A Gas Leak // The Evacuation of Grand Bayou
By Emilee Theriot, Staff Writer Christmas is a time to spend with loved ones, a time of giving and a time to make new memories, but for John Boudreaux and the Grand Bayou community, Christmas of 2003 was anything but festive. As the director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness for Assumption Parish, Boudreaux was […]
Natural Resources // Grand Bayou’s Salt Domes
By Emilee Theriot, Staff Writer In addition to a bounty of fish, animals and plant life above ground, the earth beneath Grand Bayou is rich with natural resources like salt domes, natural gas and oil. “Wherever you have a salt dome, somewhere along the line there is oil and gas,” Jerry Rousseau, a Grand Bayou […]
David Rousseau
Current Hometown: Plattenville Favorite Thing to Do Hunt and fish. Favorite Memory The close knit communities and family lifestyle. Most Missed I miss being so close to the outdoors. Grand Bayou Traditions I’m still best friends with my childhood friend, and we still have breakfast on the weekends near Grand Bayou. I’m still best friends […]
Jason Blanchard
Current Hometown: Houma Favorite Thing to Do Anything having to do with outside; shooting my pellet gun, crawfishing, playing in the woods. Favorite Memory Watching my grandfather work under an oak tree, washing cars, fixing a lawn mower, building a BBQ pit. All this was done on a Saturday morning. Most Missed I miss the […]
Jerry Rousseau
Current Hometown: Paincourtville Rousseau was born in Grand Bayou and lived there for 19 years. Favorite Thing to Do Fish, hunt and swim. Favorite Memory It was a quiet, family-oriented place where you didn’t even have to lock your doors. No one would ever bother you or ever try to steal from you. Most Missed […]
Joy Rousseau Banta
Current Hometown: Paincourtville Favorite Thing to Do Ride in a boat and fish. Favorite Memory My house was the go-to house, and my family had a shed that my friends and I would play in all day; as well as riding in a boat and fishing by rowboat. Most Missed I miss the community and […]
Randy “Wop” Rousseau
Current Hometown: Belle River Rousseau was born in Grand Bayou. He moved away at 19, but moved back in 1991 and lived there until he was permanently evacuated in 2011. Favorite Thing to Do Being in the bayous before the alligators — there’s a lot of alligators in the water now that they didn’t have […]
Education // Bayou Way of Learning
By Shaun Breaux, Features Editor Grand Bayou may not have been the biggest or most developed area, but for the people born and raised in this bayouside community, they made it work not only out of necessity, but because they enjoyed their way of life. “Being five miles away from everything, like the grocery store, […]
The Families // Settling Along Grand Bayou
Grand Bayou was just a few families with Acadian ancestry that collected together on the bayou. From the lineage of the largest of those families, the Rousseaus and Daigles, to the arrangement of their homes in the community, for those who lived in Grand Bayou, these details shaped everyday life.
The Settlement // How Grand Bayou First Came to Be
By Wes Rhodes, Staff Writer Gustave Joseph de La Barre, or “Gus,” as people called him, was born in 1864, and is considered the patriarch of Grand Bayou according to De La Barre: Life of a French Creole Family in Louisiana. The De la Barre family text says that Gus was a natural leader who […]