CAROLA LILLIE HARTLEY
Publisher and Contributing Writer
This Photo from the Past is the family of Dr. Armand Lafleur (December 19, 1871 – July 11, 1939) and Mary Evelyn (Mamie) Fontenot Lafleur (June 20, 1879 – December 16, 1868). (Photograph courtesy of Tommy Lafleur)
Dr. Armand Lafleur, the son of Arthelus Lafleur and Adele Pitre, was born on a large plantation at Bellaire’s Cove in St. Landry Parish. He was a well-respected physician in St. Landry and Evangeline Parishes.
Dr. Lafleur studied medicine at the Medical College in Louisville, KY, where he graduated. He returned to the area of his birth, where he began his practice, settling on a farm in an area near Ville Platte, LA, at that time in St. Landry Parish, but later in Evangeline Parish. After Evangeline Parish was created, out of part of St. Landry Parish, Dr. Lafleur became the first coroner of that new parish in 1912.
When Dr. Lafleur made his rounds in the parish and the area, he frequently took along his young cousin Ertemon Lafleur, who later became a physician as well. One of his other young cousins Moise Lafleur, also became a physician.
Dr. Lafleur married Mary Evelyn “Mamie” Fontenot, the daughter of Elibe Larose Fontenot and Charlotte E. Quirk Fontenot.
Shown in this c.1905 photograph is the family of Dr. Armand Lafleur and Mamie Fontenot Lafleur. The boys from left to right are: Leo Levi Lafleur, Teurling Thomas (T.T.) Lafleur, Aaron Lafleur, and Leslie Lafleur (who died shortly after the photograph was taken). The adults in the photograph are Mamie Fontenot Lafleur, Dr. Armand Lafleur and Charlotte Quirk Fontenot, Mamie’s mother who the family affectionately called “Gummy.”
