate anyone who is interested in handmade musical instruments, about their origin, current use, and the method he uses to make them. He will also demonstrate the proper use as a musical instrument for playing Cajun or Zydeco music.

Mr. and Mrs. Miller are the owners of the Bon Cajun Instruments and Prairie Cajun Mardi Gras Costumes Company. Larry makes Cajun triangles, musical spoons, frottoirs or scrubboards, and accordions. As a child, Miller watched his father make triangles from the spring steel tines off old horse drawn hay rakes. When the tines would break off the rakes, the old ones would make triangles from the steel. Mr. Miller educated himself in the technique by watching four or five elders in the Acadiana area. He credits Mr. Aaron Venable of Duson as his primary instructor of making triangles.

Larry remembers playing spoons in their home whenever his father played the accordion. Miller notes that it was quite difficult to hold the spoons once your hands got sweaty. His elderly aunt told him that Cajuns in some areas would take a green limb from a tree, make two slits and insert the spoon handles into the slits. They then bound them with cotton cord. This method of securing the spoons was a little better than the handheld method, but often one had to stop playing in the middle of a song to readjust the spoons. Miller and his son Eric, through trial and error, found a type of silicone filler, which will hold the spoons firmly in their red bayou cypress handles without distorting the quality of the spoons' sound.

The scrubboard is another folk instrument popular in the south. Especially when playing Zydeco music. Larry makes scrubboards of stainless steel in three different sizes. He also includes with them with two bottle openers mounted in small cypress handles to use as scratchers. They are considered lifetime instruments.

Accordion making is his primary art. Larry is among fifty hobbyists and professional crafters in South Louisiana who build fine durable accordions. His most popular is the "Bon Tee Cajun," which is popular at home as well as in Canada and Europe.

Mr. Miller works in his shop six days a week, and he attends at least twelve festivals a year to do demonstrations. He has been officially recognized as an outstanding Louisiana craftsman by the Louisiana Crafts Program, through the Louisiana Division of the Arts.

Updated October 24,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Mills,Shannon Jr.

Guitar and Mandolin Maker

Shannon Mills Jr. was born in Baton Rouge in 1948. He has made his living as a project engineer, but since 1984, he has also made a name for himself making and repairing stringed musical instruments like guitars and mandolins. He lives in Zachary, Louisiana, with his wife Rianne and their three children.

Mr. Mills says that his major influence was instrument maker Johnny Rushing. Mr. Mills makes his instruments in his workshop after work, and typically creates about four instruments a year. Mills makes instruments traditionally-by hand. He uses small woodworking tools, some of which he has handmade himself. Primarily a custom builder, Mills has worked to preserve the traditional styles of guitars, while using updated research and technology to achieve the tone desired by the contemporary ear. Materials include exotic and domestic woods, primarily spruces, walnut, rosewood, and mahogany. The wood is quarter sawed and air cured. He has also used native Louisiana cherry and walnut with excellent results. Walnut is Mills's favorite tone wood, as it produces a warm, woody tone with a subtle "punch."

Shannon Mills also plays the guitar and bluegrass music with his friends.

He has demonstrated instrument making at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Louisiana Folklife Festival, and the Louisiana Native Crafts Festival.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Montana, Allison "Tootie"

Mardi Gras Indian

Allison "Tootie" Montana, long-time Big Chief of the Yellow Pocahontas, has been a Mardi Gras Indian for close to fifty years. Born in New Orleans in 1922, he began working on Mardi Gras Indian suits at the age of ten. Describing his costume making, he says," Making Indian and sewing Indian suits is a time-honored tradition in the Montana family." His great uncle, Becate Batiste, is often named in histories of the tradition as the founders of one of the first recorded tribes in the city, the Creole Wild West. Tootie's father, Alfred Montana, also masked Indian for many years and was Big Chief of the Yellow Pocahontas. The tribe that Tootie leads now.

Tootie began to mask Indians in 1947 after seeing his father helping young men in the Eighth Ward. He quickly made himself a suit, and has been masking since. At present, the oldest active Big Chief, Tootie provides an invaluable perspective on the history and changes of masking Indian in New Orleans. In the old days he says, "Violence was frequently associated with the Mardi Gras Indians. After World War II Carnival began to change and the fighting stopped. Today, Mardi Gras Indians don't fight physically, they fight with their costumes, competing to see which can be the prettiest."

Tootie Montana says, "I stick to the tradition and mask Indian the way my daddy and them used to do it." He is undoubtedly one of the great masters of Mardi Gras Indian suit making. He is expert at making the suits associated with New Orleans' African-American neighborhood Carnival traditions as well as some of the lesser-known.

He creates costumes from his own ideas. He worked as a metal lather for many years. His job required him to build frames for plaster with metal and wire. He approaches his suit designs the same way, always making sure his costumes are straight and balanced. He changes his costume each year, using a variety of materials including cardboard, rhinestones, pearls, tiny mirrors, and sequins. Describing the differences between Uptown and Downtown costume styles, he explains that Uptown Indians generally use beaded designs and small rhinestones with lots of ribbon and plumes. Downtown Indians like Montana use more sequins, which his father called "fish scales." Tootie uses beads but prefers big stones and feathers instead of plumes.

Masking Indian remains a family tradition among the Montanas. Tootie's son Darryl was very young when he began masking. Now his grandson, Chance Stevenson, has started to mask. The women in the family also play an essential role with masking, they help with the sewing of the costumes.

"Big Chief" Montana has received widespread national and international recognition for his mastery of Mardi Gras Indian traditions. He is the recipient of the National Heritage Fellowship Award and a Louisiana Folk Arts Apprenticeship Grant. With the Yellow Pocahantas, he has also performed at many festivals like the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

The photograph included here is provided by permission of Michael P. Smith, author of Spirit World. Spirit World is a colorful and accurate portrayal of Afro-American spiritualism in New Orleans.

Montgomery, Gray

One Man Country Band

Mr. Gray Montgomery was born in 1927, in Jonesville, Louisiana. He is a real estate broker associate in Vidalia, Louisiana, where he lives with his family.

Gray Montgomery is a walking, talking, singing, one-man band. He performs in full cowboy regalia and has a talented cocker spaniel that has been known to sing along with him. He started playing the guitar when he was fourteen years old. "I took up the guitar," Montgomery explains, "when a kid who played real good, moved to our neighborhood, and the girls went crazy over him." The Vidalia native expanded his repertoire listening to other great artist of the times and became a veteran of Louisiana Delta roadhouses. His experiences are wide, though he's stayed at home in Concordia Parish over the years. He mentions Jerry Lee "Great Balls of Fire" Lewis with great nonchalance. Montgomery knew Lewis when the pianist was still learning to play the piano. "When Lewis first tried to join our band, he was real young. He wasn't a good enough piano man, and we told him, so he started learning." Lewis eventually got good enough, and so did Gray Montgomery. Lewis went on to achieve major stardom, but Montgomery's life took a quieter turn. He plays his music his own way. When Sam Phillips of Sun Records, who signed Lewis and Elvis Presley, wanted to change Montgomery's song "Right Now," Montgomery would not agree. "He wanted to dress it up and make it too slick," and when I didn't agree, the deal fell through," Montgomery explains.

In some way, Gray is a second, generation folk festival performer. "I met Brownie Ford down at the state festival in Eunice several years ago. He said, 'I like your music.' He said, 'I've been helping carry these festivals for fifteen years, but I'm about to wear out. Maybe you're the man to carry on, you know, keep the old songs alive.' You know that's why I became the one man band. Lots of my music buddies quit or died. People I played with got younger, the music got louder, and they didn't want to play the music I wanted to play."

Mr. Montgomery plays the blues, country tunes from the 1930s, rockabilly, rock and roll, and softer tunes. He has performed at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and folklife festivals throughout the state.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Mouton Pierre, Mary Martha

Open Hearth Cooker, Wax Flower and Wreath Maker, Quilter, Corn Shuck Bookmark Maker, and Rosary Maker

Mary Martha Mouton Pierre was born on September 4, 1942 and lives in St. Martinville, Louisiana. Her husband is Joseph Pierre, Jr., and she is the mother of six children.

For many years, Martha has stayed active in the community and various church-oriented groups. She currently serves as a tour guide for the historic city of St. Martinville. Martha speaks fluent Creole that she sometimes uses while giving tours covering the history of Acadia.

People are inspired by Martha's arts and crafts. She learned all her crafts from her grandmother, aunts, and mother. Her specialty is open-hearth cooking, which she enjoys most of all. She learned this technique by watching her grandmother cook. She also makes wax flowers, wreaths, quilts, rosaries, and corn shuck bookmarkers - crafts learned from watching her mother and aunts.

Martha is fortunate to have traditional cookware - iron pots. The pots have been in her family for more than 150 years. While working in restaurants cooking traditional recipes, Martha decided she would try to perfect her open-hearth cooking. Her art is fascinating because open-hearth cooking is rarely done today.

Mrs. Pierre has presented her cultural crafts at the Southern Development Foundation Zydeco Festival, Plaisance Louisiana Heritage Stage, Mary-Mount Art and Craft Show, Festival International, Lafayette, Louisiana, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and many more.

Mouton, Gregory W.

Accordion Maker

Mr. Greg Mouton was born in Crowley, in 1966. His main occupation is building accordions. He learned to build accordions from his uncle, Lawrence "Shine" Mouton, one of Louisiana's best known accordion makers.

Greg began building accordions in late 1990. At that time, his uncle's health was failing and Lawrence Mouton could not stand at the saw very long to work. Greg started building the accordions and his uncle would help. Greg says, "He helps me in some areas and I help him with some things."

Mr. Mouton has a shop, Mouton Accordions, where each individual accordion is hand crafted very little work is done with the saw. Greg and Mr. Mouton use hand tools, various hardwoods, metal, leather, skins, and waxes to construct the accordions.

Greg also repairs fiddles and guitars, and says, "It is mostly cosmetic, using the techniques I use in making accordions."

Mr. Mouton has presented his crafts at the Louisiana Folklife Festival in Monroe, Louisiana, the New Orleans Jazz Festival, and various schools and festivals across the southern part of the state of Louisiana.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Muller, Al, J.

Wood Carver and Decoy Maker

Mr. Al Muller is a resident of the community of Bucktown, near Metairie, Louisiana. He was born in 1920, and is retired.

Al's art form is woodcarving making duck decoys and various other waterfowl decoys. He learned how to work with wood as a young man living in New Orleans. Al works alone at home each day carving decoys, using woodworking tools and various types of wood.

Mr. Muller and his decoys have become very popular over the years. His most recent public performance or appearance was at the Jazz Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana. Al has exhibited at many festivals: Smithsonian Institution; Festival of American Folk Life, Washington, D.C.; Louisiana World Expo in New Orleans, Louisiana for seventy days; Festival L'Acadien in Lafayette, Louisiana; and many more. In the past, he has been recognized in the media: The Today Show, The Great Experience, New Orleans World's Fair, commemorative cassette, and a Louisiana Folk Life Documentary with Nick Spitzer and Joel Gardner. Al has also appeared in main publications like By Southern Hands, Wetland Heritage, Times Picayune and the Daily Review.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Munson, Malcom

Boat Maker

Malcolm Munson resides in Napoleonville, Louisiana. He is a self-employed carpenter who enjoys making boats in his spare time. Malcolm first learned his skill from Raymond Sedatol in an apprenticeship in 1994 and 1995. Malcolm uses only the best cypress lumber to make his creations.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Nix, Sammy

Sammy Nix

Mr. Sammy Nix began playing the drums in 1967. His passion for the drums developed through listening to records that his mother would play and by watching the Beatles perform on television. Sammy received his first drum set from his mother on the condition that he take drum lessons. These drum lessons led to Mr. Nix participating in his high school marching band during his sophomore and junior years. Soon after his passion for music continued from high school to college where Mr. Nix minored in music. He is happiest when playing a variety of music, including country; swamp pop, classic rock, hard bop jazz, and rhythm and blues. Mr. Nix's strong passion in music has led to his induction into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. His advice to all upcoming musicians is, "First you have to possess some natural talent. From there you can be as good as you want, just realize it takes hours of hard work to get there."

Norton, W.D.

W.D. Norton

White Oak Basket Making

W. D. Norton was born in Falkner, Mississippi on October 2, 1927 and moved to Hattiesburg in 1934. Later, he attended school in Oak Grove, Mississippi, and Mississippi Southern. For 37 years, Mr. Norton worked mainly as a train dispatcher at GM&O Railroad in Bogalusa, Louisiana. In 1985, he retired and devoted much of his time to hobbies such as growing roses, gardening, chair caning, and basket weaving. This basket weaving  emerged after Mr. Norton observed basket makers at Mountain View, Arkansas. He began making baskets at his Bogalusa home and continues to craft baskets at his present home in Brandon, Mississippi today.

Mr. Norton began to work with reed baskets but eventually made the switch to white oak. To begin the process of making one of his baskets, he hand splits wood because it is stronger. Mr. Norton does not use purchased oak strips but rather locates and cuts the trees himself to ensure a quality product. The basket is started by splitting an oak log in half with a butcher knife and mallet, and then eventually it is split into eighths. Then, the weavers are split with a drawknife to get the desired width. Most split baskets are made free form with the basket maker's hands and eyes controlling the individual variations which distinguish his baskets from every other basket maker. The tools used in Mr. Norton's white oak basket-making process include a shave horse, butcher knife, draw knife, scissors, leather (used for leg protection), and hatchet.

Mr. W.D. Norton is a member of the Mississippi Craftsmen's Guild, and has demonstrated his skills at festivals in both Louisiana and Mississippi.

Ortego, Adner

Fiddle Maker

Adner Ortego was born in Washington, Louisiana in 1919 and grew up speaking French. A retired farmer, he remembers Cajun life on the prairies as it was earlier this century. He tells stories of bals de maisons (house dances) where the enthusiastic dancing threatened the houses' foundations.

Musical instrument making in south Louisiana came about primarily because store bought instruments were unavailable. Many of Acadian settlers were farmers, like Mr. Ortego. Rather than do without music, they learned to make their own instruments which depended on their own ingenuity. The main instrument in early Cajun music was the violin. Louisiana fiddle makers often substituted local woods for traditional woods like spruce and ebony. Mr. Ortego has been making fiddles and playing since he was a boy of fourteen. "I learned the hard way: self-taught. I wanted to play violin, but during the Depression, you couldn't buy one, so I made one. I heard my Dad play on someone else's fiddle."

Since 1976, he has been making fiddles as a hobby. He uses Louisiana woods that he often salvages: magnolia, black gum, cherry, and walnut. These woods give his fiddles a variety of colors, grains, and sounds. He can demonstrate the differences in sound that these woods produce by playing the various fiddles he has made. He says, "I just love to learn what makes them play such beautiful music; I love to learn what mother-nature provided for our use." He also makes Cajun triangles.

Since 1985, one of his fiddles has been on display as part of the Creole State Exhibit in the State Capitol building in Baton Rouge. His work has also been included in the 1982 craft exhibit at the Lafayette Natural History Museum titled Fine/Function. Mr. Ortego is a member of the Louisiana Crafts program. He has demonstrated his skills as an instrument maker, fiddler, and storyteller for many years. He has participated at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Louisiana Native Crafts Festival, the Zigler Museum in Jennings, the Opelousas Farmer's Market, the Louisiana Folklife Festival, Plantation Days at Magnolia Mound, and Family Days in St. Martinville. Although he cannot travel as easily as he once could, he continues to perform for school programs in Lafayette Parish and at private parties with a band. He also enjoys teaching young Cajun musicians like Mitchell Reed about Cajun fiddling and fiddle making.

Owen, Blake

Wooden Toy Maker

Mr. Blake Owen was from Alexandria, Louisiana. He was born in 1923, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Mr. Owen was Alexandria's celebrated toy maker, and owned the Blake's Sawdust Shop where he crafts many fine toys.

A visit to Mr. Owen's workshop was like a visit to Santa's shop at the North Pole. Mr. Owen, who fashioned traditional wooden toys and whirligigs (decorative weather vanes) from unpainted wood and simple materials such as wire, string, and rubber bands, got into toy making as a hobby. Mr. Owen began making simple toys he played with as a young boy such as hooey sticks. This was a notched stick with a propeller at one end which, when stroked, causes the propeller to turn. He also made rubber band and clothespin switchblade knives, jumping jacks, spool tractors, tops, and more. Almost all of the toys that Owen constructed were  patterned on colonial American toys and upon some that were made in Europe long before.

