Legendary Locals of New Orleans


Book Description

Since its founding in 1718 by the LeMoyne brothers, New Orleans has cemented its status as one of the busiest ports on the continent. Producing many unique and fascinating individuals, Colonial New Orleans was a true gumbo of personalities. The city lays claim to many nationalities, including Spaniards Baron Carondelet, Don Andres Almonester, and French sailors and privateers Jean Lafitte and Dominique Youx. Businessmen like Daniel Henry Holmes and Isidore Newman contributed to local flavor, as did musicians Buddy Bolden, Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong, and Louis Prima. War heroes include P.G.T. Beauregard and Andrew Jackson Higgins. Avery Alexander, A.P. Tureaud, and Ernest Morial paved the way for African Americans to lead the city. Kate Chopin, Lafcadio Hearn, Ellen DeGeneres, Mel Ott, Archie Manning, and Drew Brees have kept the world entertained, while chefs and restaurateurs like Leah Chase and the Brennans sharpened the city's culinary chops. Legendary Locals of New Orleans pays homage to the notables that put spice in that gumbo.




Legendary Locals of Metairie


Book Description

Metairie is often considered the dull stepchild of New Orleans--a concrete "Anywhere, USA" lined with shopping malls frequented by fast-food eating, drive-up-daiquiri-drinking, cultureless suburbanites. Despite stereotypical misconceptions, sons and daughters of New Orleans who call Metairie home are every bit as colorful, talented, devious, and gracious as their relatives in the city. Johnny Wiggs kept New Orleans jazz alive. Verne Tripp invented "perma-press" and pioneered use of the electron microscope. On Atherton Drive, David Ferrie plotted a Cuban coup. Peter Gennaro left his father's bar to become a Broadway star. Shirley Ann Grau raised her children here while writing novels. Al Scramuzza built a crawfish empire and coached Metairie children. Ellen Degeneres found national fame, while Becky Allen won our hearts at home. Those who may not be widely known but have impacted lives in the community and afar are also included in this book, which is a tribute to the people of Metairie.




Legendary Locals of New Haven


Book Description

Finding someone who is not legendary in New Haven is nearly as hard as knowing how to pronounce the local dialect. In its earliest period there appeared epic characters like John Davenport, the town's founder; Roger Sherman, the city's first mayor and only signer of the four major US papers; and Benedict Arnold, patriot and famed traitor. The growing city emerged as a place of innovation and industry with people like Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin; Noah Webster, author of the first American English dictionary; Charles Goodyear, inventor of vulcanized rubber; and William Lanson, a distinguished African American contractor in the early 19th century. As the seat of Yale University and other major institutions, New Haven's men and women continue to make a name for themselves. These legends include Yoshi and Bun Lai, mother and son restaurateurs who create sustainable sushi; Doris Townsend, historian and author; Frank Pepe's Pizzeria Napoletana, begun in 1925; and Louis Lunch, birthplace of the hamburger. Legendary Locals of New Haven opens the doors to the city's rich history and its continuing legacy as a cultural center.




Legendary Locals of Orleans County, New York


Book Description

Part of the Niagara Frontier and located in the western area of New York State, Orleans County covers a total area of 817 square miles, of which 426 square miles are water. The high proportion of water is due to the extension of Orleans County north into Lake Ontario to the Canadian border (a line of latitude running through the middle of the lake). For this reason, the legend of the Milan, the sunken schooner, is included in these pages, along with Orleans County's notable citizens. George Pullman of railroad car fame, Santa Claus School founder Charlie Howard, and Disney artist Hank Porter are gone now, but this region continues to produce local legends.




Mr. New Orleans


Book Description

Wiseguys called him "the Keith Richards of the American Mafia" and JFK hero Jim Garrison denounced him as "one of the most notorious vice operators in the history of New Orleans" ... but you can just call him MR. NEW ORLEANS. Mr. New Orleans tells the incredible story of Frenchy Brouillette, a redneck Cajun teenager who stole his big brother's motorcycle and embarked on a 60-year vacation to New Orleans, where he became a legendary gangster and the underworld political fixer for his cousin, Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards. Written by Crescent City native Matthew Randazzo V, the wickedly funny Mr. New Orleans is the first book to ever break the code of secrecy of the New Orleans Mafia Family, the oldest and most mysterious criminal secret society in America. "Mr. New Orleans is a rollicking, disturbing ride through the underbelly of a bygone New Orleans, lined with moments of dark, side-splitting hilarity. If you're a fan of James Lee Burke, drop what you're reading and pick this one up. In an era when popular wisdom tells us T.V. has stolen all depth from the literary true-crime narrative, Matthew Randazzo has found a way to beat that trend mightily; he's gone straight to the source and captured the singular, confounding voice of the New Orleans' mafia's top political fixer with fast-paced, riveting prose and a fine journalist's eye for detail." Chris Rice, New York Times Bestselling Author "Mr. New Orleans is a total knockout: Take everything you ever imagined about the sleazy good times to be had in New Orleans -- the sleazy good times capital of America -- and quadruple it, and you have a hint of what's inside these sticky pages." Bill Tonelli, Author of The Italian American Reader and Editor for Esquire and Rolling Stone




