Adele Dupré Rousseau
Marcellin Rousseau Adele Dupré Rousseau Adele Dupré Rousseau Adele Dupré Rousseau Adele Dupré Rousseau Adele Dupré Rousseau Adele Dupré Rousseau “Mamere” with her grandchildren Tombstone Adele and Marcellin Rousseau’s tombstone in the St. Elizabeth Cemetery feature: from the past By Stephen Donovan, Staff Writer Adele Marie Dupre Rousseau’s influence on the people of Grand Bayou can still be seen through her many descendants today. She was born on Dec. 31, 1886, in Bayou Corne, La. to Louis Isidore Dupre, Jr. and Marie Malvina Gastal Dupre and was baptized at St. Elizabeth Catholic Church in Paincourtville, La. on Jan 12, 1887. She was married to Marcellin Rousseau on July 10, 1901, at the age of 14 at the first officiated wedding held at St. Elizabeth. Today, Adele Rousseau—or Mamere, as she is referred to—lives on in the memories of her grandchildren. Her son Earl penned an article in The Bayou Journal on Aug. 2, 2005, detailing how she influenced much of the family. “When I was a small child she insisted I arrange my clothes, my shoes, my books for school in one place before going to bed at night. She expected my bed to be made before leaving the house in the morning and fixed before retiring for the night,” Earl wrote. “She would always say to put things in order and you will always find them when the need arises. She preached on doing things right the first time, instead of leaving things half-way done and then having to do them over again.” Nell Aucoin Naquin, her granddaughter, says she spent many nights “veille-ing,” or “sitting up,” together at Adele’s home talking and looking at old pictures. “For the most part people didn’t have televisions much till the ’50s,” Naquin says, “so I can remember spending the night veille-ing with her talking about stuff and looking at pictures. It’s sad, with the advent of tv and computers, that kind of visiting doesn’t happen anymore.” Naquin says the family didn’t want Adele sleeping alone, so she was sent to keep her company. Naquin says Adele deeply appreciated the time she spent with her and would often treat her to milk-punch. “It had eggs and milk and sugar and vanilla, and she would float a meringue on top. I still make that drink today sometimes,” Naquin says. “She treated me like a queen.” Angela Rousseau Diez, daughter of Earl Rousseau, Adele’s youngest child, and the genealogical hobbyist of the family says “Between the age of 31 and 43, “Mamere” lost four young children, her parents and her husband,” Diez wrote in a Facebook post. “In April of 1917, she had her eleventh child, a son named Raymond. When Raymond was 14 months old, he died of Infantile Diarrhea. Four months after Raymond died, while she was still grieving this loss of this baby, she had her 12th child, Aunt “Sis”. In 1920, “Mamere” had her 13th child, another son, Malvin was born. And, two years later, on February 15th another son, Philton was born. Tragically, Philton died when he was 7 months old of gastroenteritis. Just a year after Philton’s death, “Mamere” had her 15th child, Olga was born September 19, 1923. Olga’s life ended before she was five weeks old as she had been born with a heart defect. Eleven months later, Malvin died on August 27, 1924; he was just 4 years and 8 months old. His death certificate lists the cause of death kidney failure. Again, as she is newly grieving the loss of Malvin, just three weeks later she gave birth to their last child, my father, Earl.” Diez also lists an unnamed child as being stillborn and wrote that Adele’s father died on April 19, 1927, her husband died July 8, 1929, of stomach cancer—two days before their 28th anniversary—and her mother died on Dec. 18, 1929. According to a 1940 census, Diez says Adele’s occupation was listed as a servant in private homes. “She would stay with a woman who had a baby for 6 weeks and take care of both the baby and the mother. Then she’d move on to another who had given birth,” Diez says. Diez says she and her cousins always knew Mamere was a “hard woman,” but that she realized that Adele had a tough life, as she lived longer as a widow than most people of her generation lived at all. Adele Rousseau lived to the age of 97. According to her obituary, Adele lived to see the birth of all 59 of her grandchildren, all 161 great-grandchildren, and 48 great-great-grandchildren. According to her death certificate, Adele Marie Dupre Rousseau passed away at 4:15 a.m. on Feb 7, 1984, at Assumption General Hospital in Napoleonville from respiratory heart failure caused by pneumonia that brought about blood poisoning. marriage Certificate obituary newspaper
Rodney “The Rock” Guillot
FEATURE: from the past One of the Rousseau family’s star athletes was Rodney “The Rock” John Guillot, who was an offensive lineman for LSU’s Fighting Tigers from 1960-1962. Rodney was born in 1940 to Douville “D.L.” Guillot and Elda “Sis” Rousseau Guillot, one of Adele and Marcellin Rousseau’s daughters. He was born in Plattenville, about 7 miles from Grand Bayou, and had three sisters: Toby, Ginger and Stephanie. Eventually moving to Baton Rouge, he was a standout athlete at Redemptorist High School in Baton Rouge and then at LSU. At LSU, the 6’1, 214-lb #72 was named an LSU Football All-time Letterwinner. He later went on to earn a master’s degree in electrical engineering from LSU. He married his 8th-grade sweetheart, Mary Comeaux, and had one daughter. Rodney is one of the Rousseau descendants who passed during Garde Voir Ci’s coverage of the community in January 24, 2020 at 79. LSU DAYS 1959-1963 Previous Next in the News September 11, 1962 May 6, 1961 December 7, 1957 August 28, 1957 January 3, 1962 December 10, 1957 December 10, 1962 September 11, 1962 July 5, 1959
Louise Dupré Hernandez
feature: from the past By Devin Griffin, Staff Writer Louise Dupré Hernandez was so entrenched in Grand Bayou’s culture that locals rarely called her by her full name; she was known as Aunt Lou. Born in 1919, she had four children of her own and was widowed at a young age. She was pregnant for her fourth child when her husband died under the weight of an iron cistern he was lifting. Still, former residents say she was the woman who took care of the community, always spreading joy. Aunt Lou from the start as a young girl was a force. She recounted in her biography My Life of Grand Bayou that she couldn’t keep still. She would always be doing something. She remembered as a child one winter night she took her daddy’s overcoat, his gun, a fishing pole and the moss pole she and her daddy used to push the boat and took off rowing down the bayou. She felt like she was in heaven until she realized she was, about three miles from home. She stayed calm, turned around, and went home. Or tried to get home, the north wind was working against her. It took a lot of power but eventually, just after dark Louise was able to make it home, into the big living room to sit and watch the fireplace. She didn’t like feeling like she was closed in, whenever she would get a feeling fenced in she would jump in her dad’s old Ford and just drive. The roads were terrible then, and Lou said in her book, but she still left. She ended up lost and not sure what to do, and just as she was about to give up Louise found the right road and made it back home. Never did she run away again. Everything on the bayou seemed okay after that. Aunt Lou milked cows and played the violin and just lived her life. She was an adventurous woman always wrapping others into her mischief. As children growing up on Grand Bayou, Louise and her siblings weren’t allowed to play in the bayou. Getting caught playing by the bayou or by it resulted in spankings. “Of course I didn’t listen” quote Aunt Lou from her book. Louise played by the bayou and fell in. She was so scared that she was going to get into trouble, so to avoid that she snuck into the house and changed before anyone knew. Aunt Lou adored children and giving back to her community. She would give them gifts, activities, and more. She was a free spirit who owned and milked cows, played the violin and sang her own songs. At the end of Aunt Lou’s book, she wrote: “I have no regrets for the life I had — they were good old days.” in her own words A MEMOIR Previous Next Memories June Bouchereau, Louise Hernandez’s niece, remembers her aunt