The popularity of Owen's wooden toys with children of all ages made him and his wife frequent festival participants and demonstrators. Owen felt  that his toys were so appealing because they are folk toys that the adults, who particularly like the tops and the rolling ducks, remember from their childhood. Children are fascinated by their simplicity and by their ability to do something or to fool someone. A strong motivator for Owen to pursue his hobby was the desire to see people enjoying themselves. For this reason, all of his toys were placed on tables at kid-level, where they can be touched, picked up, and played with by curious kids. Many of Blake Owen toys are puzzle toys, which he would not sell without an explanation. The "idiot stick" (fishhook game), for example, challenges the player to hook a rubber band with a notched dowel. The "T" puzzle is another that keeps the player re-positioning four small pieces of wood in endless variations until they are finally correctly placed to form the letter T.

Mr. Owen, who made with his toys for the past twenty years, was a member of the Red River Arts and Crafts Guild. He demonstrated and sold his toys at a host of festivals throughout the southern United States. He had the distinction of being asked to show and demonstrate his creations at the New Orleans World's Fair. Mr. Owen was included in the Alexandria Museum of Art's publication, "Doing It Right and Passing It On," as a master craftsman and traditional folk toy maker. Folklife Guide, the official guide to folk art and folk artists in Louisiana, also cited Blake Owen as one of Louisiana's top traditional toy makers. He was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center, Hall of Master Folk Artists in July 2003. Mr. Owen died March 3, 2011.

Owens, Overton "Dr. Drip Drop"

Guitarist and Blues Singer
(1924-1998)

Overton Owens started playing music in 1949 with his music teacher Professor Alcee Vaughn at Natchitoches Training School, although he began singing at eight years old.  His musical influences were Clifford Blake, Alcee Vaughn, Willie Dixon, Chuck Ellis, Lowell Fulton, and Bobby "Blue" Bland.  In a 1993 interview, Owens was quoted as saying, "The Blues is just a feeling in a person.  It's usually about a woman, or hardships that everybody has.  And you express it through your music."

After he completed school, Owens formed a band known as the Natchitoches Serenaders.  He was also involved as a vocalist and guitarist in Dr. Drip-Drop and the Mustangs and the Roque's Blues Band.  The Natchitoches Serenaders played all around North Louisiana in the 1950s and 1960s.  They were regular performers at most Northwestern State University and Grambling University dances and at clubs from Shreveport and Monroe to Alexandria.  Overton Owens got the name "Dr. Drip Drop" from the sweat that would drip from him during his blues performances.  He usually only sang and played the guitar, but he could play the drums, trumpet, Jew's harp and French harp.

Owens helped many young musicians get started in the profession by including them in his band.  B.B. Majors, O.C. Shields, Gainey "Pop" Hymes, James "Framework" Lee, and Hardrick Rivers are some of the men that Owens helped influence.

In 1997, Overton Owens' musical contribution to Louisiana was recognized, as he was inducted into the Hall of Master Folk Artists by the Louisiana Folklife Center, received the Louisiana Music Heritage Association Award, and was honored by the City of Natchitoches as the "Natchitoches Blues Man."  Owens' recordings collected by the Folklife Center include songs such as "Next Time You See Me," "Christmastime," and "Live at Music on Main Street," which sadly turned out to be his last performance.  Overton Owens died on November 20, 1998.  As Owens said, "You see, the Blues tells a story.  If you ever had trouble with you woman or somebody like that, you listen to the lyrics of these Blues and that will turn you on."

Researched and rewritten by Samantha Sullivan.

Parfait, Roy

Wood Carver

Roy Parfait is a woodcarver and member of the Houma Indian tribe. He was born and raised in Dulac, Louisiana along Grand Caillou Bayou, in Terrebonne Parish. At about 5,000 members, the Houmas are the largest group of Indians in Louisiana. Many Houma Indians have maintained traditional lifestyles of fishing, trapping, and hunting. Indian and French traditions are especially strong in the Dulac area, where many older people still speak French. Houma craftspeople today include boat builders, palmetto weavers, moss dolls makers, carvers, and blowgun makers.

Roy grew up around the tradition of carving wood. His grandfather was a carver anf began carving in 1976, making small wooden animals and miniature pirogues. He found that he was especially interested in carving animals, and he is well known today for his long-necked geese, ducks, beavers, rabbits, birds, fish, turtles, panthers, pelicans, and frogs. He has also begun making raccoons and owls, although he says that getting the owls' beaks right is a challenge. Mr. Parfait tries to use local woods like cypress, willow, and tupelo gum for his carvings as often as possible. The finished products are especially beautiful when he uses the wood he calls "black cypress," which has been submerged in water and mud and has taken on a darker color. He also uses other woods like mahogany, walnut, cherry, teak, black walnut, and butternut, when he can get them.

Each animal figure is whittled with a penknife, then sanded by hand until it is smooth. He suggests that finishing the piece may be the most important step in the process. He uses a clear floor sealer, dipping small pieces directly in the can of sealer. For larger pieces, like long-necked geese, he applies the sealer with a brush. After letting the piece dry for a day, he seals it again. The result is a soft gloss that lets the natural beauty of the wood grain show through.

Fluent in English and French, Roy Parfait often serves as a spokesperson for his tribe's culture and history, a contact for Houma Indian craftspeople, and an interpreter for those who speak little English. From 1979 to 1986, he served as manager of the Houma Crafts Co-op, and until 1986 he was also the Director of the Dulac Community Center. Today, he devotes himself to his craft full-time. The small wooden animals are his best sellers at the many festivals and fairs he attends, but he says that he enjoys trying larger pieces occasionally. He has twice demonstrated wood carving at the Smithsonian's Festival of American Folklife, the Natchitoches NSU Folk Festival, Silver Dollar City, the Native Crafts Festival in Lafayette, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans, and many other festivals throughout Louisiana and the South. He has also been invited to France twice to demonstrate and sell his work.He was inducted into the LFC Hall of Master Folk Artist.

Parish, Jo Ann "Sis"

Quilter and Bonnet Maker

Jo Ann "Sis" Parish was a bonnet-maker from Robeline, Louisiana where she lived with her husband, Loudis. She first began making bonnets at an early age with the aid of her mother and grandmother. Often "Sis" produced bonnets at her home and at the Los Adaes Foundation, where she was a member and the contact person for the foundation. She demonstrated her skill at folk festivals all over Louisiana and won an award at the Creole State Exhibit. Mrs. Parish died December 3, 2010.

Perez, Alfred

Miniature Boat Carver

Most of Alfred Perez's life was spent along the waterways of southeastern Louisiana, and the miniature fishing boats that he crafted reflect his traditional Isleño upbringing. The Isleño arrived in Louisiana in the late eighteenth century, when Spain established a community of colonists from the Canary Islands in St. Bernard Parish. Most Isleños have continued to live close to the land, hunting for alligators, ducks, shrimping, crabbing, trapping muskrat, and gathering Spanish moss. Over many generations, they have maintained their distinctive form of the Spanish language and culture.

Alfred Perez was born in 1921 in a Spanish-speaking community, which is present day Delacroix Island, in St. Bernard Parish. Mr. Perez traced his Isleños heritage back many generations on both sides of his family. His paternal great-grandfather came to Louisiana from the Canary Islands, and his mother's family has been in Louisiana since the eighteenth century.

His father, Casimire Perez, made his living fishing and trapping. He also composed and performed the traditional story-songs called dècimas. Each November through February the family moved to a trapping camp to trap muskrats. Although natural resources were plentiful, making a living was often difficult during the Depression years. Mr. Perez remembered selling muskrats for only 17 cents each and shrimp for as little as $2.75 a barrel. Families had little money for luxuries and the children had to be creative and make their own toys. Alfred Perez began making small wooden boats as a boy, as well as toy trucks and wagons, fashioning their wheels from bottle caps or sawed-off broomsticks.

He was dedicated to preserving his language, which resembles the Castillian Spanish spoken in the eighteenth century. Like many Isleños of his generation, Mr. Perez knew no English when he started school and he recalled being punished by teachers for speaking his native language. He considered Spanish his first language, but many younger Isleños have grown up speaking only English.

Mr. Perez, who left Delacroix Island when he entered the military service during World War II, retired and lives in Poydras with his wife Daisy. Over the years, he occasionally made miniature boats like those he created as a boy as gifts for his grandchildren. In 1984, he began building the carefully crafted and detailed replicas he was now known for building. He recreates the graceful wooden boats he grew up with: oyster luggers, Biloxi double-rigged shrimp boats, and Louisiana luggers, which are also called canots. He used primarily balsa wood and tupelo, and his cabins are made of plywood paneling. The largest of his models measures 18 inches in length.

Proud of his Isleños heritage, Alfred Perez traveled extensively throughout Louisiana and the United States to educate others about his culture. He participated in festivals throughout Louisiana demonstrating his model boat making and telling stories. He frequently took part in school programs in St. Bernard and Orleans Parishes. He passed away October 5, 2012.

Perez, Irvan

Dècima Singer and Wood Carver

Wildfowl carver and dècima singer Irvan Perez was considered Louisiana's foremost representative of traditional Isleño culture. The Isleños are descendants of Canary Islanders who arrived in Louisiana by way of Cuba in the late eighteenth century and settled in five communities in St. Bernard Parish. They have maintained much of their distinctive Hispanic language and culture over many generations. Most Isleños have kept the traditional occupations as small farmers, fishermen, and trappers. Like his father, Irvan worked hard fishing and trapping much of his life. Mr. Perez lived in Poydras with his wife Louise.

Mr. Perez created realistically textured wildfowl and songbirds from cypress roots. He painted his work with oil pigments that he mixed himself. This allowed him to get closer to the birds' natural colors. It took him about twelve hours to paint each piece and much longer to carve them. "If you can make two a month, you're doing good," he said.

Irvan was perhaps the only singer still performing the traditional Isleños ballads known as dècimas. These songs, characterized by ten-line stanzas, are sung acapella and are considered to be the oldest Spanish language form. They were once a regular part of social gatherings on Delacroix Island. On Saturday nights, families gathered at one of the island's four dance halls, and men took turns singing the dècimas after the band stopped playing. Many were composed on the spot as humorous commentary on local history and people, and others were handed down from generation to generation.

Mr. Perez, who started singing dècimas in his early teens, learned the songs and singing style from his father, Serafino Perez, and other older men in the community. He had a large repertoire of dècimas, which ranged from the fifteenth-century "Fernando", which is about a nobleman returning from the Crusades, to more recent and typical songs about fishing in the month of February in St. Bernard. Mr. Perez says, "The dècima reinforce pride in the old ways, a love of tradition, and hope for the future." He has recorded an album called Spanish Dècimas from St. Bernard Parish.

He was also a skilled storyteller, whether he talked about Isleños history, folk cures, or his boyhood on Delacroix Island. Mr. Perez had been widely recognized for his role in preserving and promoting his culture. He received a prestigious National Heritage Fellowship and was inducted into the Louisiana Hall of Master Folk Artists. He had performed his dècimas at Carnegie Hall and has participated as a singer and master craftsman in the Smithsonian's Festival of American Folklife, the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival, the Louisiana Folklife Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and many other events. He was also a source for many scholars studying the Isleño language and culture. Mr. Perez died January 8, 2008.

Perez, Louise

Isleño And Italian Foodways

Louise Perez was known throughout Louisiana and beyond as a master of both traditional Italian American and Isleño cuisine. Growing up in an Italian American family in Poydras, in St. Bernard Parish, she learned to cook from her mother and grandmother. Italian families in the community often raised their own calves, pigs, and chickens, but meat was not always a part of everyday meals. Her family usually ate "a chicken, maybe, on a Sunday" and pork in the winter after killing a hog, but otherwise depended largely on vegetable dishes. Her father was a truck farmer. Mrs. Perez says, "We lived on vegetables, ourselves," which were picked fresh from their fields. Family meals typically included dishes like stuffed artichokes, smothered turnips, corn soup, and potato soup.

At the age of seventeen, she married Irvan Perez, an Isleño from Delacroix Island. Through her husband's family, she learned about Isleño culture, language, and foodways. Irvan's mother and grandmother taught her how to cook traditional Isleño dishes like wild ducks, caldo, rice custard, crab casserole with squash, and jambalaya.

Mrs. Perez was especially well-known for her caldo, a thick, nourishing soup traditional to the Isleños. The soup begins with white beans, pickled pork, and vegetables like corn, red potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, and sometimes squash are added later in the cooking process. She believed that "cooking is like an art," and so felt free to sometimes improvise even on traditional recipes. She noted that she used more vegetables in her caldo than did her in-laws. Most Isleño women on Delacroix Island did not have gardens and ate fewer vegetables than she was accustomed to. The caldo takes about two hours to prepare. Before it is served, the whole vegetables are taken out of the broth and arranged on a platter, to be added to the soup as it is eaten.

Louise and Irvan Perez lived on Delacroix Island for twenty years until the community was virtually demolished by Hurricane Betsy. They lived in Poydras, only a block or two from her girlhood home. Mrs. Perez cooked her specialties not only for her own family but also for festival-goers throughout Louisiana. With her husband, a renowned dècima singer and carver, she traveled widely to promote the Isleño culture and cuisine. She demonstrated Isleño and Italian cooking at the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans, the Smithsonian's Festival of American Folklife, the Natchitoches/ NSU Folk Festival, and the Louisiana Folklife Festival, among others. Mrs. Perez died June 7, 2005.

Perkins, Brenda

Wool Felting and Weaving

Brenda Perkins is a traditional artist.  She grew up watching her mother sew and do needlework.  Her mother could sew, tat, crochet, and quilt.  Brenda and her husband, Dempsy, grew up attending school and church activities together. They shared a love for traditional activities including raising sheep, weaving, and felting.

 Ms. Perkins became interested in learning the craft of traditional spinning and weaving in the 1980's when the price of wool declined, and the flock of sheep were no longer financially practical.  The family went on a search to turn their problem into profit.  They first began offering wool to hand spinners, which soon motivated Brenda to become trained in spinning and weaving.  Since there were no older people in the area that still knew how to do these crafts, she went to her local library in search of books and videos on spinning and weaving.  Brenda taught herself to clean, card, spin and weave wool and later honed her skills with the assistance of a friend.  Because Brenda had grown up watching her mother card cotton for quilts, she was well prepared for learning to card wool.

Brenda enjoys sharing the art of spinning and weaving with others at festivals and teaching younger generations about traditional ways of life when spinning, weaving, and felting were the only means of making clothing and household linens.  She spins wool and cotton on a wheel or drop spindle, felts hats and slippers, and makes soaps from lye, animal and vegetable fats, and homegrown herbs.  She has presented her skills at schools, senior citizen luncheons, the Natchitoches- NSU Folk Festival, the Louisiana Folklife Festival in Monroe, Festival Acadians in Lafayette, and many other festivals and events around the state.  Brenda holds a firm belief in continuing these old methods of folk culture.  Brenda says, proudly, "We are trying to preserve some of our history for the younger generation."  Because of her true talent with this craft and her hard work to preserve it, Ms. Perkins was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in July 2003.

Researched and rewritten by Amber Hendricks and Samantha Sullivan.

Perkins, Curry

Fiddler

Curry Perkins is an inductee into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 2008. From the time he was eight years old, Perkins begged for a fiddle so he could learn to play. This love of music must have come from his paternal great grandfather who was also a fiddle player.

Perkins received his fiddle when he was eleven years old and has been playing ever since. He plays a variety of music including bluegrass, country, swing, Celtic, Appalachian, gospel, Cajun, and even some blues. He has three times won the acclaim of the Louisiana State Fiddle Champion. He has taught fiddle lessons and presented workshops on fiddle music. Perkins' love of music is an encouragement for his children also. His daughter plays the dulcimer.

Perkins, Dempsey Clyde

Woodworker and Blacksmith (1941-2008)

Dempsey Perkins was born in 1941 and was a native of Reeves, Louisiana. Mr. Perkins, a fifth generation sheep farmer, lived on the same property as his grandfather. When not occupied with raising sheep, Mr. Perkins would perform traditional crafts such as white oak basket making, blacksmith tools, and making syrup. He said that he worked with wood since he was a teenager. He learned these skills from his grandfather and continued using them everyday while living on the farm.

Mr. Perkins worked with his wife Brenda on white oak baskets and did most of his work on the weekends. He used 18th- and 19th- century methods when working on his crafts. Dempsey used tupelo gum and white oak to create his baskets, carve wooden bowls, wooden pitchforks, cutting boards, furniture, beds, hay rakes, and much more. He handcrafted many of his own tools in his blacksmith shop.

He cut timber from his own farm and processed the wood for the products at his one-man sawmill, which he designed himself. The family had its own family syrup mill. The day after Thanksgiving, they would grind homegrown sugar cane and cook the juice to make syrup.

Dempsey worked everyday around the farm and sometimes he demonstrated at local festivals. He demonstrated at the Leesville Folk Festival in Leesville, Louisiana and at the Natchitoches/NSU Folk Festival many times. He was inducted into the Louisiana Folk Life of Master Folk Artist in 2002.  Mr. Perkins died December 10, 2008.

