February 17
- 1939
On this day I am 60 years of age, and have
concluded to write my memoirs and observations of truths of my life and to
sprinkle, from time to time, bits of advice to be followed by my boy, for
whom I have the profoundest affection, and gleaned by me through bitter
experience.
I was born in the town of
Abbeville.
My father was Gilbert
LaBauve
of West Baton Rouge Parish. My mother
was Josephine Ida Perret
of St. Mary Parish. My mother died
when I was eleven and her death caused me profound sorrow. It was
the breaking of our home and the separation, for a number of years, of
myself and my youngest brothers and my sisters. My father kept the
older boys with him including myself. He was a father and mother to
me and I idolized him. He was a stately, gentle and cultured
man--spoke no ill of his fellowmen--and was honest to the core; well
educated, in french and english, which languages he spoke
fluently. My father died at the age of
81, at which time I was attending a session of the
Confederate Convention of Louisiana in Baton Rouge of which I was a
delegate.
I was educated in a one room school house in the prairies
of Vermillion near what is now the town of Kaplan. My father was my
teacher--the only teacher I ever had--and after imparting to me his
knowledge I concluded I wanted to be a lawyer. Even when a child I
was inclined that way.
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