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St. Landry Spirits Recall Their Lives

BOBBY ARDOIN

Editor/Consulting Writers

Spirits from the St. Landry Catholic Church Cemetery briefly escaped their entombments Sunday afternoon, as they visited with the living and provided snapshots from their earthly lives.

Eight former parish residents that included a physician, teacher, French-military aristocrat, Vietnam veteran, Opelousas firefighter, priest and a 19th century Gulf Coast hurricane survivor presented their impactful life’s stories often injecting comical anecdotes during a pair of annual Lessons From Our Past St. Landry Cemetery Tour presentations.

The annual event that began in 2003 costs $10 to attend and helps generate funding for cemetery repairs and upkeep..

Another round of spiritual appearances are scheduled Oct. 19-20 at the cemetery.

Those who walked through the graveyard on Sunday were cooled sporadically by a series of light breezes.

As the spirit of Gus Cahanin told those viewing the performances, “It’s a good day not to be in a grave.”

The Cahanin Story

Portrayed by former Opelousas fire chief and grandson Lee Cahanin, Gus Cahanin became the first city fire truck driver.

“I lived on Grolee Street near the fire station and at 15 I became the station mascot. Then I drove the fire truck,” Gus Cahanin spiritually related to the crowd.

Probably the most memorable blaze was the “PopCorn Fire” that required a response during the late 1930’s.

A barn owned on Opelousas’ north side by a sweet corn farmer named Pop, was destroyed by a fire. Firefighters attempted to save the structure, but were unsuccessful, Cahanin added.

The firefighters eventually helped rebuild the barn that Pop owned and were rewarded with more sweet corn, Gus Cahanin added.

Physician Oscar Bienvenue

Wildlife biologist Tony Vidrine appeared as Opelousas doctor Oscar Bienvenue, who served as a field physician in two world wars and provided medical treatment with brother Lionel Bienvenue for nearly 25 years.

The St. James Infirmary on South Main street was the home office for the Bienvenue medical practices, but Oscar told his audience that he often visited the homes of patients where he occasionally delivered newborns.     

Payments from patients were sometimes made in bartered items such as vegetables, boudin, chickens and hogshead cheese, Oscar said.

19th Century Teaching

Mary Irene Penne Bloch indicated in her Etha Amling-presented autobiography that she and other teachers lived austere lives, working for $75 monthly and were prevented by school districts from wearing makeup, smoking, drinking alcohol or having male acquaintances.

Students were restricted and punished for speaking French, since Bloch recalled English was needed as a pathway for earning a living.

Mary Irene eventually married John Henry Bloch, a Jewish-Creole, who served as Opelousas postmaster for six months before his ethnicity caused him to be replaced.

The couple eventually left Opelousas and afterward helped start schools in several different states.

Madeline King

A catastrophic hurricane that struck Lost Island 12 miles off the Louisiana coast in 1856 was a tragedy that local resident Madeline King and her daughter barely survived.

King recounted the experience as traumatic, since nearly half of those visiting the island for a weekend gala, perished as they were storm swept into the Gulf or buried in the sand.

Adding to the experience, said King, was the aftermath, as bands of thieves roamed the island, stealing jewels from the dead.

No help for the survivors came for five days.

Descendants of Madeline King included Doris Perkins, Morgan Goudeau and Tony Chachere, said Amanda Boutte, who appeared as Madeline King.

Foster Sonnier

Southern University and J.S. Clark High School graduate Foster Sonnier was 21 when he was fatally killed in a Vietnam War battle during a North Vietnamese Army attack along the Cambodian border.

Sonnier, portrayed by Magnet Academy For The Cultural Arts student Jayden Brown, had obtained a Spec 4 rank and was one of six U.S. servicemen killed during the attack that also wounded 29.

The firefight with the NVA involved a counter attack by the U.S. troops, Sonnier told those attending.

Constance Collins Littell

As a young girl, Constance Collins seemed infatuated with Dr. Moise Littell and after he returned to the Opelousas area from the War of 1812, the couple married, according to portrayer Donna Bourgoyne.

Constance Littell recalled that medical procedures during that era were often rudimentary, but Dr. Edward Millard, who married one daughter, developed a potent medical wine remedy that when applied heavily, acted as an anesthetic.

Millard was also responsible for examining Sacred Heart novice Mary Wilson, who church officials claim was miraculously cured in Grand Coteau during an 1860’s intervention by Saint John Berchmans.

After the occurrence, Millard and his family were inspired to donate money to the Grand Coteau nuns and paid for a 3,000-pound bell for the church there.

Antoine Garrigues de Flaujac

It’s easy to identify his tabletop grave, said de Flaujeac, who was presented by James Douget.

Born in France to a military family, de Flaujac had a number of global experiences before he acquired property and lived in the Grand Prairie area.

De Flaujac remembered being imprisoned by the British, surviving a storm that sank his ship in the Caribbean and after being rescued, served as an officer that helped with the Battle of New Orleans in 1815.

The general was placed in charge of a rifle battery that assisted in defeating the British as they marched across an open field along the Mississippi River bank near Chalmette.

For his service, General Andrew Jackson gifted de Flaujac with a sword and a brass-plated spy glass previously owned by a British general who died during the battle.

Father Charles Anderson

Charles Anderson, the first ordained Opelousas priest from St. Landry Catholic Church, didn’t realize his vocation until later in life, said MACA student presenter Joey Ardoin.

Father Anderson worked as a mercantile clerk, but later left for seminarian schools at St. Joseph’s New Orleans and Baltimore, after he was inspired by his association with St. Landry pastor John Engberink, Anderson recalled.

Anderson, whose grave is located near the rear of the cemetery, became affiliated with St. Vincent De Paul Catholic Church in New Orleans and worked with other clergy there until his death in 1958.   

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