Updated October 24, 2017 by Natchitoches -NSU Folklife Center Staff

Petijean, Dave

Storyteller and Humorist

Dave Petitjean is a resident of Crowley, Louisiana, and he has two occupations - sales and entertaining. He was born in 1928 in Rayne, Louisiana. Mr. Petitjean has spent most all of his life growing up and living in South Louisiana and speaks French, "with a Cajun dialect."

Living in South Louisiana helped Mr. Petitjean acquire his talent for telling stories. He tells humor stories that he learned "by trial and error" and from listening to others. He was not a young man when he began telling stories for entertainment. Now, he performs alone, twice a month in various places across the country. His only tools of the trade are his voice and his humor stories.

Mr. Petitjean's public performances include entertaining for all types of functions. He is a regular feature at the weekly Rendez-vous des Cajuns radio program in the Liberty Theater in Eunice, Louisiana. His awards and honors include being included in Swapping Stories, Folktales from Louisiana, and being a co-author in Cajun Humor.

Phillips, Jack

White Oak Basket Maker

Jack Phillips, one of the few remaining basket weavers in northern Louisiana, was born February 22, 1922, and was reared in the black hills of Alabama.  He grew up watching the Cherokee make baskets.  Phillips is one-eighth Cherokee himself, but he was reared in the Anglo-Saxon culture.  During the Great Depression, Phillips learned very quickly that poverty is, in many ways, a state of mind.  As he said, "How can you be poor when you have everything you want?"

Jack spent his life as a trader and leather worker traveling throughout the South and Southeast.  Jack served in the United States Air Force for twelve years.  He became disabled and took up basket making.  Mr. Phillips made some of the finest white oak baskets in the South.  He was recognized throughout the South for his white oak baskets and old-time toys.

            Mr. Phillips' first baskets were made by whittling the strips, but he talked an older man into teaching him to split strips for the baskets.  Jack credited Fred Henderson for helping him perfect his craft.  Mr. Phillips demonstrated his craft and told his stories at folk festivals.  He was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 1982.

Pierre, Rene J.

Papier Mache Mardi Gras Float Model Maker

Rene' Pierre is a Creole/African-American. He was born in New Orleans in 1966 where he currently lives. He is a scenic artist, curator, and gallery director with a B.F.A. in Fine Arts. Rene' has been creating miniature paper mache Mardi Gras floats since 1980. He is self-taught and studied the form since he was in junior high school when he was assigned to create a shoe-box float.

Rene' starts the creative process on paper. He says, "I like to try to match the design on paper as closely as possible." He then uses cardboard, cotton, and latex to create the base. Pierre then adds the paper mache heads to finish.

Rene' has demonstrated and sold his crafts at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Festival Acadian, and the Elks-Orleanians Truck Parade in 1996 through 2000. He creates his miniature floats for McKinnley Contrell and Sons, Mardi Gras Productions, Creative Events, and Mardi Gras World. Pierre' is also represented in the Creole State Exhibit and has been the captain of several Mardi Gras Krewes.

Pierrottie, Russell "Dale"

Bousillage

Dale Pierrottie lives in Carencro, Louisiana. Mr. Pierrottie learned about his Cajun heritage from his maternal grandparents who lived in Basile, Louisiana. He grew up in Lake Charles, but spent his summers with his grandparents. During that time, he listened to his grandfather, Leaus Darbonne, tell stories about Acadian wall building.

Mr. Pierrottie restores and sculpts houses. He has been restoring bousillage houses and working with bousillage sculptures for more than eight years. Mr. Pierrottie has an actual section of wall he employs when conducting demonstrations. He uses clay, cured moss, and water to show how to mix bousillage. Dale also explains how to make a cordage called "tarabi" from cured moss, which he uses when completing sculptures.

Mr. Pierrottie started working with bousillage when he built a chimney and other set props for the movie Belizaire the Cajun in 1985. Dale has taken the medium a step further by using various materials to make sculptures. Some of the materials he uses include moss, hanging bones, string, feathers, and quartz. The finished product is referred to as "gris-gris." "Gris-gris" are talismans or charms in various Louisiana cultures.

Bousillage, as a building material, will probably never be used for major construction projects. However, Dale says "Bousillage contracting is picking up. I'm doing one about every two years." Mr. Perriotte has worked on a number of projects in the south. He worked on the Magnolia Mound Plantation, the 200 year-old Armand Broussard House at Vermilionville in Lafayette, and an 1840-era house for an attorney in Meaux.

Dale Pierrottie performs demonstrations when asked, even at schools. He has attended the Monroe Folk Festival, Festival Acadians, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Houston Folk Festival, Magnolia Mound Fall Festival, and Evangeline Longfellow State Park.

Polite, Walter "Creole"

Zydeco Musician

Mr. Walter Polite was born in 1910, in St. Martinville, Louisiana. He received his first accordion when he was about eleven years old. "My cousin paid about ten to twelve dollars for one of those Cajun diatonic accordions. He couldn't play it so he gave it to me. Two weeks later I played a house dance and just kept going from there."

Walter learned to play by going to dances and listening to the great Creole accordionists of the time. He listened to Marcel Dugas, Clifton Chenier, Claude Faulk, and Boule and Bidon. His greatest influence was Clifton Chenier, a relative by marriage. Chenier took a special interest in Polite and often played his new songs to him. "Clifton was the best. Zydeco music ain't nothing since Clifton died," Walter remarked. In 1926, he played primarily for house dances for both blacks and whites. His band was simple, consisting of the accordion, washboard, and the triangle. They played for election events with "French music" or "French La-La."

For many years, Walter played music at night and on weekends. He worked days at Meyer's Furniture Store in New Iberia. Although Mr. Polite and his band stopped playing shortly after Clifton Chenier's death, his music is still a part of many contemporary Zydeco bands' repertoires. John Wilson, leader of John Wilson and the House Rockers, is considered Walter Polite's protégé, and his band plays many of the tunes popularized by Walter Polite and the Red Hot Swinging Dukes.

Mr. Polite had a wealth of information about many old traditions, including the rural Creole Mardi Gras and the Lenten season rules pertaining to music and dance. Mr. Walter "Creole" Polite died May 9, 1997.

Prima, Luclille

St. Patrick's Day and St. Joseph's Day "Kissing Canes"

St. Patrick's Day is celebrated all over the United States, but nowhere as uniquely as it is in New Orleans. The New Orleans St. Patrick's Day parade blends Mardi Gras and Irish American traditions. The morning usually begins with attendance at a Roman Catholic mass. Later, groups of tuxedo-clad Irishmen strut and dance their way through the streets of the Irish Channel to the music of a brass band. Floats follow the Irishmen, and green doubloons, beads, and the ingredients for Irish stew are tossed to spectators. Each member of the marching clubs carry a flower cane, decorated with clusters of green and white (and sometimes orange) paper flowers. Every flower on the cane is given to women in exchange for a kiss. These flowers are treasured long afterwards as part of the traditional celebration.

Two days later, on March 19, the city celebrates St. Joseph's Day in much the same manner. Members of Italian American marching clubs parade through the French Quarter wearing tuxedos and carrying flower canes in the colors of the Italian flag (red, green, and white). They exchange flowers for kisses from women along their route.

Since 1968, Lucille Prima has made the colorful flower canes (or kissing canes, as she sometimes calls them) carried by several Italian American and Irish American clubs. A native of New Orleans, she is of French, German, and Italian heritage. She began practicing Italian traditions when she wed Frank Prima, Jr. She began making the canes upon request of her sons. After observing the kissing canes on parade routes, she figured out how to make the paper flowers. She says she has made great improvements on the canes over the last 25 years. Mrs. Prima works in her home to make the paper flowers year round.

Each cane is the result of more than six hours of handwork. Each of its 150 tissue-paper carnations is made from three strips of paper, which is bunched and squeezed together in the middle, then wrapped in the middle with wire to form a stem. To form the petals, she separates the paper and uses an upward tug. The flowers are arranged in a circle and fastened to a foam strip. The strip is attached to a bamboo walking cane. The result is a "barbershop" spiral of color. The colors of the paper flowers match the costumes of the marching clubs and the flags of Ireland or Italy. Decorations of net, ribbon, and small trinkets are attached to give the cane an even more decorative look.

Although the canes are dismantled quickly during the parade, Mrs. Prima says, "Making them is truly a labor of love." Mrs. Prima's canes are in demand among members of the Italian American Marching Club, the St. Patrick's Day Irish Channel Marching Club, and Mardi Gras marching clubs who know her as "The Flower Lady."

One of her kissing canes is on exhibit in the Creole State Exhibit in the State Capital Building in Baton Rouge. Mrs. Prima has demonstrated her craft at the Louisiana Folklife Festival and the New Orleans Jazz Festival.

Quinilty, Charlene

Spinning and Weaving

My craft of spinning and weaving first grew out of getting back to basics and gardening. In my garden I grow brown, green and white cotton for spinning and weaving. I learned to spin and weave in 1989. I work with cotton, wool and other fibers. I have demonstrated at local festivals and schools and have demonstrated at the Jean Lafitte Cultural Center in Eunice Louisiana and continue to perfect my craft by attending workshops, learning from other weavers and books. Since 1989 I have been a member of Acadiana Weavers and Spinners and also a member of Spinners and Weavers of Imperial Calcasieu. I am a Certified Louisiana Artist. I feel strongly about preserving the tradition of spinning and weaving and enjoy teaching my craft to others.

Objective: To continue the weaving traditions of my family and cultural heritage

Education: Self-taught fiber artist with the help of friends and workshops, High School Graduate with some college

Employment : Former legal secretary and presently part-time Park Ranger for the National Park

Workshops Attended:

Basic Weaving – 1990, Navajo Weaving – 1994, Thick –n- Thin, DNA Dyeing-2005, Huck-Lace, Felting, Acadian Weaving with Norm Kennedy and others

Festivals Attended:

NSU Folk life, Festival Acadian, Eunice Folk life, Kent House Plantation and more

Places my work can be seen:

Ogden Museum of Southern Art gift shop – New Orleans, Jean Lafitte National Park and Preserve – Lafayette, New Orleans, Eunice and Thibodeau, San Souci,- Lafayette, and on line.

Other Places my work was shown :

Zeigler Museum, Lake Charles Imperial Calcasieu Museum

Awards Won:

Heritage Competition in Eunice 1994 – 1st place, Heartland of America in Mo. – 1st place and Best in Show 2007

Teaching:

Have taught weaving classes at Mt. View Folk Center in Ark. and at the Cajun Lagniappe Fiber Forums at Camp Pearl, La and give private lessons

Rambin, Clifton

Decorative Gourd Maker, Woodworker, and Walking Stick Carver

Clifton Rambin was born on July 31, 1942., and he lives with his wife Margie in Pelican, Louisiana, where he first began learning his craft. Clifton is completely self-taught in creating decorated gourds, woodwork, and walking sticks. He first became interested in gourd decorating in 1990 when his wife and her friend wanted to paint gourds. He started to raise gourds and there were so many laying around that he decided to start decorating them himself. Clifton raises gourds of many different shapes, burns designs on them, and polishes them with floor wax.

Not only does Rambin grow and decorate gourds, he also creates walking sticks and children's whistles. He has been whittling and carving since he was a young child. Clifton learned how to make whistles from elder folks in his hometown. He taught himself how to create walking sticks, but first received the inspiration from seeing David Allen and his sticks at a festival. To create his lovely walking sticks he uses ash, pecan, and bois d'arc wood.

Each of Clifton's creations take an exceptional amount of patience and time, that is why he is an important Louisiana folk artist. Clifton sells his works of art at festivals throughout Louisiana. His work is displayed in the Creole State Exhibit, at the Louisiana Folklife Center, Ben Nighthouse Campbell's Collection, and the Bayou State Collection.

Riley, Steve

Steve Riley

Steve Riley, of Mamou, Louisiana, is a widely acknowledged master of the Cajun accordion and its singularly powerful sound. His playing is a standard by which timing, phrasing, and ingenuity are measured on the royal instrument of South Louisiana. His band, Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, are four time Grammy Award finalists and four time winners of the Cajun Music French Association Band of the Year. The band has performed throughout the world from Cajun dancehalls to the XXI Olympic winter Games in Vancouver, the American Folklife Festival, and the Newport Folk Festival, as well as on shows such as Prairie Home Companion and NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series. Mr. Riley was awarded a Grammy for Best Regional Roots Music Album for "Steve Riley with The Band Courtbouillon," and in 2011 was named Best Accordionist by OffBeat Magazine

Rivers, Hardrick

Saxophone

Hardrick Rivers began playing music early in his life.  At age 13, Hardrick began to study under and play with one of the masters of Louisiana music, Overton Owens—sometimes called Dr. Drip Drop.  Hardrick quickly joined Overton Owens and the Mustangs, which was formed during the late 1960s. Hardrick worked hard in those early years to find his unique sound on the saxophone, and he clearly succeeded.

Eventually, he formed his own group, the Lighthouse Crew which he left in 1992.  In 1994, he formed a new group, Rivers Revue Band.  In 1996, a group of musicians decided to have a monthly jam session at Roque's Grocery in Natchitoches; Overton Owens joined many of these sessions.  From these jam sessions, grew the current Roque's Blues Band.  Presently, Hardrick plays with both Roque's Blues Band and Rivers Revue Band.

Hardrick Rivers was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 2001.

Robertson, Geraldine

Corn Shuck Doll Maker and Basket Weaver

"Busting out" is the beginning of the process that Geraldine Robertson uses to make her baskets, corn shuck dolls, and chair bottoms.  "It's got to be in you to bust a tree," she explains to visitors.  Robertson is proud of her skill and strength when it comes to splitting the white oak she uses for her baskets.  She tells how her children come out and check on her progress.  "Mama, how's it doing?" they ask.  If it is going well, they are happy and return indoors to play.  If it's not, they ask her to stop; she doesn't.  If she comes to a particularly difficult piece, her children help.

            Robertson is pleased to share her craft with anyone interested in learning it.  She learned to make corn shuck dolls from her mother and later learned the skills necessary to weave beautiful traditional white oak baskets split by hand from her husband, a craftsman who people used to spend all afternoon with as he caned chairs.  Robertson has kept on with the tradition, demonstrating how she splits a piece into a thin strip of wood that's pliable enough to be woven.

The corn shuck dolls that Robertson makes range from four to eight inches tall. She uses yarn to make their hair and generally dresses them in calico gowns.  She sticks to the traditional methods of making corn shuck dolls using corn shucks to shape the heads rather than styrofoam balls.  She not only makes individual dolls, but also makes series of dolls to create scenarios such as nativity scenes.  These scenarios are created with modern materials like straw, flowers, yarn, and colored ribbon.  According to the Folklife Guide, "Corn shuck and apple dolls were widespread in rural areas of the United States and seem to spring from independent invention everywhere as well as from the influence of national craft magazines."

In the past seven or eight years, Robertson has taken up making pine straw baskets in the evening.  Her goal is to make the tiniest pine straw basket she can imagine--one needle thick and maybe only half an inch tall. In the meantime, she enjoys passing on her skills to people of all ages and teaches basket making to groups of school children and senior citizens.  She was inducted into the Hall of Master Folk Artists in 2001.

Robin, Charles R Jr.

Shrimper and Miniature Boat Maker

Commercial fisherman Charles Robin of Ycloskey, St. Bernard Parish was born in 1930 and raised in the Bayou LaLoutre area. He says proudly that he is a fourth generation fisherman, hunter, and trapper, but "shrimping is the only thing I do now." He learned to fish oysters and shrimp from his father, who started taking him along on the boats when he was nine years old. His father was also a boat builder and handed his craft down to his son. He says, "I build my model boats like I did my fishing boats." Sometimes he passes the time when his crew is trawling for shrimp by carving, but most of his work is done in a basement workshop at home in Ycloskey where he creates intricately detailed miniature boats in his spare time.

Mr. Robin hand carves the boats from tupelo gum, old cypress planks, and pine. He often salvages wood from old window frames and other "old lumber that smells good." Frequently, he works on several different boats at once. He cuts out all of his pieces by hand. His replicas of shrimp boats, oyster luggers, skiffs, sailboats, pirogues, and other watercraft are so detailed that they include miniature life preservers, steering wheels, anchors, and piles of culled oysters on the deck of a lugger. He paints the boats with three coats of paint that he mixes himself.

He says that the miniature boats are "a tribute to the old people-our ancestors." Mr. Robin especially enjoys building models of boats used at the turn of the century in Louisiana. Some of his miniatures are replicas of boats he or his friends have owned. One is of a shrimp boat he owned at the age of 19 and another is of a boat owned by his late father. He is passing on his knowledge to his grandson, Charles Robin IV, who practices making his own miniatures in Mr. Robin's workshop.

