Columbus Pitre

1875 Fenton, Louisiana – 1953 Shreveport, Louisiana

 

 

Continuation of tree (1st child of Edmond 'Edward' Pitre/Agatha Amelia Langley); all known surname descendants:

               8       Columbus Pitre  b: 19 December 1875  Fenton, Calcasieu, LA; d: 17 August 1953  Shreveport, Caddo, LA

                                 + Laura Broussard  b: 12 September 1881  Rose Bluff, Calcasieu, LA; m: 1901; d: 21 January 1932  New Orleans, LA

                       

                         *2nd Wife of Columbus Pitre:

                                 + Alma Mae O'Neil  b: 10 October 1896  Lake Charles, Calcasieu, LA; m: 22 October 1932 [James P./Lulu Mae Wall]; d: 3 January 1969  Memphis, Shelby, TN

                       9                Marie O'Neil Pitre  b: 7 September 1921  Houston, Harris, TX; d: 31 December 2003  New Orleans, Orleans, LA

                                            +Archie Mauldin Quinn  b: 1 January 1920; m: 1954; d: 9 November 1993  Memphis, Shelby, TN

                       9                Edmund O'Neil Pitre  b: 21 November 1934  New Orleans, Orleans, LA; d: 2 October 2004  Memphis, Shelby, TN

                                            +Ellen Marie Nieporte  b: 1939; m: unknown; d: 5 August 2014  Memphis, Shelby, TN

 

 

Notes for Columbus Pitre:

Census

- 1900 Lake Charles, Calcasieu, Louisiana:  Columbus Pitre, boarding.

 

- 1910 Leesville, Vernon, LA:  Columbus Pietre 34 (real estate), wife of 9 years Laurah 28 (no children).

 

- 1920 Leesville, Vernon, LA:  Columbus Pietre 36 (real estate agent), wife Laura (38).

 

- 1930 Leesville, Vernon, LA:  Columbus Pitre 53 (real estate agent), wife Laura 47.  [Columbus is still married to Laura Broussard in the 1930 census, with no children listed.  Marie O'Neil Pitre's parents, on her Texas birth certificate filed 7 Sep 1943, listed as Columbus & Mae O'Neil Pitre]

 

- 1940 Leesville, Vernon, LA:  Columbus Pietre 62 [$2000 house value] stockraising/private, wife May 47 saleswoman/retail dry goods store, Edmund 5.

- 1950 Leesville, Vernon, LA:  Columbus Pitre 74, wife Alma M. 53.

WWI registration records:  Columbus Pitre; Vernon, LA; born 19 Dec 1876; Laura Pitre (wife); medium height, stout build; gray eyes & dark brown hair (bald).

 

Obituary:  The Times (Shreveport, LA), Tuesday, 18 August 1953:  Columbus Pitre, 77, prominent Leesville business and civic leader, died in a Shreveport hospital Monday night after a short illness.  Mr. Pitre was a long-time resident of Vernon parish.  He was a director of the Leesville Improvement company, a vice-president of the Merchants and Farmers Bank and a prominent land owner.  He was a member of the Leesville Catholic church.  Funeral arrangements are undetermined, but will be held in Leesville under the direction of the Hixon Brothers Funeral Home.  Survivors include his widow, Mrs. May Pitre; one daughter, Marie, of Leesville; one son, Edmund, of Leesville, three brothers and three sisters.

 

Tombstone Inscription, Leesville Cemetery, Leesville, Vernon Parish:  Columbus Pitre / Dec. 19, 1875 / Aug. 17, 1953  //  Laura Broussard Pitre / Sept. 12, 1881 / Jan. 21, 1932  //  Mae O'Neil Pitre / Oct. 10, 1896 / Jan. 3, 1969

 

Notes for Laura Broussard:

Obituary:  Times Picayune (New Orleans, LA), Friday, 22 January 1932 - On Thursday, January 21, 1932, at 12:10 o'clock p.m., Laura Broussard, wife of Columbus Pitre, aged 50 years, a native of Louisiana.  The remains were taken from the funeral home of Prescott & Schoop, 4820 Magazine street, to Leesville, La., Thursday evening, January 21, 1932 via Texas and Pacific Railroad at 11.59 o'clock p.m.

