Louis Ephemo Pitre

1876 Lafourche, Louisiana – 1944 Golden Meadow, LA

 

 

Continuation of tree (3rd child of Joseph Pitre/Hortense Marie Landry); all known surname descendants:

               8           Louis Ephemo Pitre  b: 19 September 1876  Lafourche, LA; d: 10 May 1944  Golden Meadow, Lafourche, LA

                                 + Marie Hortense Serigny  b: 7 January 1887  Lafourche, LA; m: 20 January 1906  Holy Rosary, Larose, Lafourche, LA [Gregoire/Jeanne Masse]; d: 24 October 1950  Golden Meadow, Lafourche, LA

                          9           Louis Cyriayn Pitre  b: 8 August 1906  Larose, Lafourche, LA; d: 1 August 1994  Golden Meadow, Lafourche, LA

                          9           Naomie Pitre  b: 26 July 1908  Lafourche, LA; d: 7 June 1990  Golden Meadow, Lafourche, LA

                                         + Frederick A. Celesse  b: 13 June 1904  Montegut, Terrebonne, LA; m: 4 November 1937  Lafourche, LA [Louis/Philomene Billiot]; d: 13 February 1993  Golden Meadow, Lafourche, LA                

                          9           Ophelia Pitre  b: 5 April 1914  Lafourche, LA; d: 5 March 1989  Golden Meadow, Lafourche, LA

                                         + Adam Paul Naquin  b: 24 April 1906  Houma, Terrebonne, LA; m: Abt. 1935 [Desire/Elizabeth Dardar]; d: 19 January 1965  Galliano, Lafourche, LA

 

 

Notes for Louis Ephemo Pitre:

Census

- 1910 Lafourche, Louisiana:  Louis Peter Sr. 35 (fisherman), wife of 5 years Artance 35, Louis Jr. 4, Noemie 2.

- 1920 Lafourche, LA:  Louis Pitre 44 (working out), wife Ortose 46, Louis 14, Norme 12, Afflia 6.

- 1930 Golden Meadow, Lafourche, LA:  Louis Pitre 54, wife Marie 45, Louis 23, Thoerise 21, Ophelia 16.

 

- 1940 Golden Meadow, Lafourche, LA:  Louis Pitre 64 fisherman [$600 house value], wife Orthense 54, Louis Jr. 32 fisherman.

- 1950 Lafourche, LA:  Widow Marie S. Pitre 62, Louis J. 40 fisherman/shrimp industry.

WWI registration records:  Louis Pitre; Lafourche, LA; born 9 Sep 1876; Mrs. Ortense Seriana Pitre; tall height, slender build; blue eyes & gray hair.

 

Obituary:  Times Picayune (New Orleans, LA), 11 May 1944 - At residence, on Wednesday, May 10 1944, at 7 o'clock a.m., Louis Pitre, beloved husband of Ortane Girgoir and father of Louis Jr., Nomie, Ophelia Pitre; aged 68 years.  Relatives and friends of the family are invited to attend the funeral, which will take place from the late residence, Golden Meadow, La., on Thursday, May 11, 1944, at 4 o'clock p.m.  Services at Our Lady of Prompt Succor Catholic church, Golden Meadow, La.  Interment in Our Lady of Prompt Succor Catholic cemetery.  Falgout Funeral Home, Raceland, La., in charge.

 

Tombstone Inscription, Our Lady of Prompt Succor Church Cemetery, Golden Meadow, LA:  Louis Pitre Sr. / 1876 - 1944 / Naomie P. Celesse / born July 26, 1908 - died June 7, 1990
 

Notes for Marie Hortense Serigny

Report:  State Times Advocate (LA), Wednesday, 25 October 1950:  Widow Believed Murdered near Golden Meadow - Thibodaux, Oct. 25 (AP) - The body of a 63-year-old widow was found in her home about one mile from Golden Meadow, Lafourche parish, yesterday, and the coroner said it appeared to be murder.  Dr. Leo Kerne, coroner, identified the woman as Mrs. Louis Pitre.  "I cannot give the cause of her death yet," Dr. Kerne said, "but I believe I can say it was murder."  "The sheriff and I spent most of the day around the woman's home and robbery appears to be the motive.  The house was all torn up," he said.  The sheriff, still investigating the circumstances of death late last night, was not available for comment.  Details of the death were lacking.