Mr. Robin is a member of Los Isleños Heritage and Culture Society and performs volunteer work for the club. With his wife, Cecile, he demonstrates his skill in model boat building at local schools, boat shows, museums, and festivals like the Madisonville Boat Festival and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. His work has won numerous awards in local competitions, including Best of Show at the Louisiana Carvers and Collectors Guild each year from 1992 through 1995; the People's Choice Award in 1995; and Best of Show at the Cajun Heritage show in 1995. His boats can be seen on display at the Isleños Museum, the Biloxi Museum, and the Jefferson Maritime Museum.

Roger, John

Accordion Maker

John Roger builds diatonic accordions that are well known nationally and internationally by the brand name Cajun. He is a self-taught accordion builder and began his craft in 1978. He uses woodworking techniques and tools and the finest musical instrument wood available: bird's eye maple, curly maple, walnut, and mahogany. Mr. Roger's work is distinguished by its fine inlay work and hand engraved scrolls.

John Roger notes that the popularity of the accordion in Cajun music was revived in the late 1940s and early 1950s through the influence of Iry LeJeune and his popular recording "The Love Bridge Waltz," and later by musicians like Lawrence Walker and Aldus Roger. Today, the sound of the accordion is "more or less synonymous" with Cajun music, he says.

Born in Eunice, he grew up listening to Aldus Roger perform at a local television station. By the time he was a teenager and old enough to visit local clubs, many of the bands in the region were playing early rock and roll music rather than Cajun music.

After his family moved to New Orleans, he went to hear a Cajun band play at Jackson Square. He decided then that he "wanted to learn to play the accordion a little," but decided to make one first. With his background in woodworking and cabinetmaking he was successful in building an accordion. He says jokingly, "Making the first one was probably the biggest mistake, because I never did learn how to play, but now I make accordions," generally on custom orders. His handmade accordions are now shipped to buyers all over the world.

He learned to make his first accordion, he says, "by looking at one." This was a skill he had learned in cabinetmaking, where a craftsperson must learn to copy pieces often without actually having them in hand.

Like most accordion makers, he makes all of the pieces himself except for the reeds and bellows, which are imported from Italy. He says that all of the fine cabinetmaking woods are suitable for making accordions. The choice of wood does affect the instrument's sound somewhat, but not to the extent that it does in a stringed instrument with a soundboard. Hard woods gives a "brighter" sound, he says, and softer woods mute and mellow the sound. Musicians may have a preference for a particular sound and this will affect the choice of wood used for the accordion. More important though, is the quality of reeds used.

Making accordions in Louisiana's humid weather can be tricky, especially if they will be shipped to other climates. The accordion's keyboard is made entirely of wood, for instance, and the keys may tend to stick in cooler, drier climates as the wood shrinks. He tries to make his instruments so that they will work in all climates and weather.

John Roger has lived in Meraux for many years and is a member of the Louisiana Crafts Program. He demonstrates accordion making at a number of festivals like the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and Lafayette's Louisiana Native Crafts Festival. He also exhibits his accordions in Canada each year.

Royston, Kenneth

Whittler

Kenneth Royston, a whittler from Houma, Louisiana, has participated in the Natchitoches- NSU Folk Festival for years.  At the festival, he first demonstrates his whittling with his father, Leo Royston.  Usually children learn folk traditions from their parents, but in this situation, Leo learned the craft of wooden chain carving from his son Kenneth.  Leo Royston once said, "The most important thing I've learned about wood carving is that you need plenty of patience and band aids!"

The carvings that Kenneth and his father make are usually long wooden chains made from a single piece of wood (one contains 72 links), and wooden balls trapped inside of boxes.  These brain teasers are created from basswood.  Kenneth has made and donated many items to the Louisiana Folklife Center, such as a flip-flop toy, a tic-tac-toe game, several puzzles, and a wooden drill, which are kept on display at the Folklife Center.  He has also aided with the Louisiana Toys and Games Contest.

Kenneth Royston was inducted into the Louisiana Hall of Master Folk Artists in 2000.

Researched and rewritten by Samantha Sullivan.

Royston, Leo

Wood Carver

Mr. Leo Royston was born in 1900, in Natchitoches, Louisiana. After his retirement from Exxon Oil Company, Mr. Royston became an excellent whittler.

Crafts and folk arts are generally passed from one generation down to the next. Stories are told to the young by their parents, and skills are taught to the younger generation to improve their lives. With Leo Royston, the sequence of events got turned around a little. Leo's son, Kenneth Royston, taught Leo how to carve puzzles out of wood.

Mr. Royston whittled chains, pulleys, wagons, intricate handguns, hammers, and ball in chain. One of his specialties was a long wooden chain that he carved from a single piece of wood. He completed one that contains 72 links. He also specialized in mind teasers and puzzles. He carved these pieces out of basswood and when asked what it takes to carve these items, he joked, "You need plenty of patience and band-aids."

Back in the days before Power Rangers and Sega Genesis, children had only the toys that were made by family members or other individuals. Many of the puzzles and toys that Leo Royston made were toys that had been around for generations. Leo and Kenneth were trying to ensure that these toys remained around for a few more generations.

Mr. Leo Royston was a regular at many festivals throughout the state including the NSU Folk Festival, Natchitoches, Louisiana. Although Mr. Leo Royston passed away in August 2000, his son Kenneth continues to carve wood from his home in Houma, Louisiana.

Russel "Potic" Rider

Cajun Mardi Gras Run

Mr. Rider is the president of the Basile Mardi Gras association and one of the dedicated people that have kept the Basile Mardi Gras run going throughout the years. Russell was born in 1945 in Basile. He self-identifies as Cajun and speaks both French and English. He grew up in the Mardi Gras tradition. His father Eloi Rider, his uncles, and other family members were actively involved in the traditional celebration throughout the years. As a boy, Potic always followed the Mardi Gras riders.

Potic learned to make masks from his father and uncles. He produced his first mask in 1955 or 1956. Since then, he has made one hundred or more masks. He still owns eight of the first he made, but has given the others to family members, friends, and to anyone in need of a mask on Mardi Gras. In forty years of making masks, his materials have changed but his technique has changed very little. Mr. Potic prefers the heavy shell shaker screen used in the oilfields to make his wire screen masks. He paints the screen with a base coat of white or black before shaping the screen and then painting features on it. When he has finished, his wife Sandy adds an elastic border.

Russell learned to sing the Basile Mardi Gras song by listening closely to older Mardi Gras celebrants, copying their actions. He says, "We'd go as kids. That's how I learned it, you know. I'd go and I'd watch the Mardi Gras, that's how I learned to run Mardi Gras, watching them, and listening." Potic is recognized as one of the best singers of the Basile Mardi Gras songs and he often leads the singing of the "chanson de Mardi Gras" at the homes the Mardi Gras procession visits. "The songs have been here since Mardi Gras has been here. It's just handed down from generation to generation. It has essentially unchanged from the time when, as a child I'd go and I'd watch the Mardi Gras. That's how I learned to run Mardi Gras, watching them, listening. You have to be doing Mardi Gras to sing it to where it sounds like where everything sounds good. When Christmas is finished, I start to get the feeling. And after Christmas, I'll get the feeling and I can sing it any time and then it sounds good. It's just, you know Mardi Gras is coming so the feeling's there."

To be a good Mardi Gras participant, Potic says that "one must be a good beggar and a good clown. That's what makes a good Mardi Gras, one that will joke around. If you perform for the people, they will give. You can't let them go until they give."

Potic Rider feels strongly about his community's Mardi Gras tradition. He says, Mardi Gras is in his blood. "I don't want to see it die. I was born and raised with it, it's my culture."

Salard, Herbert Pierre "Buzz"

Fiddler (1937-2019)

Master fiddler plays with many titles

By: Steven Niette

Navy veteran. Former State Trooper. Civil War researcher. H.P. "Buzz" Salard fills many roles, but people around here recognize him most for something you can't really put a name to: his fiddling. Not that people haven't tried. In 2007, H.P. "Buzz" Salard, 75 at the time of this interview in 2013, was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists for his "contributions to the preservation of Louisiana's cultural traditions."

When he was a boy, Salard's family bought a fiddle for him and his older brother, Winston. When his brother "confiscated" it, little Buzz didn't give up without a fight. He snuck the fiddle out when Winston was gone and worked at teaching himself to play.

"You have to just do it," Salard said. "You have to get with people and play and be willing to make mistakes. Otherwise you won't learn anything."

As he grew older, Salard learned several more instruments (though to this day he can't read a "lick" of music), including guitar, mandolin, banjo, viola and double bass. Basically, he picked up anything with a string he could find.

Over his life, Salard's musical talent provided him with opportunities to meet people from all walks of life.

"In 1954, I went into the Navy, and my brother and I played in a band on a destroyer," he said. "I played the fiddle, my brother played the banjo and we had a guitar player. We even had a mascot, a Californian who claimed to be an honorary Confederate. When we'd play, he'd wave a Confederate flag tied to mop handle. We were just clowning around."

Salard and the band played for other ships when they'd meet in the ocean, but—while those other ships had more traditional orchestras—he and his friends stuck to their roots. Once word got out about the unconventional bluegrass band, people began handing in requests. While in the Navy, Salard performed in England, Spain and across the Middle East. He also played in Massachusetts, where he serenaded a young nurse named Janet Darche, now his wife of almost 57 years.

After completing his tour of duty, Salard played music sporadically, usually at house dances and school functions. Eventually, he joined the State Police, started a family and dropped back on music. But he couldn't stay away for long.

He recalled one story in particular: "I was working late at night, around one or two a.m., when someone ran a red light. They had a full-sized bass fiddle on top of their station wagon. They were Southland Bluegrass, a band from Deville that'd been playing in Texas. I went down for a practice session and was hired immediately, and we played for several years in states across the South. Needless to say, I didn't give them a ticket for running the red light. I figured that, as musicians, they didn't have any money anyway."

After leaving Southland Bluegrass, Salard continued to "jam" across the state and attend bluegrass festivals. He played with many people—including a group from the Air Force—and even recorded twice in Tennessee. Eventually, he helped form All Points South.

Over the course of Salard's life, fiddlin' has given him the opportunity to meet legends such as Bill Monroe (the "Father of Bluegrass") and many other past guests of the Grand Ole' Opry. He played with The Cox Family, who performed on the soundtrack of O Brother, Where Art Thou? He's also jammed with less-famous people—woodsmen, bus drivers, white collar workers, district judges—people such as himself who play music simply for the love of it.

"I've met all kinds of people through playing music," he said. "I even played with Dwayne Murphy at Blanchard Funeral Home a few times…when no bodies were out, of course."

When he's not entertaining his grandkids with cannon-fire, Salard is probably around the area playing with Reasonable Facsimile Band. Grateful for the relationships that have developed around music, he continues to involve himself in the community through that art.

"I'm better now than when I was younger," he says, "and, though turnout ebbs and flows and there are a lot of young people playing progressively, I'm still playing…and I still like it."

So, from a past that has earned him many names—veteran, State Trooper, even "Master Folk Artist"— Buzz Salard has chosen for himself the one least assuming: Fiddler.

Article written and submitted by Steven Niette

Photo provided by Doris Salard Whatley and submitted by Steven Niette

Updated March 1, 2019 by Shelia Thompson

Scarborough Moody, Mary Etta

Folktale and Storyteller

Ms. Moody was born in 1948, in Bogalusa, Louisiana. She presently lives in Popularville, Missouri with her husband Billy and their dogs.

Mary Etta's art form is storytelling. She learned to tell stories when she was a young child listening to her father, mama, and Uncle Willie. Her presentations are of folktales and some true stories in a voice that she refers to as being "her own white lower class dialect." The text of her stories covers the lower class or working class whites and blacks of the south and some upper class. She says she started sharing her stories with the public in 1987 and will continue to do so until she can no longer speak. Mary Etta is one of twenty-one storytellers called "The Barter Storytellers."

Ms. Moody performs twice weekly at different places in Poplarville, MS; Hazeherst, MS; Picayune, MS; Angie, MS; Covington, Louisiana; Strawberry Storytelling Festival in Hammond, Louisiana; and Blueberry Storytelling Festival in Hattiesburg, MS. She also tells stories at local middle schools.

Updated March 23,2017 by Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

Seale, Rick

Musician

Rick Seale is a graduate of Northwestern State University with a BA in Anthropology and a MA degree in History with an emphasis in Cultural Resource Management.

Seale worked in the Louisiana Folklife Center at Northwestern State University, which led to his hand in putting together the Cloutierville Heritage Festival.  During the work on this festival, he did research and wrote a paper entitled "Traditional Music in Cloutierville, Louisiana".  He was also the music and logistic coordinator for the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival.

Not only has Seale set up musicians at the Folk Festival, but he has also been a musician himself.  He learned to play the guitar when he was about fifteen years old after a cousin left his guitar at Rick's house while visiting.  Seale taught himself to play this guitar by watching and listening to others.  In the 1960s and 1970s, Seale played in many garage bands in Bossier City, as he joined the R&B band D.T. and the Mystics and the rock band Rain.  Later, Seale met B.B. Majors, who became a big influence on his musical career, as he joined weekly jam sessions with Majors.  In 1996, Seale began to play with Overton "Dr. Drip Drop" Owens, Pop Hymes, and Hardrick Rivers in the Roque's Blues Band at Roque's Grocery, Pool Hall, and House of Blues in Natchitoches, Louisiana.  The band  fluctuated between five or six members, but sadly Overton Owens, the heart of the band, died in 1998.  Seale is also famous for a R&B band known as Bluesiana, a duo he started with the harmonica player Randy Raschal.  A few years later, he joined Rick Woodward and formed the Hoodoo Papas, a band that is well known throughout Arkansas, North Louisiana and eastern Texas with their "Acoustic Gumbo" sound.

Writing was also a big part of Seale's career.  He was an Editorial Assistant for Southern Studies Journal and designed the cover for the 30th anniversary issue.  He worked on the Louisiana Folklife Journal, as he did a major portion of the research and writing of Volume 14.  He also has done many publications and presentations on Louisiana's music history.  These publications include "The Performance and Preservation of Traditional Music in North Louisiana" and "'Pick Buzzard':  Irish Tunes and Country Dances in Southern Natchitoches Parish."

Because of his many contributions to the Louisiana Folklife Center and his true musical talent, Seale was inducted into the Hall of Master Folk Artists in 2003.

Researched and rewritten by Samantha Sullivan.

Sedotol, Raymond

Boat Maker

Raymond Sedotol is a boat builder from Pierre Part, Assumption Parish, a community largely populated with people of Cajun heritage. He is accomplished at making the wooden boats traditional to southeast Louisiana, such as pirogues and rowing skiffs.

Raymond was a young boy when his mother died. He lived in the Atchafalaya Basin with his father, a timber cutter in the swamp. As a young man, Raymond also worked as a timber-cutter for about thirty years. He lived in a floating logging camp, and went home to Pierre Part perhaps once a month.

He learned to build boats from his grandfather, but says that most men in the Basin knew how to build boats out of necessity. They were the loggers' only mode of transportation in the swamp. The men often used a rowing skiff, in which the person rowing stood and faced forward, because as Mr.Sedotol jokes, "A Cajun doesn't want to row backwards. He wants to know where he's going, not where he's been." The men also used working pirogues for cutting timber, using an iron chain-dog before they had chain saws.

Mr. Sedotal remarks that in his youth, the Atchafalaya Basin was very different than it is today. He remembers the Basin being "like Paradise--you didn't need money to live in there, you were free. You could catch turtles, many kinds of fish, rabbits, and deer."

When he eventually left the timber industry, he returned to Pierre Part where he began carpentry work and making boats. The greatest demand is for the pirogue, which remains an ideal boat for hunting, trapping, and fishing in shallow bayous. Its flat bottom and sharply tapered bow and stern allow it to be easily navigated where other boats can't go. Fishermen use pirogues early in the crawfish season, and pirogues are also popular for duck hunting and frogging. His pirogues range from 6 feet to 16 feet in length. He also makes paddles and toy pirogues.

The earliest pirogues were narrow dugouts made from whole cypress logs. Although Mr. Sedotal can make a dugout pirogue, it is very difficult today to find good cypress logs of adequate size. For this reason, boat builders began making plank pirogues of cypress planks. As it became increasingly difficult to find good cypress, they began building the pirogues with marine plywood and stripping the boats with cypress.

Mr. Sedotal has also occasionally built aluminum boats, which are more durable but generally less comfortable than marine plywood.

At the age of 65, Raymond Sedotol began carving ducks from wood. He originally made decoys, but now crafts decorative pieces. He is also an excellent storyteller and is knowledgeable about many aspects of Cajun culture, like folk healing.

