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I have few recollections of the Colored Baptist Church on the lot to the west of our home in Leonville. The church, was located on the first third of the lot while the rest of the lot comprised the cemetery. Most of the burial places revealed their location simply as rectangular mounds of dirt, into which a wooden or iron cross was planted.
On All Soul's Day the dirt tomb's appearances were enhanced with crepe paper "flowers" which had been dipped in hot wax to preserve their shape and extend their useful life. Genuine flowers would have been too expensive during the depression. No one used florists during the 1930s; neither were the services of veterinarians for pets. We had two physicians however, Dr. Felix O. Pavy from Opelousas and Dr. Keresky who was from Russia! Dr. Pavy was quite a politician and held a number of elective offices, both on the state and local level. His specialty was the "bedside manner" of which he was a master.
These artificial flowers were also quite prevalent in the cemetery of St Leo's Catholic Church where both races were interred. At the very back of the black Baptist cemetery was the brick tomb of the church's benefactor, Tante Rosette. It was the only brick tomb in the cemetery and although crumbling, still exists today at the very back of the cemetery area - almost on the fence line. When Tante Rozette died so did the church. She was the church's principle benefactor as she was the widow of a Civil War veteran.
The preacher was from Alexandria. He gave the eulogy which ended:
The angel of the Lord
Appeared to Sister Rose
in the Window of her bedroom
and said:
Sister Rose pack your clothes
For you're going to the great beyond
I remember the baptisms which took place in Bayou Teche located a few hundred feet to the rear of the church property. There was no baptismal fount in the church as the Baptist creed required full immerson.
The church services were usually accompanied with much feelingful preaching, singing and praying. By the time I was 7 or 8 years old, the now abandoned wooden-frame church building had begun to rapidly deteriorate. As a youngster, I remember firing a BB gun through the slats in the bell tower, hoping to be rewarded with a ping from the church bell.
But how does the Baptist church next door relate to Leonville's first movie theatre? That story is next, but first I want to talk about my father's brother, Hildevert Speyrer also known as Uncle Slim. Hildevert represented the "H" part of H. J. Speyrer General Merchandise, the name of the store which they owned in partnership. Uncle Hildevert was a very conservative man. He would never light-up an entire cigarette, but rather cut the cigarette in short lengths. Nonetheless, that revealed a certain extravagance, since most people rolled their own cigarettes. How many thousands of packages of Bugle, Irby's Virginia Extra, Black Diamond, Target and other brands were sold at 10 cents a package at our general merchandise store.
Hildevert kept a coat at the store which he hung by the collar on a nail. After each Sunday's Mass, the coat would be returned from whence it had come.
My father and his brother, Hildevert had purchased some property in partnership. Uncle Slim (Hildevert) owned the larger 3/4 share. Many would ask my father and Uncle Slim to sell some of this property located in "downtown" Leonville, but they never would and never did. Well, almost never - and that one occasion plays a part in how the Baptist church property ties in to the story of Leonville's first movie theatre.
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The story of cinema in Leonville began decades before Antoine Thibodeaux built Leonville's first movie theatre. During the late thirties, I remember the occasional tent shows operated by wandering gypsy families which would come to town and show their collection of cowboy movies of adventures with Bob Steele, Tom Mix, Al "Lash" La Roo and others. The "to be continued" series of adventure films held great appeal. I remember well the movie series of Clyde Beatty, the animal trainer.
But back to the story - After the Second World War onto the scene appears Antoine Thibodeaux, originally from the Cecilia, Louisiana (St Martin Parish) region.
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Forgive me for still another aside but I want to point out that the language spoken by almost all in that part of St Martin Parish was Creole, a patois or French dialect, but definitely not Cajun French. In Leonville only the blacks consistently spoke that patois. Many whites knew the dialect intimately as they had raised by black nannies and had black playmates. The grammar of the Creole dialect was quite simple and occasionally I still hear it being spoken such as, when I am at Wal-mart. Unfortunately, it is rapidly dying. Some blacks seem ashamed to speak Creole french, as some whites are ashamed to speak Cajun french.
Inexplicably, the French dialect spoken in Haiti is very similar to the Louisiana Creole dialect. Were the slaves who eventually came to St Martin Parish first acclimated in Haiti where they learned the dialect?
Here is a poetic lamentation of a slave, first in the Louisiana Creole French dialect, in correct French and my translation into English: [From James F. Broussard's book, Louisiana Creole Dialect, 1942]. The dialect was the identical Creole French spoken in Leonville by most mulattos, some blacks and much fewer whites. I tested the examples in the book with its similarity with the Leonville Creole dialect by asking my father to translate an English sentence into Creole and remarkably, he always scored 100% correct.
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Why didn't God make me white?
I did everything my master did.
I got on my horse faster than him;
I can sing sweeter than him;
I can get drunker than him;
I did everything my Master did.
Why didn't God make me white?
Why didn't God make me white?
I can love harder than him.
I can shoot better than him;
I can die more ready than him;
I did everything my master did.
Why didn't God make me white?
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Like many looking for work during the depression of the 1930s, Antoine Thibodeaux had moved from Cecilia, Louisiana to Port Arthur, Texas, where opportunities for employment in the oil industry existed. This western expansion of many Cajuns resulted in an extension of French speaking Acadiana well into southeastern Texas. Thibodeaux had recently retired and wanted to open a movie theatre in Leonville. There was only one problem: He was not able to purchase property on which to locate his theatre as no property in Leonville was for sale.
But there was an empty lot next to our home - the lot where once had stood the black Baptist church. He contacted the church officials in Alexandria who owned the lot and bought it! He now had bargaining power! Since my mother and father would not appreciate living next door to a movie theatre, my father become amendable to exchanging some of his property for the church lot. My father only owned 25% of the property as his sister, Tante Maia, had inherited Uncle Slim's far greater 75% share. However, she was agreeable with my father to make the sale of her share and so some property was sold to Mr. Thibodeaux and that's where the Leonville movie theatre was built.
The war was finally over. Tent movies which had been so popular during the depression and during WWII finally folded their tents for good. As asphalt roads replaced gravel roads, and the general public becamemore prosperous movie theatres in all towns surged in popularity. On many weekends all of the seats at the Leonville movie theatre were occupied. But with the introduction of television in the 1950's and sixties, attendance dropped off precipitously and the Leonville theater closed. Thibodeaux had even tried to lure customers back with a large screened television set on the stage right in front of the screen - but it was all to no avail as a new era had begun. The movie industry was far from being vanquished, but small town movie theatres were never to recover from the competition of television!
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