- New Orleans States (New Orleans, LA), Wednesday, 25 October 1950:  Golden Meadow Widow Found Robbed, Slain - Golden Meadow, Oct. 25 - Lafourche parish authorities are investigating today the mysterious death of a 62-year-old widow whose body was found in her ransacked home here, her legs bound together at the ankles with sheeting.  Dr. Leo Kerne, coroner, identified the woman as Mrs. Louis Pitre.  Dr. Kerne said the cause of death appeared to be murder.  Mrs. Pitre lived at the residence with her son, Louis Pitre Jr., a fisherman, who was out trawling when the body was found by Mrs. Fred Celesse, a daughter who lives about 200 yards away.  Dr. Kerne said the victim in the mysterious death along the bayou appeared to have been strangled and that robbery apparently was the motive for the killing.  Mrs. Celesse told Dr. Kerne that she heard no disturbance from the death house.  She added that she thought her mother had recently collected about $600 from leases but that the money had been deposited in the bank.  The Pitre residence had been completely ransacked.  Every drawer had been opened or broken into, mattresses ripped open and wearing apparel strewn over the floor.  Funeral services for Mrs. Pitre will be conducted at 9 a.m. tomorrow from the Chauvin-Thibodaux funeral home, followed by religious rites at Our Lady of Prompt Succor church.  Mrs. Pitre is survived by one other daughter, Mrs. Adam Naquin of Barataria.

- Obituary:  Times Picayune (New Orleans, LA), 26 October 1950 - At her residence in Golden Meadow, La., on Tuesday, October 24, 1950, Hortence Serinier, beloved wife of the late Louis Pitre Sr.; mother of Mrs. Frederic Celesse and Louis Pitre Jr., of Golden Meadow, La., and Mrs. Adam Naquin of Barataria, La., also survived by one grandchild, age 62 years, a native of Lafourche parish, La.  Relatives and friends of the family are respectfully invited to attend the funeral, which will take place at Golden Meadow, La., on Thursday, October 26, 1950, at 9 o'clock a.m., religious services at Our Lady of Prompt Succor Catholic church.  Interment in Our Lady of Prompt Succor cemetery, Golden Meadow, La.  Chauvin & Thibodeaux Funeral Home, Thibodaux, La., in charge.

- New Orleans Item (New Orleans, LA), Friday, 27 October 1950:  Golden Meadow - The full moon rose red on Bayou Lafourche last night and the friendly little old lady who sold the oil lease was buried at sundown.  And at the general store upstream from her cabin, and on the shrimp trawlers where fishermen were washing down decks and up and down the French-speaking bayou country they called it "la june de la morte" - the moon of death.  The little old lady had been murdered by a thief surprised in the night.  She had returned home unexpectedly, surprised "l'assassin" at his work of rifling drawers and slitting mattresses.  Before she could cry out he had sprung to her throat and crushed her windpipe with powerful hands.  Then he beat her face savagely until it was out of shape.  Then he tied her legs together and slunk into the night.  The victim was Mrs. Louis Pitre, 64, known far and wide as the hard-working, talkative, friendly little "Madam Da-da."  She toiled at the shrimp factories, she worked busily about the ancient cabin, she helped her son skin and cure his coon skins - but she was not poor.  She had been a widow for years, and coming from long-lived stock she expected to have a lengthy old age to provide for.  So it was known that she bundled up dollar bills whenever she could get a few, tied them with sewing thread, and slipped them into some crevice of her cabin.  Justice of the Peace Louis Sandroz said that sheriff's men found $1400 in the cabin in various hiding places.  But the thief had apparently made off with the $600 she was known to have received recently from an oil company.  Apparently she had not yet tucked it away.  "Us people, we speak too much on this bayou," said Alfred St. Germaine yesterday as he looked over the grounds with her son, Louis Pitre, a fisherman.  "A rumor goes faster a hundred miles up and down the bayou than a telegram.  Madam Da-da, she had some little good fortune, her.  She tell my mother-in-law, her good friend.  She tell her neighbors.  The neighbors tell other neighbors.  The whole bayou knows.  And a thief, he heard about it.  So Monday night when Madam Da-da went next door to visit, the thief went to her cabin to find the oil money.  She came home unexpectedly, and was murdered."  Louis Pitre, 40, was on his shrimp boat the Good Day 100 miles away in Lake Borgne.  His mother was discovered next day by her daughter, Mrs. Federec Seless, who came to say she was going to work at the shrimp factory.  For two days the family and authorities were unable to get news to the old woman's beloved bachelor son that his mother was murdered.  He was fishing alone far out on the lake.  Finally they reached Jules Plaisance, another shrimper, whose boat had a radio.  "He come and tied to my side."  He said, 'Your mama is murdered.'  Oh, terrible.  Me, I didn't know what.  I thought I would fall dead right there.  I say to my friend Plaisance, I say..."  Here the son broke into rapid Cajun French, which he did whenever his feelings swept him as he related the story to the reporter.  Friends translated.  Many in this region speak no English.  His mother could not speak it.  The fishing people, the famous Cajuns who came long ago from Canadian Nova Scotia, were originally Breton fishermen and still keep alive many of the trades, family patterns and the language dialect of the Breton coast of the Middle Ages.  Pitre said, returning to English, that he made "the fastest pull-in by my shrimp nets I ever make."  Then he opened the throttle and drove his boat across Lake Borgne and through the canals to his regular mooring at Violet.  "Then I take a taxi from Violet all the way to Golden Meadow, a long way, 100 miles maybe, but the driver take me for $30 for a favor, since he see I have trouble."  Pitre is a big, blue-eyed, deeply sun-tanned man.  His motions are simple and slow.  His mixture of French and English is more moving than it can be described.  With simple and basic words he tries to describe the complex feelings that tore him, and now grip him, and they are beyond him.  Neighbors said he has sworn vengeance on the murderer.  Justice of the Peace Sandroz said that Sheriff Ducos of Thibodaux, Lafourche Parish, arrested a "23-year-old Golden Meadow hoodlum" who has served time for theft at Angola and who was known to have discussed renting a cabin from the widow a few days earlier.  [photos of 'Louis Pitre in cabin where his mother was strangled when she surprised burglar.' and 'Old Cabin, with historic Bayou Lafourche for a "front street," housed the Pitre family for many years.  Mrs. Louis Pitre, Sr., 64, tucked money into cracks and holes, distrusting banks.']