Mr. Sedotol is serving as a master boat builder for the Louisiana Folklife Apprenticeship Program. With his uncle, Alex Giroir, he has demonstrated boat building at festivals throughout Louisiana and other states, including the Smithsonian's Festival of American Folklife, the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival, the Louisiana Folklife Festival, and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Smith, Allen, Jr. "A.J."

Storyteller and Humorist

Allen "A.J." Joseph Smith, Jr. was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, on January 19, 1951. He currently lives with his wife, Anita, in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Allen has a technical degree in petroleum drafting and is a piping designer. He enjoys telling stories and jokes at festivals, corporate and associative meetings, on cruise ships, and at schools. A.J. first became interested in the craft as a young child listening to his parents, friends, and recordings of Bud Fletcher and Justin Wilson.

Cajun humorist A. J. Smith derives his humor directly from southwest Louisiana, where he and his family have lived in the heart of Cajun country for many generations. His exuberant delivery is a combination of facial punctuation and unwavering energy.

Allen Smith has demonstrated at these festivals: New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival; Cajun/Zydeco Fest in Fort Lauderdale; and Tastes of Louisiana Festival in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He appeared on the Nashville Network with Doug Kershaw and Jo El Sonnier. A.J. also appeared in Swapping Stories, the movie Dirty Rice, and co-authored Cajun Humor, and won the 1991 winter International Cajun Joke Telling Contest.

Smith, Dudley-Brian

Folk Singer and Musician

For over four decades, the music ensemble known as Smithfield Fair (earlier as Charmer) has served as the vehicle for the musical efforts of singer/songwriter/composer/ and multi-instrumentalist Dudley-Brian Smith. Hailing from a large, artistic Scottish-American family of Alexandria, Louisiana, Dudley is the grandson of music and voice teachers, and the son of musician/vocalists who encouraged the artistic pursuits of their children. Early efforts in church and school choirs and bands continued through the U.S. Naval all-male Bluejacket Choir. Taught trumpet and upright bass by his father, a noted area swing musician and church choir director, Dudley picked up the guitar on the tail end of the 60's folk boom. When the U.S. Navy Band was disbanded in Pensacola, Dudley was tapped as the Navy's area honor guard bugler on the strength of years of bugling in the Boy Scouts (where he had achieved the rank of Eagle), and would earn commendations for this service. During this time, he also formed the acoustic and vocal ensemble that would ultimately relocate to Louisiana and include his brothers, Bob and Joel, and later his wife, Jan Dedon Smith, all singer/songwriters in their own rights. To date, they have produced some 30 recordings (albums) of original and tradition-based music. Side projects over the years for Dudley have included a jazz-fusion band in Boulder, Colorado. He also served as artist-in-residence for Sandcastle Productions, which would relocate from North Louisiana to Nashville, Tennessee. His career as a journalist has also found him in numerous editorial positions, among these trade and industry publications and underground newspapers. He has also written several books of poetry and stories, some in tandem with Jan Smith, as well as music for movies, webcast series and television.

Snell, Fisher "Bo"

Chairmaker

Mr. Fisher Snell was born on January 6, 1922 in Barham, Louisiana. Mr. Snell was an orphan raised by his grandfather and uncle. His uncle, Mr. Henry Ford, was a professional stockman who taught Mr. Snell how to work with rawhide. His uncle used all possible materials from his animals in order to support himself and his family, including processing skins for sale. Mr. Snell dropped out of school after the seventh grade to live with his uncle and work with him. After he was shown how to use a lathe, chairmaking was always a side job for him. His actual profession was operating a body shop. Upon retirement to his home in Provencal, Louisiana, he and his wife, Robbie, began making and selling chairs. He is presently teaching his great-grandson the family's chair-making craft.

While Snell uses the Prewitt pattern, he, like many modern chairmakers, does not make the bent chairs that Sims and Prewitt made; he cannot afford to wait all winter for a chair back to cure and bend. Snell also makes a chair called the Hagan Rocker, a chair that he and friend Theron Hall redesigned to make more comfortable and attractive. Snell also has his own designs and often makes a piece of furniture completely from scratch. Snell, who also makes toyboxes and chests of cedar, attributes much of his success as a chairmaker to his versatility. He explains, "while other chairmakers make one type of chair, one pattern of a straight chair, one pattern of a rocking chair and maybe a little chair, I can make two kinds of little ones. I make five different rocking chairs, I make three cornered stools. I make square stools. That's what a lot of them can't do." When making his chairs, Mr. Snell uses very simple materials and tools. His materials are hide and local wood; his tools are a utility knife, sandpaper, and a pattern lathe.

He explains, "I'd take a hickory pole about three inches in diameter, and drive it between logs. I went through three chairs before the part being rounded or turned on the lathe would come up." Although Fisher lives thirty miles from the Texas border, he is closely tied to a Texas chairmaking tradition. Two of the patterns that they use, the Prewitt Ladder-Back Straight Chair and the Prewitt Rocker, were used by Texas chairmaker Creighton Sims, who began making chairs in the late 1800s or early 1900s. Sims passed his craft down to his son-in-law John Prewitt, who moved to Florien, Louisiana.

While Mr. Snell no longer travels to Festivals to demonstrate his craft, he was inclucded into the Louisiana Folklife Center, Hall of Master Folk Artists in 2001.

Soileau, Floyd

Louisiana Music Producer

Floyd Soileau founded Floyd's Record Shop & Flat Town Music Company in 1956 & 1957 respectively.  Soileau began a part-time job selling records to supplement his radio disc jockey income at KVPI in Ville Platte, Louisiana.  Eventually he had to choose between spinning records or selling them. Soileau decided to leave the radio station in 1957.

Recordings of Cajun music were in relatively short supply at the time. Soileau recognized the necessity of recording the talent of the local Cajun and Rock'n'Roll musicians.  His first label was Vee -Pee (as in Ville Platte).  Other labels followed.  The Swallow label (a play on the pronunciation of his last name) was dedicated to French language Cajun releases.  The Jin label (named for his soon-to-be-wife Jinver) was used for Swamp Pop. Maison de Soul was the first record label dedicated to the soulful upbeat style of Zydeco.

Soileau has recorded such greats as Dewey Balfa and the The Balfa Brothers, Nathan Abshire, Adam Hebert, Dennis McGee, Vin Bruce, Hadley Castille, Paul Daigle, Aldus Roger, Lawrence Walker, Austin Pitre, Belton Richard, D.L. Menard, BeauSoleil, Wayne Toups, Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, Jambalaya Cajun Band, Kevin Naquin, the Lost Bayou Ramblers, Clifton Chenier, Boozoo Chavis, and Rockin' Sidney.

In 2006, Floyd Soileau was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists.

Soileau, Joseph

Cowhide Chair Maker

Joe Soileau lives in Washington, Louisiana with his wife, Mary. His main occupation is making cowhide chairs and related cowhide items. He self-identifies as Cajun, and he speaks French.

Before 1990, Joe had never made a cowhide chair. His father was the primary artist of the craft. In 1986, his father demonstrated at the Louisiana Folklife Festival in Baton Rouge. At the festival his father had so many requests to cover chairs that he decided to start a small business. Mr. Soileau found a chair maker and started making and selling chairs with cowhide seats.

Joe's father died in September of 1990. Although he had never covered a chair, he had watched his father and mentally took note of the craft. Two weeks after his father's death, Joe had to cover his first chair. He has continued to keep a part of his father alive with his art. Mr. Joe Soileau expanded his father's business by adding different merchandise to the store. They make chairs, rockers, cowhide rugs, cowhide drums, bull whips, stools, and tables.

Mr. Soileau works with cowhide everyday in the family store, and he also demonstrates at festivals. He uses water, knives, punches, and cowhide mauls to make his numerous styles of furniture and rugs.

Joe has demonstrated and exhibited at the Louisiana Folklife Festival and the New Orleans Jazz Festival each year since 1995.

Stanford, Gervis

Cajun French Fiddler

Gervis Stanford currently lives in Ville Platte, Louisiana where he enjoys playing the fiddle and performing with his band, the "Chuck Guillory and the Rhythm Boys." Gervis' Cajun French fiddling was demonstrated at the 1984 World's Fair.

Stauder, Anna Hansen

Norwegian Embroidery (Hardanger) and Foodways

The New Orleans area is home to about 200 people of Norwegian descent, a small but active community that sponsors a number of activities throughout the year. The Norwegian Seamen's Church on Prytania Street serves as an informal community center and hosts many of these events. The largest is the church's annual Christmas bazaar, which draws large crowds to sample the traditional Norwegian cookies and sandwiches prepared by its members and to buy handcrafts made by local women and men or imported from Norway.

Among the most popular items each year are the hardanger tablecloths made by Anna Hansen Stauder for the bazaar's raffle. Hardanger, a form of counted thread work which takes its name from a Norwegian fjord, is worked on an even weave fabric. Its designs are based on geometric shapes: squares, rectangles, triangles, diamonds, diagonals, zigzags, and crosses. Traditionally in Norway only white material and thread were used, but many newer pieces are worked with colored thread and on colored material.

As Norwegians immigrated to the United States, they brought this traditional art with them. Anna Hansen Stauder of Metairie is now the only woman in the New Orleans area who is expert in hardanger embroidery. Mrs. Stauder was born in New Jersey in 1920 to Norwegian and Swedish parents, Arne Hansen and Karen Jensen. Her family moved to New Orleans in 1930, and she has lived in the area ever since. At the age of ten she learned hardanger from a Norwegian aunt in 1932 and has been practicing it since. She stitches without a pattern.

In addition to traditional tablecloths, runners, and scarves, Mrs. Stauder has begun making smaller, modern items like Christmas tree ornaments. She does not sell her work but donates it for sale at the Norwegian Seamen's Church Christmas bazaar each year. In addition to the tablecloth she usually makes about fifty smaller handwork pieces for sale at the bazaar. Mrs. Stauder teaches a class in hardanger embroidery at a local community center. She says that she finds the complex work relaxing. "My fingers itch if I have nothing to do with my hands," she says.

Steadman, Preston

Country Fiddler

Preston Steadman, a lifelong resident of Natchitoches Parish, has been playing the fiddle since he was a young man. He was taught to play by his mother, an old-time fiddler, and an uncle who lived to be over 100 years old.

Born in 1922, Preston spent years as a butcher for local companies. For a time he was involved in a Northwestern State University program teaching people how to make a living butchering.

Sometime during 1980, Preston formed a close friendship with David and Johnny Jones. They were musicians from Kentucky who had moved into the Natchitoches area to work for the Tennessee Gas Company. With David and Johnny and occasionally with other musicians, Preston performed for many years at the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival. He competed in various fiddle contests and served several times as a judge.

Steadman's repertoire contains all of the standard American fiddle tunes such as "Over the Waves," "Rubber Dolly," and "The Orange Blossom Special." He is especially proud of a tune he composed during World War II as he served in the Navy. The tune is called "Pacific Waltz," and he plays it at least once during all of his performances, which today includes festivals throughout the northern part of Louisiana as well as nursing homes, parties, and benefits. Besides the fiddle for which he is best known, Mr. Steadman also plays the mandolin and guitar.

Mr. Steadman joins in numerous jam sessions with the large number of bluegrass and country musicians in the Natchitoches area. In 1981, Steadman was honored by his selection to the Louisiana Hall of Master Folk Artists and was inducted at the Natchitoches- NSU Folk Festival.

Stevenson, Johnnie "Kool"

Second Line Dancer and Mardi Gras Indian

Johnnie Stevenson, better known as "Kool," is dedicated to keeping the unique African-American culture of New Orleans alive. He has masked for years as Gang Flag for the Wild Magnolias Mardi Gras Indian gang. He has also participated in several second line clubs like the Scene Boosters, the Scene Highlighters, and the Money Wasters. Johnnie organized a second line club that children called Kool and the Gang to help get neighborhood children involved in their cultural heritage. He has practiced the second line tradition for at least 27 years, and is knowledgeable about the history of the tradition as far back as the late 1800s. Originally the tradition "had to do with funerals, benevolent associations, and celebrations," he says. "Today, second line clubs don't just march for funerals. We have an annual parade."

When Johnnie Stevenson, a native of New Orleans, returned from duty in the Vietnam War, he decided to join a group of young men his age called the Scene Highlighters. Later, he joined the Scene Boosters.

In 1969, at the age of 21, he began to create the elaborate streamers, decorated umbrellas, and fans sported by second line clubs in their parades. The streamers are decorated with a variety of materials including ribbon rosettes, rhinestones, feathers, caribou, fringes, glitter, and sequins. The matching streamers identify members of a marching club. He points out that Uptown clubs like his carried umbrellas, while Downtown clubs carried baskets. Today club members may carry fans, umbrellas, walking canes, or baskets.

Mr. Stevenson remarks on the changes in the second line over the years. "Streamers are part of a uniform, which identifies the club that is parading. Years ago, marchers in jazz funeral parades wore dark suits and simply took a long piece of ribbon, draped it over their shoulder, and wrote the dead man's name on it. Today, second line clubs wear coordinated outfits for their annual parades, and streamers that are highly elaborate and imaginative."

Fans are made of plywood covered with ostrich plumes, which are very expensive. When he started second lining, he could "hit the streets for $100.00," but each person in a club today can easily spend $800.00 to $1,000.00 each on an outfit. The umbrella was the most traditional part of the second line outfit. Once second liners carried plain umbrellas and little else, but today, the umbrellas are highly decorated with feathers, sequins, and other materials.

When he began masking Indian, he did not belong to any particular group. He decided to get serious about it, and joined the Wild Magnolias, led by Big Chief Bo Dollis, and he continues to mask every year as Gang Flag. Mr. Stevenson learned to mask Indian and to create the elaborate Mardi Gras Indian suits from Harold Fedison and Big Chief Bo Dollis. His son, Joey, masked Indian at four years of age.

With the Scene Boosters, Johnnie Stevenson has performed at the White House and at folklife festivals throughout the United States. He has shared his skills in making streamers, umbrellas, and fans with the public through craft demonstrations and narrative workshops at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and the Louisiana Folklife Festival.

Teer, Millie

Basketmaker

Millie Teer identifies herself as Dutch-Irish and was born in Alabama on September 23, 1919. She now lives in Shreveport, Louisiana where she first learned how to weave baskets. Millie did not begin to create baskets until her late sixties. She learned how to make picnic baskets from an older gentleman in her neighborhood.

In order to make her baskets, Millie only employs white oak trees for weaving. Because Millie is elderly, she does not travel.

Tesvich, Tereza

Needlework and Croatian Foodways

Tereza Tesvich, the youngest of six daughters, was born in 1932, in the Dalmatian town of Sucuraj. In 1954, she met her husband Ante Tesvich, a Croatian-born oyster fisherman who had lived in Louisiana. Mr. Ante returned to Dalmatia to visit his parents when he met Tereza and married her when she was almost twenty-three.

Five months later, Mrs. Tesvich moved to Louisiana to be with her husband. They moved into his fishing camp on Bayou Robinson. Mrs. Tesvich, like many Croatian women, resumed her traditional role of gardener. She planted many vegetables that are typically grown in Dalmatian gardens including collard greens, cabbage, tomatoes, and green beans. She also had peach trees, fig trees, and an arbor with grapevines. Later the family moved to Port Sulphur, where she had many of the same type vegetables in her garden.

Tereza is also proficient in the traditional skill of needlework, which most all Croatia women. As a girl, she learned from her older sisters and her mother to card and spin wool with a hand-held spindle. She learned to knit with cotton and wool thread, to cross stitch, embroider, and to do fine handwork like cutwork, and drawn-work. Tereza especially enjoys knitting and cutwork altar cloths and tablecloths with traditional white-on-white embroidery, as well as knitted bed throws, table runners, embroidered pillows, and other pieces.

Now widowed, Mrs. Tesvich lives in Port Sulphur, and her family still gets together on Sundays for dinner. She is an excellent cook and is well known for her krustula (traditional cookies) and other Croatian pastries. Krustula are pastries made of eggs, shortening, flour, milk, sugar, baking powder, and lemon peel. The dough is cut into strips, tied into knots, fried, and dusted with powdered sugar.

Mrs. Tesvich has presented at the New Orleans Jazz Festival and at the St. Anthony's Day celebration at St. Patrick's Church in Port Sulphur, Louisiana.

Thacker, Virginia

Tatting

Virginia Thacker learned to tat as a child growing up in Oil City, Louisiana. Her Aunt showed her the art and gave her a shuttle and thread to begin what would become a life-long hobby for Thacker. Thacker took her tatting with her almost everywhere she went, for tatting takes little equipment and space. Thacker has shown her daughter and some of her grandchildren how to tat, and she hopes that this will help her tradition to survive. Her favorite pieces to tat are collars and lace edging for pillow cases and handkerchiefs.

