|
About Me
I was born and raised in Houma, Louisiana, in Terrebonne Parish, in
the heart of French
Acadiana. I'd have to go back far beyond living memory, to my
great-plus grandfathers, Thomas Buford and Frederick Lottinger, to find a
relative who was not born in the Lafourche/Terrebonne area. Then, beyond
Thomas and Frederick, I'd have to go way back to the Eighteenth Century to
my Acadian and French roots. So, you might say, for all practical purposes
that I'm South Louisiana born and bred - and proud of it
!!
I graduated from Terrebonne High School in
1954. Joe Allen (Terrebonne, Class of 1952) and I were married in 1956,
and we moved to Metairie, where we've lived ever since (Joe is a retired
engineer). We have two sons, Joseph West Allen III and Kenneth Lee Allen,
and one granddaughter Cassie Lynn Allen - and a cat, Minette. .
Our
son, West, age 40, is a carpenter/contractor, and he has done restoration
work on some of the buildings in the French Quarter. During the renovation
of the Cabildo after the 1988 fire, he helped restore the cupola on top of
the building. His signature visible creations are the shutters and the
banisters on the cupola.
Ken, age 39, is a music liturgist and
organist, and a seminarian at Notre Dame Catholic Seminary in New Orleans.
He is spending his summer at Father Jack Davis' mission in Chimbote, Peru,
a poverty-stricken city in the Peruvian desert. He plans to be ordained as
a parish priest in 2004.
Cassie, my granddaughter, age 14, is a
high school Freshman. On nice, sunny, warm days you can probably catch a
glimpse of her riding her horse, Dreamy, on the Mississippi River levee.
At this point in her life, she likes Dreamy, NSync, and boys, not
necessarily in that order at any given point in
time.
During my working life, I was a State of
Louisiana employee, taking disability retirement from my job as a
Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor in 1995. I was also an organist and
choir director at several churches in the Greater New Orleans area over a
period of twenty years. Even though I'm "retired" I remain busy, creating
web pages, being active in genealogical pursuits and activities, studying
early colonial Louisiana history, and writing.
OBITUARY
Background music from the movie, "Somewhere
in Time" |