New Orleans Item (LA), Thursday, 30 November 1950:  (summary) Murder charges were filed against 24-year-old Joseph Druble Williams of 1727 Clio.  He is an ex-convict on parole.  His home was Lafourche Parish.

 

Obituaries for the children:

Louis Cyriayn Pitre:  Lafourche Daily Comet (LA), August 1994A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Monday at Our Lady of Prompt Succor Catholic Church in Golden Meadow for Louis C. Pitre Jr., 87, a native and resident of Golden Meadow, who died at 12:20 a.m. Monday, Aug. 1.  Visitation will be 6 to 9 p.m. Sunday and 8 a.m. to funeral time Monday at Falgout Funeral Home in Galliano.  Burial will be in the church cemetery.  He was preceded in death by his parents, Louis Sr. and Marie Hortense Serigny Pitre; and two sisters Naomi Celeste and Ophelia P. Naquin.  Falgout Funeral Home of Galliano is in charge of arrangements.

 

Naomie Pitre:  Lafourche Daily Comet (LA), June 1990:  Funeral services will be Saturday at 10 a.m. at Our Lady of Prompt Succor Church in Golden Meadow for Naomie Pitre Celesse, 81, a native of Lafourche Parish and resident of Golden Meadow, who died Thursday (7 June 1990) at 10:51 p.m.  Visitation is at Falgout Funeral Home in Galliano from 2-10 p.m. today and from 7 a.m. until funeral time Saturday.  Interment is in the church cemetery.  She was the wife of Frederick Celesse and sister of Louis Pitre Jr.  She was preceded in death by her parents, Louis and Eustan Serigny Pitre and sister, Ophelia Naquin.  Falgout Funeral Home, Galliano, is in charge of arrangements.

 

Ophelia Pitre:  Times Picayune (New Orleans, LA), Tuesday, 7 March 1989:  Ophelia Pitre Naquin at Golden Meadow, La. on Sunday, March 5, 1989.  Wife of the late Adam Paul Naquin.  Daughter of the late Louis Pitre and Hortense Serigny Pitre.  Mother of Linwood M. Naquin and Marie N. Thorne.  Sister of Louis Pitre Jr. and Noemie P. Celesse.  Also survived by 3 grandchildren.  Age 74 years.  A native and resident of Golden Meadow, La.  Relatives and friends of the family are invited to attend the funeral.  Services from Falgout Funeral Home in Galliano on Tuesday, March 7, 1989 at 9:30 A.M.  Religious services at the First Baptist Church of Golden Meadow at 10 o'clock A.M.  Interment in Our Lady of Prompt Succor Cemetery in Golden Meadow.  Visitation on Monday from 6 PM until 10 PM and 8 AM until funeral time on Tuesday.  Falgout Funeral Homes in charge.
 

 

Back one generation to parents of Louis Ephemo Pitre

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Items in RED verified from transcriptions in the following:

- South Louisiana Records: Church and Civil Records of Lafourche-Terrebonne Parishes  (Rev. Hebert)

- South Louisiana Vital Family Records: Terrebonne Genealogical Society

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

- Some birthdates in RED taken from Social Security records based on obituary/tombstone inscription deathdate.

 

Last updated:  16 August 2022.