Mrs. Thacker continues to live in her family home in Oil City and to raise an extensive garden, cattle, and chickens. She believed in staying active and drove a school bus until her early 80s. When she was a young woman, she earned the distinction of being the first certified female pilot in Louisiana, and she and her late husband owned and flew an airplane for many years. Mrs. Thacker maintained an airstrip at her family farm in Oil City. which is used from time to time by pilots.  Virginia Thacker was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 2005. Mrs. Thacker passed away February 3, 2010.

The Birdwell Brothers

Birdwell Brothers Quartet-Gospel 1990

The Birdwell Brothers grew up with music.  In fact, one grandfather, two uncles, two aunts, and their father and mother were accomplished singers.
George Washington and Lottie Burnett Birdwell were the parents of twelve children; eleven sons and one daughter.  All twelve were reared on a farm in the Bethany Community near Marhaville, Louisiana.  Preston, who went by the nickname Dick, was the eldest, followed by sister Mertie, and brothers Luther, Tilman, Hoyt, Raymond, Harvey, Odell, Herman, Vernon, Wilmer, and Harold.  All could harmonize, however, not all the brothers were members of the quartet. Dick sang bass, Hoyt high tenor, and Harvey sang soprano.
Singing was a big part of everyday life in the Birdwell famly. Many a night after their father worked in the field and their mother worked in the home, each parent would take a child and begin to sing to put the children to sleep. Father and Mother would often sing while they worked in the fields.  On Sunday afternoons to entertain themselves, many young people in the community would come over to sing for several hours.
For a long time, their only performances were at church services and old time singing conventions. WWII broke up the group for a few years, but they were soon singing together again.  The Birdwell's started performing in public in the mid-1940s.  They sang on radio stations in Natchitoches, Many, and Mansfield, and in the 1950s, began singing at funerals.
The Birdwells learned the fundamentals of song writing and note singing at singing schools, and organized the practice sessions. If a performance was taped, Harvey would listen to it several times because he wanted to get the songs just right and would sing them again.
The quartet performed over much of Louisiana and East Texas. Once they were scheduled to perform at two different funerals at the same time.  The boys split and picked up members from the congregation to sing the songs and fulfill their obligatins. the Birdwell Brothers Quartet made their greatest contribution by comforting many families in their moments of greatest and deepest grief by singing at over six hundred funerals over six decades. They once sang 11 funerals in eight days.
All the brothers belonged to the Jennings Chapel Congregational Methodist Churches.  The only recordings of Birdwell's songs have been in these churches, some at festivals.  They never made an official album, though one was planned before Harvey's death in 1992.
The Birdwells were happy to support the development of the Rebel State Commemorative Area, which began in 1962 and they performed at numerous memorial services there.  At Rebel, the boys were on the same billing as Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Bill Monroe, and Jimmie Davis.
Perhaps their greatest performance was during the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans.  They performed three, forty five minute programs everyday for seven days.  They were not to repeat a song in a day's time and were not to use books.  The four were Harvey, who raised cattle and for many years served on the Natchitoches Parish School Board; Hoyt, a school bus driver for many years, sang high tenor.  Vernon, a retired school teacher, sang tenor, and Raymon, retired from the Louisiana Highway Department, sang bass. Pianist, Augusta "Gusty" Webb Kilgore, joined the group in 1960; for several years she taught school in the Natchitoches Parish School System.
When Dick passed away in 1978, his brother Raymond sang bass, and Vernon came in as low tenor.  When Harvery died in 1992, Raymond's son George sang low tenor. Raymond passed away in 1999 and Hoyt in 2000.  Until Harvey's death in the 1992, the Birdwell Brothers Quartet performed at every NSU/Natchitoches Folk Festival and also participated in the Lousisana Folk Festival in Monroe, Louisiana.
In recognition of their contribution to gospel singing in North Louisiana, the Birdwells were inducted into NSU's Hall of Master Folk Artists.

Louisiana Gospel Music
By Betty Vilar

"There's no doubt that being selected to represent Louisiana Gospel Music at the Louisiana World's Fair was the high point of our careers," said Harvey Birdwell, lead singer and spokesman for the Birdwell Brothers' Quartet.

According to information obtained from Dr. Don Hatley of Northwestern State University (NSU), Gusty Kilgore, pianist, and Harvey plus three other Birdwells made up the quartet.  Hoyt, a school bus driver for many years, sang high tenor; Vernon, a retired school teacher, sings tenor;  Raymond, retired from the Louisiana Highway Department, sang bass.  Harvey raised cattle and for many years served on the Natchitoches Parish School Board.  Gusty joined the group in 1960; for several years she taught school in the Natchitoches Parish School System.

The Birdwells started performing in public in the mid-1940's.  They sang on radio stations in Natchitoches, Many, and Mansfield.  Besides singing on radio broadcasts, the brothers performed at old time singing conventions, and, in the 1950s, began singing at funerals.

At one time Harvey had commented that "Gospel singing has changed over the years.  The old-time singing convention has faded.  Now, we do a lot of special event performances.  The songs have changed too.  In the old days we were asked to sing 'There's a Little Pine Log Cabin'.  We still do that, but today a song like 'There'll Be No One to Welcome Me Home' is requested."

As with most traditional performers, the Birdwells learned to sing at home.  "In the evening Daddy would sit out on the porch after supper, and he would start singing.  Then, we would join in.  There were eight of us boys.  Mama would finish washing and drying the dishes, and then she would come out.  We did this nearly every night," one Birdwell brother recalled.

There were other influences too.  At singing schools, the Birdwells learned the fundamentals of song writing and note singing.  Later, Jimmie Davis was especially influential on Harvey, both as a musician and as a personal friend.  The group, as a whole, paid particular attention to the work of the John Daniels Quartet out of Nashville, Tennessee, and the Blackwoods Brothers.

Besides their pride in being selected for the Louisiana Exposition, the Birdwells were happy to support the development of the Rebel Park Commemorative Area.  The Birdwells participated in the Louisiana Folklife Festival and in the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival.  In recognition of their contribution to gospel singing in North Louisiana, the Birdwells were inducted into NSU's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 1990.

"We were fortunate to grow up in a singing family and in a section of the country where gospel music is loved and respected," concluded Harvey.  "Whether at a festival or helping console a bereaved family at a funeral, we love to perform for the public and to share our songs."

Updated November 28, 2016 By NSU-Natchitoches Louisiana Folklife Center Staff

The Pierite Family

Tunica-Biloxi Singers and Story Tellers

Donna Pierite is married to Michael Pierite and they have two children, daughter Elisabeth, a bead-worker and dancer, and son Jean-Luc Pierite, a tribal craftsman and graphic artist. Mrs. Pierite and her family belong to the St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Marksville where she and her children are multilingual chanters. Mrs. Pierite, her daughter, son and brother (Steven Madere) wrote and produced Tawaka (in Tunica "sub-commander"), the language and culture page that appeared in the Tunica-Biloxi tribal newspaper. Along with her husband, children and her brother, Mrs. Pierite has given various presentations at schools, universities and other venues, including performances at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Mrs. Pierite has also made several televised appearances, including a featured role in "Taste of Louisiana with Chef John Folse"(Season 11, Episode 1). In an effort to gain more exposure for the tribe's language and culture, the Pierite Family can be seen at Alligator Feeding Shows at the Paragon Casino in Marksville, Louisiana at 12pm, 2pm and 6pm every Saturday.

Thibodeaux, Harry

Decoy Maker

Harry Thibodeaux was born and reared in Crowley, Louisiana. As a child he never had any formal training when it came to carving, but he did have some talent. In his young years, he carved chains and ball-in-box games, but he actually began his self-taught carving of wood duck decoys after he retired in Pineville in 1975.  Thibodeaux explains, "I always enjoyed carving, or 'whittling,' as we called it as kids."

The only tools Thibodeaux ever used were a hatchet, pocket knives, a wood rasp, sandpaper, and a wood burning device to make the decoys out of virgin cypress and tupelo wood. Picking the wood for his decoys is a very tough process, as only the first few feet of trunk closest to the ground can be used. The trees are usually found in swamps and river areas. Thibodeaux once said, "You have to use the base of the tree. The closer to the water the better."

He made two types of decoys: the working decoys and the decorative decoys. The working decoys are used to lure waterfowl into hunting territory, something Thibodeaux knows well as he hunted ducks in rice paddies as a child. The decorative decoys take Thibodeaux up to 300 hours to complete, as he must carve, raise the feathers, burn it, and paint it. These decorative decoys come in miniature and life-size models. The working decoys take a few hours to carve and are only painted. Even though the working decoys are less work for Thibodeaux, he must be sure that the working decoys look alert, look realistic, and float correctly. Thibodeaux explains, "This is the way it was done in the old days. It's more difficult and it takes more time."

Thibodeaux had received several awards from the New Orleans Waterfowl Festival before participating in the first Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival. He has also participated in the Catahoula Lake Festival in Pineville and has some of his decoys in the Creole State Exhibit in the Alexandria Museum. Because of his true craftsmanship, Thibodeaux was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 1984.

Researched and rewritten by Amber Hendricks and Samantha Sullivan.

Thibodeaux, Rudley J. Sr.

New Orleans Brass Band Musician

Mr. Thibodeaux is a life-long resident of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Ruddley has been playing New Orleans brass band music for almost twenty years. He learned to play in New Orleans from Danny Barker and by listening to other brass bands and recordings of their music. He performs with the Algiers Brass Band, in which he plays several instruments including the trumpet, trombone, drums, and clarinet. Ruddley and the group perform at least three to four times a week. They play New Orleans brass band jazz and wear the traditional brass band uniform when performing.

Mr. Thibodeaux and the group have been touring internationally and domestically for at least eight years. Their most recent and honorary performance was playing at the White House in Washington D.C., in October of 1999. They have been honored as being two-time nominees for the Big Easy Award in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Thibodeaux, Waylon

Cajun Fiddler

Many of Cajun music's best known performers are from the rural prairies of southwest Louisiana. Cajun recording artist Waylon Thibodeaux, dubbed "Louisiana's Rockin' Fiddler," is a native of the Bayou Country just a few miles southwest of New Orleans. Born and raised in Houma, Louisiana, he speaks French and English. He began playing music at the age of 8 and has been performing professionally since he was 13 years old. In 1984, at the age of 16, he was named Louisiana's State Fiddle Champion. That same year he accompanied the Dusenberry Family Singers on a tour of France as their lead fiddler. He plays not only the fiddle but also bass, guitar, triangle, scrubboard, and drums.

He regularly entertains capacity crowds in New Orleans' famous Bourbon Street clubs as well as at festivals and dances. He says of his music, "It's a mixture--it's Cajun, but not too traditional, it's zydeco with a pinch of New Orleans sound, a small pinch of South Louisiana swamp pop, and a little rock-and-roll, that's sure to get you on your feet and dancing."

His last three Mardi Gras Records albums, Cajun Festival (1992); Best of Cajun (1993); and Like a Real Cajun (1995), sold over 40,000 copies. In addition, three of his original compositions were included on a compilation album titled Margaritaville Cafe New Orleans--Late Night Gumbo. He also recorded an album titled Dans la Lousiane with fiddler Gina Forsyth.

Waylon recorded, mixed, sang, and played all the instruments on his album Best of Cajun. His most recent recording, Like A Real Cajun, features a lively mix of original and traditional Cajun French and English compositions.

He has played throughout the United States, Canada, France, and Central and South America. He has performed with internationally known musicians and groups like Beausoleil, Jo-El Sonnier, Jimmy C. Newman, Evangeline, and Tony Orlando.

Photograph of Waylon Thibodeaux courtesy of Mardi Gras Records, Inc.

Thomas, Jesse

Songwriter and Bluessinger

Thomas, Kathlene

Pinestraw Basketmaker

Kathlene Thomas is a member of the Clifton Choctaw community of Clifton, Louisiana, in western Rapides Parish. Kathlene learned how to make pinestraw baskets from Pearl Tyler around 1980. Encouraged to continue working with this traditional art form, Kathlene has become the acknowledged master of coiled pinestraw basketry in her community. Kathlene's baskets, which have been juried by the Louisiana Folklife Program, are constructed from longleaf pinestraw. This straw is gathered in the spring or early fall, when the straw is best suited for making baskets. After gathering the pinestraw, it must be cured for three to four weeks. Basketmakers like Kathlene are very particular about the curing process. She says, "The drying area must be relatively cool, as too much heat will dry out the straw, and it will have no flexibility. If the straw becomes too brittle, it must be discarded because it cannot be coiled without breaking."

Once the straw is cured, the ends of the straw, (that part which was attached to the limb) must be snipped off. At this point, Kathlene sews the dried pine needles into coils with either natural raffia, a commercial thread called Swiss straw, or manufactured nylon thread that comes in various colors. To these coiled baskets Kathlene often adds designs of her own creation; she works in red, green, and black raffia.

Although Kathlene moved away for a time in 1994, she is now back in the Clifton community weaving her beautiful baskets; thus, preserving the tradition of her ancestors.

Kathlene has participated in the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival, at Williamson Museum's Indian Basket Day activities, and the Louisiana Folklife Festival in Monroe. Her work is on display at the Clifton Choctaw Crafts Center on Highway 28, and she participates in Clifton Trade Days held every May.

Thomas, Tabby

Swamp Blues

Tabby Thomas, owner of the Blues and Heritage Hall in Baton Rouge, better known as the Blues Box, has become known as the "King of the Swamp Blues." His career began in San Francisco when, as a young man in the Air Force, he entered and won a talent contest against Etta James and Johnny Mathis. After his military career, Thomas returned to Louisiana to find that recordings he had made on a Hollywood label were doing well. He decided to move home and cast his lot with the Blues movement in Louisiana. It was a good decision.

For twenty-five years, Tabby has played and supported the blues throughout Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. A versatile musician, he plays a New Orleans piano style in the tradition of Professor Longhair and Fats Domino, and he plays lead guitar which is second to none.

Thomas has had a string of hit records, including the nationally famous "Hoodoo Party" and the Louisiana blues classic, "Candy." He is featured on many albums including "Rockin' with the Blues," "Blues Train," "25 Years with the Blues," and "King of the Swamp Blues." For almost twenty years, Tabby has run the Blues Box in Baton Rouge, a must for any true fan of Louisiana Blues. There, he encouraged the work of such famous Louisiana Bluesmen as Guitar Kelly, Silas Hogan, and Henry Gray. Thomas regularly appears at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and makes frequent trips to Europe.

"For me," says Thomas; "the blues is a release valve. A lot of people don't understand that you got all types of blues. You got happy blues you got some blues you have when you are sad, but the blues are not always a depressing thing. A guy can have a pocket full of money and still have the blues! Sometimes I will get up on the bandstand and I will be feeling real bad but, man--when I get to singing--I come down and I will be as high as a kite!"

Thompson, Luke

Bluegrass Musician and Mandolin Craftsman

Louisiana is strongly identified with many styles of music such as Dixieland-style jazz and blues, country, zydeco, Cajun, and even rock. But one typically doesn't associate the Bayou State with bluegrass. Luke Thompson has been working for the past 40 years to change that. Luke's musical roots go back to his childhood in Natalbany, Louisiana. Natabany is a sawmill town an hour-and-a-half drive east of Baton Rouge and north of New Orleans. Thompson's grandfather was an old-time fiddle player who encouraged Luke and his brother, Cecil, to nurture their musical talents. Both began as guitar players, but eventually moved on to other instruments.

Luke first switched to a fiddle, then to a four-string banjo, and lastly to a mandolin. Cecil soon switched to a five-string banjo. Luke and Cecil's music was at first influenced by artists such as Eddy Arnold and Hank Williams. They then discovered the sound of Bill Monroe-an artist who would influence the Thompson boys' music from that point on. The early years were harsh and filled with disappointments interspersed with small successes. Both Luke and Cecil gave up the band at different times to work at other jobs that provided more security than the music business had to offer, but both found themselves drawn back to music time and again. Their first band was Green Valley Boys, but Luke found out the name was already being used by Carl Sauceman, and the band's name was changed to the Green Valley Cutups. The band played most of Bill Monroe's tunes, as well as country ballads throughout the late '40s and early '50s. Luke then left the band to work on the railroad. He later left the railroad and went to Kentucky, where he managed to land his own 15-minute daily radio show. After some hard economic times, Luke returned to Louisiana, where he teamed up once again with his old band. Luke and the band played on the Louisiana Hayride sporadically and in 1960, Luke recorded "I'm Lost Between the Falling Snow and Mountain, Sweetheart." The recording was seen as a success, though it did not crack the charts. Luke next directed his energies to helping promote bluegrass by helping Lester Hodge in originating the Old South Jamboree, which featured country and western music as well as bluegrass.