 

Notes for Alma Mae O'Neil:

Obituary:  The Times (Shreveport, LA), Sunday, 5 January 1969:  Leesville - Funeral services for Mrs. Mae O'Neil Pitre, 72, will be held at 10 a.m. Monday in the St. Michael Church here with the Rev. Joseph Montalbano officiating.  Burial will be in the Leesville Cemetery under the direction of the Hixson Funeral Home.  Mrs. Pitre died Friday in the Baptist Hospital in Memphis where she had moved two weeks ago with her daughter, Mrs. Archie Quins, whose husband is the publisher of the local newspaper, The Leesville Leader.  Mrs. Pitre who was a native of Lake Charles had lived in Leesville for many years and was active in civic and church work here and the Red Cross.  Other survivors are a son, Edmond O. Pitre, of Memphis, Tenn.; and five grandchildren.

 

Misc:  (submitted by Columbus' grand-daughter Dawn Pitre Likens):

- A newspaper column (source unknown, between 1923-1932): Columbus Pitre represents an old and honored family in Southwestern Louisiana.  His active career has been divided between the Lake Charles community and Leesville, where he is chiefly known as a banker and man of affairs.  He was born in old Calcasieu Parish, December 19, 1876, son of Edmond and Agatha (Langley) Pitre, and grandson of Leon Pitre, who was killed while a Confederate soldier in the war between the states.  The Pitres have been planters and land owners for several generations and devout Catholics in religion.  Edmond Pitre and his wife were born in St. Landry Parish.  He died in 1894 and his widow now resides in Jefferson Davis Parish.  They had seven children, six of whom are living.  Columbus Pitre grew up on a plantation, attended public schools and finished a course in the commercial college at Bowling Green, KY.  As a young man he served as deputy clerk of court at Lake Charles under H.C. Gill, and was also in the sheriff’s office under Dr. A. L. Lyons.  Mr. Pitre in 1905 removed to Leesville, where for a number of years he conducted an abstract business.  In January, 1919, he became an active executive officer in the First State Bank of Leesville and has since held the post of vice president.  He has a number of other business interests, being half owner in a cotton gin and owns much farming land as well as real estate in Leesville.  Mr. Pitre served as President of the Vernon Parish Police Jury from 1920 to 1923.  He married in 1901 to Miss Laura Broussard, a native of Rose Bluff, LA, a member of a well known family there.  She is a member of the Baptist Church, while he retains his affiliations with the church in which he was reared. 

 

Misc., from The Rice Belt Journal (Welsh, LA):

- 30 October 1903:  Columbus Pitre, of Lake Charles, was a Welsh business visitor Monday.

- 11 December 1903:  A.L. Lyons and Columbus Pitre, of Lake Charles, were transacting business in Welsh Saturday.

- 13 July 1917:  Mrs. Columbes Pitre and Master Emile Winfell of Leesville and Asbey Marcantel of Kinder, who are visiting Misses Lillie and Ada Pitre at Fenton, in company with Miss Lillie Pitre were Welsh visitors Wednesday.

 

Obituaries for the children:

Marie Pitre:  Funeral services for Marie Pitre Quinn were held at 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 3, 2004, in the Hixson Funeral Home chapel in Leesville, Father Angelo Messina officiated.  Burial followed in the Leesville Cemetery.  Mrs. Quinn, 82, of Leesville died Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2003, in the Methodist Hospital in New Orleans.  In 1954, she married Archie M. Quinn.  She was preceded in death by her parents, Columbus and Mae O'Neil Pitre, and her son, Patrick Quinn.  She is survived by two daughters and son-in-law, Bridgett and Teddy Brooks and Sheelagh Sullivan, all of Leesville; one son and daughter-in-law, Michael and Elaine Quinn of Lake Havasu City, Ariz.; her brother and sister-in-law, Edmund and Ellen Pitre of Memphis, Tenn.

Tombstone Inscription, Leesville Cemetery, Leesville, Vernon Parish:  Marie Pitre Quinn / Sept. 7, 1921 / Dec. 31, 2003

   

Edmund O'Neil Pitre:  Tombstone Inscription, Memorial Park Cemetery, Memphis, Shelby, TN:  Edmund O. / 1934 - 2004 / PITRE / Ellen M. / 1939 - 2014

 

 

 

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Items in RED verified from transcriptions in the following:

- Southwest Louisiana Records: Church and Civil Records of Parishes of Acadia, Allen Beauregard, Cameron, Calcasieu,

     Evangeline, Iberia, Jefferson Davis, Lafayette, St Landry, St Martin, St Mary and Vermillion.

- Some Louisiana deaths in RED taken from obituaries or the Louisiana Deaths collection (which includes spouses/parents).

 

Last updated:  16 June 2022.