In 1968, Luke established the first bluegrass festival in the state, and it continued into the mid-1980s. In addition to being a fine musician, Luke Thompson has also come to be known as one of the finest craftsmen of mandolins and other musical instruments. This came about after Luke took a mandolin to a Gibson factory to have it repaired. Luke had done some custom inlay work on the headstock and the Gibson inspector informed Thompson that the mandolin was one of Gibson's custom mandolins. When Luke told the inspector that the inlay work was his own, the inspector tried to get Luke to go to work for the Gibson factory. However, family responsibilities resulted in Thompson's return to Louisiana. Eventually, Luke did sign a contract to build mandolins for the Gibson Company, and to this day he is considered to be one of the finest mandolin makers in the world. And although he'd rather be making music, Luke Thompson is kept busier making the fine instruments for which he is known.

Tippit, J.A. "Bill"

Broom Maker

Mr. Tippit was born in 1915 in Melugin, in southwest Missouri near the Ozark Mountains. In 1925, he moved to Lottie, Louisiana, with his father, a railroad maintenance foreman. Later, Mr. Tippit and his brother worked for Union Pacific Railroad as maintenance foremen.

Mr. Tippit now lives in Port Allen, Louisiana, makes handmade brooms of red straw that he grows and harvests himself. Mr. learned broom making from a neighbor, Hewitt Bonaventure. Mr. Bonaventure was originally from False River, where people raised broom straw and had been making their own brooms for many years. His wife, a Louisiana native, remembers her Cajun grandparents growing their own broom straw and making brooms in the Little Teche area, tying them with baling wire, and then covering the wire with string. She explains, "These older brooms were round, and they don't cover much territory."

Using an old broom press that he salvaged and restored, Mr.Tippit binds the straw to a wooden handle, and stitches the straw by hand. Some of his pieces have wooden broomsticks, and others use the bundled, full stalks of the broom straw as handles. Mr. Tippit says, "I have always liked old timey things like dipper gourds, and I raise gourds as well as red broom straw near my house."

Local stores do not carry red broom straw seed. The seeds are saved and handed down from one family to the next. Mr. Bonaventure gave a few seeds to Bill Tippit to plant. From this first crop, he saved more seeds and harvested enough straw to make a few brooms. Learning to bind the brooms tightly was the most difficult part, he says. Mr. Bonaventure showed him how to use a rope thrown over a tree branch, and a small stick tied to the rope to tighten the binding. Mr. Tippit explains, "You put the stick on the end of the rope and you wrap that rope around the broom, then you sit on it and pull it tight and just keep working, pull it back and forth, putting tension on the rope to get the broom tight. When the broom is tight enough, a sharpened broomstick is driven into the broom." Mr. Bill uses old broom handles that he has sanded down, stained and varnished. Finally, he puts a hook in each broom handle.

Some of his brooms are the old-fashioned round style, but most are fanned out. Each broom has three layers of straw, and Mr. Tippit uses three templates he made himself to trim the layers to the proper length. The brooms are hand-sewn together. He first used two long needles designed for mattresses. When one broke, he asked a local business to design a pliable needle that would not break easily. They made four needles from an old stainless steel rod, which he uses today. According to Mr. Tippit, it does not take long to sew a broom. He became more knowledgeable about his skill during a visit with Silver Dollar City, Missouri, broom makers. They taught him tricks like how to hide the end of the string.

Mr. Tippit is a member of the Louisiana Crafts Program. He has attended various festivals around the state such as, the Native Crafts Festival from 1986 through 1994, The Magnolia Mound in 1991, and the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival.

Touchstone, Samuel

Herbal and Folk Remedies

Samuel Touchstone was born in Florien, Louisiana, in 1926. Samuel is retired from the United States Air Force and enjoys oral history, making beads, writing, and displaying herbs. He first learned to create bead necklaces from his mother who learned the craft from an elder Choctaw woman. Samuel continues to make bead necklaces in traditional Choctaw patterns and has taught his children the form.

Mr. Touchstone has written several books, including Herbal and Folk Medicine of North Louisiana and Folk-Life Series, Vol 1. He has also written articles in newspapers, magazines, and journals.

Trevigne, Barbara A.

Doll Maker and Storyteller

Miss Trevigne is a lifelong resident of New Orleans, Louisiana. She has a Masters' degree in Social Sciences and works as a clinical social worker. Miss Trevigne has one son and a granddaughter.

Barbara acquired her artform as a child from her grandmother and began professionally using it in 1987. Tools to make her dolls consist of craft brushes, needles, and both natural and synthetic materials.

Miss Trevigne has publicly demonstrated in South Carolina, Florida, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Some of her artwork was placed in a permanent collection in the White House; and she has an exhibit in the Creole State Exhibit at the Cabildo Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was recognized as a playwright on the subject of New Orleans History.

Tucker, Les

Fiddler and Guitarist

Born and raised on a farm in Arkansas, Les Tucker started playing both fiddle and guitar around 1940. He plays by ear and learned to play by being around other musicians in his community. Mr. Tucker has played at festivals, in fiddle contests, at various retirement complexes, and nursing homes.

For many years, Les played with a band called the Grey Eagles. Since the summer of 1995, he and two other members of the Grey Eagles have been working hard developing a repertoire of Western Swing music. The new band The Last Chance Band features Texas Swing, but the band also sticks close to their roots with traditional Arkansas and Louisiana tunes.

The band looks forward to performing at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival in Natchitoches. Performing individually, Les has won the Senior Division of the Louisiana State Old Time Fiddler's Contest twice. Les and his wife, Peggy, travel widely, stopping to jam and enjoy fiddling contests and other musical gatherings when opportunity affords.

Tyler Family

Clifton Choctaw Crafts

The Tyler family has long worked in traditional arts.  Ms. Kathlene Thomas, Ms. Elois Tyler, and their mother, Ms. Ruth Tyler have crafted traditional Native American items such as pinestraw baskets and beadwork. Each of them quilts and has created needlework pieces. The male members of the family made syrup for many years and hunt and fish regularly; most are employed in the building trades, and they have produced elaborate woodworked pieces.

The Tylers have worked closely with other Native American communities to learn more about their native traditions such as basketry and they have worked diligently to promote their Clifton Choctaw culture and to document those traditions within their community. The Tyler family has lived in the Clifton area for over three generations, and their family has made an impact in this small community.

In 2005, the Tyler Family were inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists.

Veret, Ferill

Cock Fighting Traditions, Swamp Traditions, Fisherman, and Hunter

Ferril Verret (nicknamed "Farouche" or "Wild") lives in Catahoula with his wife Carla. His grandfather had a store on Bayou Chene, and the Verret family are long-time swamp dwellers. For many years they have trapped, hunted, and fished for a living in the Atchafalaya Basin. Ferril carries on these traditional ways of living. He learned to fish and hunt as a child from his father and grandfather. He still fishes and hunts seasonally and is very experienced in swamp traditions such as crawfishing, catfishing, and hunting deer, wild turkeys, and other wildfowl.

He is also very knowledgeable about cockfighting, a traditional Cajun pastime. He produces monthly cockfights during the season, and has demonstrated at the St. Martin Boucherie.

Like many Cajun men in the region, he is a fine camp-style cook. He is an excellent demonstrator who speaks knowledgeably about many aspects of Atchafalya life, camp living, and cooking.

Verret, Errol

Cajun Musician, Accordion Maker, and Boat Maker

Errol Verret played the accordion with the popular Cajun band Beausoleil for almost a decade before joining the Basin Brothers. Born and raised along the Atchafalaya River Basin, he is one of Louisiana's most highly regarded accordionists. He is recognized for his unusually graceful and innovative accordion style, which combines the essence of old-style Cajun playing with original counterpoints and outstanding technique. He has performed with many well-know musicians like Richard Thompson, Emmy Lou Harris, and Chet Atkins.

Errol has recorded with Beausoleil and the Basin Brothers, as well as with Sonny Landreth, Joel Sonnier, Dennis McGee, Canray Fontenot, and others. With Beausoleil and the Basin Brothers, he has performed at clubs and festivals throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, including the Smithsonian's Festival of American Folklife, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and concerts at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center.

He is also a highly skilled accordion maker and his Evangeline accordions are regarded as among the most beautiful and finest sounding Cajun accordions available. As a master musical instrument maker, he is a member of the Louisiana Crafts Program.

Errol Verret is also a master boat builder who has built pirogues, houseboats, and other boats traditional to the Atchafalya Basin. In 1991, he received a Louisiana Folklife Apprenticeship grant to teach wooden boat building to apprentice Garland Frederick. He received a National Endowment for the Arts grant to build a wooden houseboat under the tutelage of master boat builder Albert Latiolais in 1986. He is also a fine cook, specializing in traditional Cajun camp dishes like crawfish etoufee, gumbo, and Cajun barbecue. He is knowledgeable about many other aspects of traditional life in his Atchafalaya homeland, like crawfishing and net-making.

Verret, Ollie

Cajun Foodways, Quilter, and Dancer

Ollie Theriot Verret was born in Breaux Bridge in 1935 to Devine Bijeaux and Noe Theriot, and speaks French and English fluently. She now lives in Catahoula with her husband, Rives Verret, Sr. Mrs. Verret is retired from working in the cafeteria at Martin Mills. She is an excellent cook known for her sweet dough tarts and other traditional Cajun dishes. She is also a fine traditional Cajun dancer and quilter as well as an expert on French Louisiana traditions in the Catahoula area.

With her husband, Verret dances every week in the old style of Cajun dancing. She says that she grew up with Cajun waltzes, two-steps, and jitterbugs, and has been dancing since the age of ten. She learned primarily from her parents and friends, and recalls dancing at the Wild Cherry Club in Breaux Bridge with her parents. Ollie and Rives Verret are dance champions who have won numerous awards at Mulate's Cajun Dance Competition, the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival, the Catahoula Church Fair, as well as other events.

As a girl, she learned to cook from her family, and still cooks with her sister Lillian Blanchard. For a recent folklife tour of the Catahoula area, Mrs. Verret and Mrs. Blanchard prepared sweet dough tarts for a large group of folklorists. She also talked to them about Easter customs in Catahoula, including the tradition known locally as "Pie Day."

Ollie Verret grew up around quilting bees, in which neighborhood women gathered at each other's homes to sew and visit. She vividly describes these old-fashioned quilting bees and how the work was shared. Children were assigned certain tasks, while the women took care of others. Mrs. Verret still quilts using the techniques she learned as a girl.

With her husband, she is actively involved in many of the benefits organized in Catahoula and is regularly involved in many other community activities.

Viator, Deborah Helen

Fiddle and Violin Maker

Deborah Viator was born on June 12, 1956 and currently lives in Eunice, Louisiana. She speaks three languages: German, French, and English. Deborah creates beautifully made fiddles and violins. She has also taught her two children how to make and play the fiddle and violin.

The instruments that Deborah creates have unique head carvings: horses, women, animal heads, mermaids, skull, etc. Many colors are utilized: charcoal, burnt sienna, chocolate, cherry red, deep forest green, midnight blue, etc. Deborah has demonstrated at many festivals throughout the country and beyond including the Natchitoches Folklife Festival, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival, Festivals Acadiens, Takoma Park Folk Festival, Fiddles of the World in Nova Scotia, etc.

Vogel, H Sherman

Wood Turner

Sherman Vogel was born in North Carolina on April 3, 1950 and now resides in Goldonna, Louisiana. Sherman has a B.A. and B.S. degree and is a teacher. He currently enjoys wood turning as a hobby. Since 1980, he has been utilizing using lathe, tools, and green stock gathered from the forest. He is self-taught, and demonstrates at festivals in Louisiana.

Vorise, Chester Sr.

Walking Stick and Figurine Carver

Chester Vorise, Jr., was born in Seattle, Washington, on June 14, 1948. He now resides in Alexandria, Louisiana, and has five children. Chester is self-taught in woodworking. He carves walking sticks, which can take up to sixty to seventy hours to make from oak, hickory, and crepe myrtle. Chester uses a chainsaw, hammer, chisel, and pocket knife to carve wood and make walking sticks. In addition to walking sticks, Chester carves miniature statues that can take up to two hundred hours to create.

Chester has demonstrated his craft at the River Oak Square in Natchitoches and at the Alexandria Museum.

Vujnovich, Peter Jr.

Oyster Farmer

Croatians from the Dalmatian coast have long played a key role in the oyster industry of southeastern Louisiana. Like their presence in the oyster industry, Croatian American culture remains strong in pockets of Plaquemines and Orleans Parishes.

Peter Vujnovich, Jr. is a third-generation oyster farmer who lives in Port Sulphur, Louisiana. Born in 1960 in New Orleans, he has had hands-on experience in fishing oysters in the Barataria Bay area since he was a boy. He learned from his father, "Captain Pete" Vujnovich, who had learned oyster farming from his father. After studying biology in college, Peter, Jr. decided to return to oyster fishing with his father and brother.

The Louisiana oyster industry has changed greatly since the senior Pete Vujnovich's youth. Oysters were collected with hand-held tongs before dredges became common during the l930s. Seed oysters were once shoveled by hand onto reefs. Today, fishermen use water pumps to seed oysters. Some aspects of oyster fishing have changed a little, oyster fishermen still knit the netting for their dredge baskets by hand. Pete Vujnovich learned using a square knot, in a technique much like knitting on a trawl or cast net.

Peter, Jr. and his brother supply the oysters sold at Captain Pete's Oysters, the family's seafood supply business on North Rampart Street in New Orleans. It is owned and run by their parents. The Vujnovich family owns two boats and lease about 1600 acres of oyster beds, including beds their paternal grandfather once worked. They actually work about 400 acres of these beds. Peter, Jr.'s grandfather worked about 100-150 acres, but fishermen need more acreage today because they use dredges rather than tongs to harvest oysters.

Peter Vujnovich, Jr. and his five siblings grew up with a number of traditions from their parents' homeland. These included traditional Croatian foodways, participation in the United Slovenian Benevolent Society, and of course, oyster fishing.

Peter Vujnovich, Jr. has participated in the Louisiana Folklife Festival and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival demonstrating and explaining various aspects of this traditional occupation.

Watley, Preston

Chairmaker

Preston Watley was born in 1932, in Eunice, Louisiana, where he presently lives with his wife Lona. The Watleys have seven children. He owns his own craft shop in Eunice where he makes Cypress benches, cupboards, and chairs with cowhide seats.

Mr. Watley learned to put cowhide on chairs from his father using an old technique. His tools consist of salt, water, cowhide, chair, and a knife. He wets and salts the hide before applying it to the chair. He has been covering chairs for almost fifty years using this method.

Mr. Watley demonstrates his crafts at festivals throughout South Louisiana.

Wells, Steve

Musician, Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival Sound and Lighting

Natchitoches native Steve Wells has worked with the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival since its beginning.  Wells has managed sound and lighting for the event for more than 25 years. While sound and lighting are two of his talents, Wells is also a musician, and he has worked with many Louisiana musicians and with Louisiana music.  Wells plays keyboard and has worked as a vocalist and accompanist.  He continues to perform as well as to provide sound and lighting at a variety of community events.

The Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival would not be possible without his hard work and dedication.  One year, Wells even worked while in a cast for a broken leg. In 2004, he was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists.

White, Rose

Pinestraw Basketmaker

Rose is a member of Louisiana's Tunica-Biloxi tribe, the daughter of late chief Joseph Pierite (of the Tunica and Biloxi tribes) and Rose Jackson Pierite (Choctaw and Biloxi).

She learned to weave rivercane and honeysuckle baskets from her parents on the reservation. Her mother had learned from her own mother. Ana Mae Juneau, Rose's sister and also a basket maker, commented on the impact of the basketry craft with her tribe: "This is how we made our living. When I was young, our Indian people could not get jobs, and we could not go to the white or black schools. They did not have schools for us Indians. We learned to make the baskets" for income. "Basket making has always been a traditional art and craft from among our tribe and other American Indians. For many years we had many people who learned to do these things. This is no longer the case, and now it is necessary that we be careful that we do not lose these things of our ways." Norma Khawaja, another of Rose's sisters, also make baskets and her late brother, Joe Pierite, made Indian drums.

Whitstein, Charles

Traditional Country Musician

In 1980, a Louisiana Hayride promoter, Tillman Franks, heard Charles and brother Robert Whitstein sing. Fascinated by their amazing vocal harmony, Franks asked the brothers to make a demo tape of some of their songs. Encouraged by the response to this tape, Charles and Bob went to Nashville to put an album together. One veteran Nashville music critic said, "Upon hearing the album, they're gonna revolutionize the way people up here do harmony."

The brothers grew up around Colfax, Louisiana. Their father, Roy C. Whitstein, was a skilled guitar player, singer, and fiddler. On Sundays, Roy and his wife sang gospel music in various churches. Naturally, Robert and Charles, the oldest of nine children, were hooked by the sound. By age 11, Robert and Charles were playing mandolin, guitar, and singing on local television shows like "Search for Talent" and "Country Time." From these appearances, the young boys gained recognition and were able to make their first record, "Louisiana Woman" and "You Told Him," which was a regional hit.

Eventually, Nashville beckoned. Taking advantage of the popular shows Hootnanny of the '60s, Bob and Charles appeared three times on Grand Old Opry, toured with Faron Young, worked with Porter Wagoner and with the Kitty Wells-Johnny Wright Show. Unfortunately, the Vietnam War reared its head and the boys were drafted, and for ten years or more their careers were put on hold. Finally returning to Nashville in 1984, the brothers put together a successful album. This album pays tribute to some brother duos of the past-the Louvins, Blue Sky Boys, The Callahan Brothers, and The Del Brothers--while it adapts their duet style to more modern country songs.

Their sound is unique and pleasing to fans. They have been selected by Rounder records for five LP's, participated in repeated performances on the Grand Old Opry, and toured the United States, Japan, and Canada. They have appeared at art centers, folk festivals, and bluegrass festivals. They were Grammy finalists and top five in 1990. Their album Rose of My Heart was voted by Library of Congress as album of the year. In 1991, Gov. Edwards and the state of Louisiana honored the Whitstein Brothers with a Special Recognition Award for their contribution to Louisiana's musical heritage.

The photograph appears courtesy of Rounder Records Corp. It is taken from Rounder Compact Disc 3719, The Whitstein Brothers: Sweet Harmony.

Whitstein,Robert "Bob"

Bluegrass and Traditional Country Musician

Bon Whitstein is a timber contractor who is making it big on the Nashville music scene-for the second time! Modest about his success and the international recognition in the United States, Europe, and Japan as part of the Whitstein Brothers duo, Bob Whitstein notes that, "Regardless of what song it is, we still have our own sound we go by. It's unique today, we think; we haven't heard anyone else doing it."

When Bob mentions the uniqueness of their duet singing, it should be noted that he is referring to that close-harmony singing which was once considered the very soul of country music.

It all started in the country around Colfax, Louisiana. Here the brothers, who were just a year apart, grew up with the music their father "fed" them. Roy C. Whitstein, a skilled guitarist, singer, and fiddler, performed a Saturday show in Alexandria. Hank Williams, Roy Acuff, the Louvin Brothers, and the Blue Sky Boys were the fare of the day. On Sundays, Roy and his wife sang gospel music in various churches. Charles and Bob, the oldest of nine children, were hooked by the sound. By age 11, Robert and Charles were playing mandolin and guitar and singing on local T.V. shows like Search for Talent and Country Time. From these T.V. appearances, the young boys gained recognition and were able to make their first record, "Louisiana Woman" and "You Told Him," which was a regional hit.

Eventually, Nashville beckoned. Bob and Charles appeared three times on Grand Ole Opry, toured with Faron Young, and worked with Porter Wagoner and with the Kitty Wells-Johnny Wright Show. The Vietnam War put their careers on hold for ten years or more. Finally returning to Nashville in 1984, the brothers put together a successful album which paid tribute to some of those brother duos of the past-the Louvins, Blue Sky Boys, the Callahan Brothers, and The Del Brothers-while adapting their duet style to more modern country songs.

Whatever the labels put on Charles and Bob Whitstein's music, their five LPs for Rounder records, repeat appearances at the Grand Ole Opry, participation at various festivals, and successful tours of the United States, Europe, Japan, and Canada, prove that their sound is unique and "harmoniously pleasing" to thousands of fans.

The photograph appears courtesy of Rounder Records Corp. It is taken from Rounder Compact Disc 3719, The Whitstein Brothers: Sweet Harmony.

Whittaker, Leon "Pee Wee"

Trombonist
(1906 - 1993)

Leon "Pee Wee" Whittaker was born an only child to Kizzie and Tom Whittaker in Newellton, Louisiana circa 1906.  When Pee Wee was a young boy his family moved into the city.  After his parents separated, he was raised mostly by his mother, Kizzie.  Pee Wee remembers his mother's musical ability to play "most anything".  Mrs. Whittaker took Pee Wee on tour with her until he was old enough to go to school.

Pee Wee lived with his maternal grandfather, who played the violin, during the academic year.  He studied with a Professor Smith who would visit from Alcorn College in Mississippi.  His instruction included reading music and playing various instruments such as the clarinet, trombone, guitar, string bass, and mandolin.

Between 1917 and 1918, Pee Wee's family moved further up the Mississippi River into Lake Village, Arkansas.  His mother left her musical career to become a Missionary Baptist preacher.  When he finished school, Pee Wee joined his family's band, playing the mandolin.  A friend and school mate of Pee Wee's (Louis Jordan) later went on to become a famous saxophone player, singer, songwriter, and band leader.  Sometimes Pee Wee and Louis Jordan would run off and join a traveling minstrel show, particularly F.S. Wolcott's Rabbit's Foot Minstrels.

Pee Wee's family moved once more to Greenville, Mississippi.  Not long after, Pee Wee began playing string bass in a band led by Trombonist Tullus Washington.  Around 1925, the Washington family moved to Chicago and the band broke up.  About two years later, Pee Wee joined Harry Walker's band.  He left town with the band and didn't come home for seven or eight years.  The band traveled throughout Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi.

Pee Wee left Henry Walker around 1935 and hitchhiked to Monroe, Louisiana.  There he joined the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, touring up and down the Mississippi River.  He played in the band for nearly fifteen years.  By the early 1950's, the music industry became increasingly difficult.  Pee Wee began looking for a home base and finally settled in El Dorado, Arkansas.  There he formed a band that played small circuits.

In 1954, Pee Wee moved to Ferriday, Louisiana.  Pee Wee brought his whole band, and they soon landed two great gigs.  From 1955 to 1963, Pee Wee received the opportunity to play with Doc Morris and his band associated with a small circus out of Michigan, traveling all over Canada and England!  However, in his sixth year Pee Wee grew tired of the road and went home to Ferriday.  He retired around 1963 and was inducted into the Hall of Master Folk Artists in 1982.

Pee Wee Whittaker passed away at the age of 87.  Along with Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmy Swaggart, and Mickey Gilley, jazz/blues/rock trombonist Leon "Pee Wee" Whittaker was among the initial inductees into the Delta Music Museum and Hall of Fame in Ferriday, Louisiana in March, 2002.  His widow and son were on hand to receive his award.

Wiley, Don

Louisiana Bluegrass Musician

Don Wiley's music has undergone several changes during his career. His career began when he was eight years old playing guitar accompaniment to his father's fiddle. He would later take up Cajun music and finally settle into what he calls Louisiana Bluegrass. After his marriage, he left music to dedicate himself to family life, but in 1959, a call came out for help from the community to help raise money for a young person who needed heart surgery. Wiley played at charity events that brought in $5,000 in about four weeks. That act of charity brought him back to music. Wiley has been an influence on the Central Louisiana scene for over 50 years, beginning with the group he formed at sixteen, The Carolina Playboys. This group was a popular band who played a 45-minute radio show five mornings a week on KVOB in Alexandria. Wiley recalls, "Back in the '40s, we were The Carolina Playboys, but only one of us was from Carolina, the bass player. Well, nobody would book you back then in the clubs hardly if you were from Louisiana. We were all from around Alexandria, but the club owners wanted traveling musicians from out of state, so we called ourselves The Carolina Playboys."

After Wiley's return to music, he hormed a newband: Don Wiley and the Catahoula Playboys. Just three years later, Wiley and his partner of 31 years, J. C. Henderson, founded "The Catahoula Country Music Show." This stage show was aired on both KALB-TV of Alexandria and KNOE-TV of Monroe. Over 500 country music entertainers, including many Grand Ole Opry stars and Alexandria's Ruble Wright, appeared on the Catahoula Country Music Show. A thirteen-week television series was produced from this endeavor for a California company, and two record albums were released that helped spread the music of Don Wiley and the Catahoula Playboys across the nation.

In 1978, Wiley switched his musical style to bluegrass and formed another band, Don Wiley and Louisiana Bluegrass. Wiley explained, "I've always been partial to bluegrass. Lester Flatt was always my idol, so I went completely bluegrass in 1978." Though bluegrass is their primary style of music, Louisiana Bluegrass plays its own version of the music, and they play a lot of Cajun in other states, "... the crowd demands it," explains Wiley. Wiley and his band are determined to give their fans what they want-a great blend of bluegrass, Cajun, and country music.

**

Pictured in the photograph above are, left to right, Gene King, Bill Landrum, Otis Roberts, Junior Trisler, Lawrence Roberts, and Don Wiley. The photograph includes members of the Catahoula Country Music Show. Other regulars on the show not pictured here were J.C. Henderson, Ruble Wright, and Bobby Dan Masses

Williams, Nathan

Zydeco Musician

Born in 1963 in Lafayette, Zydeco accordionist and vocalist Nathan Williams stands out among southwest Louisiana's young Zydeco musicians. Known for his talent for composing songs like "Everything on a Hog" and "Ain't Nobody Gonna Help You," Nathan is one of the better young piano accordion players performing today.

The son of Florita and Sidney Williams, he is also the brother of Sidney Williams. Sidney is the owner of El Sido's, a well known Zydeco club in Lafayette. Nathan says that he was inspired to play the accordion by Stanley "Buckwheat Zydeco" Dural, who taught him to play at El Sido's.

Nathan and "the Zydeco Cha-Chas" combine elements of rural and urban Zydeco, with a repertoire that draws equally on English and French songs. They have recorded several successful albums. A highly acclaimed 1995 release on Rounder Records, titled "Creole Crossroads," paired Nathan Williams and "the Zydeco Cha-Chas" with Cajun fiddler Michael Doucet of "Beausoleil" for a rare cross-cultural perspective.

With his band, Nathan Williams has performed throughout the United States and abroad. They remain a popular draw at home in southwest Louisiana, at El Sido's, other clubs, and festivals like the Plaisance Zydeco Festival, Festivals Acadiens, and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

**

Photograph courtesy of The Rounder Records Group. Nathan Williams and the Zydeco Cha Chas are available on Rounder 212

Wilson, Myrna

Koasati Pinestraw Basketmaker

Myrna Wilson, a member of the Koasati (Coushatta) tribe in Elton, Louisiana, is the daughter of Bel and Nora Abbey, Koasati traditionalists.  Born into a family with strong ties to their culture, Wilson was destined to learn the crafts of her people.  She began making pinestraw baskets as a child of three years, a craft she learned from her mother and grandmother.  Wilson and her sister, Marjorie Battise, learned to make coiled baskets, as all of the little girls were expected to learn basketry from their mothers.  The baskets were sold to collectors as a primary source of income for the family.  Mrs. Wilson still uses the same materials for her baskets today.  The only tool required is a sewing needle, and the materials needed are pine straw and raffia, a fiber made from palm leaves.

Mrs. Wilson has presented her baskets at folk festivals and events such as the Louisiana Folklife Festival in Baton Rouge, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the annual "Basket Day" in Williamson Museum, the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival, and the Bayou Indian Festival.  Wilson has some pine straw vases in the Creole State Exhibit and the Folklife Program Collection in the Alexandria Museum.

Wilson has worked hard to preserve her Koasati cultural heritage, not only with her crafts, but also with her stories.  Like her father, Bel Abbey, and sister, Marjorie Abbey Battise, she was inducted into the Louisiana Hall of Master Folk Artists in 1982 for her contributions to the Koasati tribe and the Louisiana Folklife Center.

Researched and rewritten by Samantha Sullivan.

Wimberly, Rufus "Rip"

Blues Guitarist

Rufus "Rip" Wimberly was born in Arcadia, Louisiana on December 7, 1926. He now resides in Tallulah, Louisiana where he plays blues guitar in the Bits 'N Pieces Blues band. Rufus first began playing the guitar as a child and learned to play by ear from family members and community members. In Rip's blues band, all of the members are of Afro-French culture that is evident through their music.

Rip has been featured in several newspaper articles. He has performed at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Louisiana Folklife Festival, and at festivals throughout the Mississippi Delta.

Woodward, Rick

Musician

Rick Woodward has been a musician since his youth.  Woodward grew up in a musical family, so it is not unusual that he would pursue this interest.  He began playing guitar at age 12 and wrote several songs as a youngster.  Woodward's father was a well-known musician, having played with Bill Monroe and Bill Nettles during the 1930s and 1940s.  Both of Woodard's brothers played with popular local bands.

Woodward however, as a youth, could get few lessons from his older brothers and says: "There was a show on TV. at that time with Jose' Feliciano, and I would watch him make a chord on the guitar then turn off the TV. and try to make that chord on the guitar.  I learned two chords that way and played them until my mom said I had to learn something else or move out.  So, I could say I learned how to play from a blind man."

Woodward's sense of humor, warm personality, and musical talent led him to be an assistant pastor at New Hope Baptist Church in Hargis, Louisiana.  He sang for a time with his brother in a gospel group and also sat in with other well-known local musicians.  He worked hard to learn the musical styles of the blues guitar and harmonica.

After living and playing with many famous blues musicians in Memphis, Tennessee, Woodward returned to Louisiana and began to play with fellow Hall of Master Folk Artist Inductee, Rick Seale.  Together, they formed the Hoodoo Papas.  He continues to write songs and performs regularly.  Woodward was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 2005.

Young, Allie "Nonc"

Accordion Player for the "Basile Cajun Band"

Nonc (Uncle) Allie, as everyone called him, lived near his birthplace just south of Basile, Louisiana. Nonc, whose musical career began over eighty years ago, led a simple and happy life with his wife and children. As a young man, Allie worked on the farm where he was born; when World War II broke out, however, he learned the sheet metal trade, and he and his wife moved to Orange, Texas to work in the shipyards. After the war, the couple returned to the family farm where Young opened the country grocery store which they operated for twenty-eight years. Upon retirement, Nonc Allie began to travel more and to play Cajun music professionally.

Allie Young, who is respected by Cajun musicians of every generation, began preparing for his legendary career as a very young child. Young Allie loved accordion music and he wanted to play so much that he fashioned for himself an accordion made from folded cardboard on which he "played" all day. Finally, at age eight, his father bought him a used accordion for $3.50. Allie began to watch and to listen to those around him who could coax the coveted sound from their squeezeboxes. While doing so he learned the technique with ease at a fast pace.

By age twelve, Allie was performing at area fais-do-dos. He was his own agent as he and a friend went around on horseback trying to get neighbors to host a dance at which he would play his accordion. Assisted by a single triangle player who beat out the rhythms, Allie and his friend were busy playing several times a week.

Like most Cajun musicians, Nonc Allie did not depend on music to provide for his family, upon his retirement he began to travel widely and to tour with such country greats as Ricky Skaggs and "The Whites." While still playing for local events, in clubs, and at festivals, Allie stayed on the road quite a bit, too. He entertained audiences in almost every state in the United States, has thrilled crowds in Canada, France, and in ten Asian countries. He played Cajun music with some of the greatest names in Cajun music such as Leo Soileau, Nathan Abshire, D.L. Menard, Doc Guidry, Rufus Thibodeaux and Jimmy C. Newman. Nonc Allie played accordion with the "Balfa Brothers Band" for eight years.

Nonc Allie and the "Basile Cajun Band" were together from 1983 and until the time of Nonci's death-played the New Orleans World Fair, Festival Acadian, Frog Festival, Louisiana Folklife Festival, Jazz & Heritage Festival, Liberty Theater, Rice Festival, Rivertown Festival, Cajun Days Festival, Kitschie Folklife Festival, Freedom Festival, Gran Bois Festival, Pecan Festival, plus numerous night spots in Minneapolis, St. Louis, Chicago, New Orleans, and Houston. "Nonc" Allie Young was inducted into the Louisiana Hall of Master Folk Artists.

Yule, Ron

Fiddle Musician, Teacher, and Writer

Ron Yule has compiled one of the most authoritative and complete books on Louisiana Fiddling in existence.  Yule grew up in the Neutral Strip and currently lives in DeRidder.  He is a fiddler, and his interest in the instrument has led him to a career in fiddling and fiddle documentation.  He has taught numerous students who used the performance of fiddle tunes as a learning tool for old-time music as well as for understanding string band music.

Although many girls have come and gone, his group, the "Fiddlin Gals," has continued to jam and perform locally around DeRidder.  Over the years, they have played numerous fiddle styles, but have tended to focus on bluegrass.  Yule continues his work relating to Louisiana's fiddle traditions. He has served as emcee of the Louisiana State Fiddle Championship at the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival.  He was inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists in 2004.

Where to Buy Cypress Knee Art in Baton Rouge

Source: http://louisianafolklife.nsula.edu/artist-biographies/profiles/16..

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