Legendary Louisiana Outlaws


Book Description

From the infamous pirate Jean Laffite and the storied couple Bonnie and Clyde, to less familiar bandits like train-robber Eugene Bunch and suspected murderer Leather Britches Smith, Legendary Louisiana Outlaws explores Louisiana's most fascinating fugitives. In this entertaining volume, Keagan LeJeune draws from historical accounts and current folklore to examine the specific moments and legal climate that spawned these memorable characters. He shows how Laffite embodied Louisiana's shift from an entrenched French and Spanish legal system to an American one, and relates how the notorious groups like the West and Kimbrell Clan served as community leaders and law officers but covertly preyed on Louisiana's Neutral Strip residents until citizens took the law into their own hands. Likewise, the bootlegging Dunn brothers in Vinton, he explains, demonstrate folk justice's distinction between an acceptable criminal act (operating an illegal moonshine still) and an unacceptable one (cold-blooded murder). Recounting each outlaw's life, LeJeune also considers their motives for breaking the law as well as their attempts at evading capture. Running from authorities and trying to escape imprisonment or even death, these men and women often relied on the support of ordinary citizens, sympathetic in the face of oppressive and unfair laws. Through the lens of folk life, LeJeune's engaging narrative demonstrates how a justice system functions and changes and highlights Louisiana's particular challenges in adapting a system of law and order to work for everyone.




Legendary Locals of Eunice


Book Description

Long before C.C. Duson--realtor, sheriff, and state senator--established his town on the Louisiana prairie, Cajuns, Europeans, and Native Americans had forged homes on the isolated site. Then in 1894, Duson's city auction enabled numerous ethnic groups to buy lots in the new town. Railroad construction brought Anglo, African-American, and Irish laborers, while Lebanese and Jewish merchants saw retail opportunities in Eunice. Fearful of war rumors in Europe prior to 1914, German families immigrated to prairie farms. In 1929, Italians arrived as the Mississippi River's flooding disrupted their lives. By the 1930s, the Tepetate oil field was discovered south of Eunice, creating fortunes for Anglo workers. Men from nearby World War II military bases often settled in Eunice after marrying local girls. Eunice saw new arrivals as petrochemical plants and pipelines began construction in the 1950s. The diverse traditions of newcomers blended with the dominant Cajun culture, resulting in the rich gumbo of citizens' lives. Legendary Locals of Eunice celebrates some individuals who have contributed to the vibrant and diverse culture of Eunice through the years.




The People's Grocer


Book Description

The People's Grocer is a business-based biography of John G. Schwegmann, founder of a legendary New Orleans' supermarket chain and the most innovative and courageous retailer of the postwar era. Virtually unrecognized in retail history, visionary Schwegmann pioneered the modern big-box concept. Even more important, his 1951 Supreme Court victory over "fair trade" laws played a key role in legalizing discount pricing. A marketer extraordinaire, Schwegmann's offbeat and controversial ads and shopping bags came to symbolize the Crescent City. As a fierce consumer crusader, his fiery passions ultimately drove him into politics.Along with spotlighting the life, career, and family legacy of John Schwegmann, this biography illuminates a broad spectrum of neglected socioeconomic topics. Old corner grocery stores, outdoor and public markets, real estate in the Great Depression, manufacturer price fixing, the supermarket revolution, postwar New Orleans politics, and the battle over the Superdome--all these stories and more are explored in an epic book spanning retail history from the pre-industrial 1850s to the post-industrial 1990s.




Legendary Locals of Meridian


Book Description

In 1831, Richard McLemore received a federal land grant of 2,000 acres located in the future Lauderdale County, Mississippi. He gave free land to those he considered good neighbors and built his home within the one square mile that would be incorporated as Meridian on February 10, 1860. On Valentine's Day 1864, Gen. W.T. Sherman's troops marched into the small railroad town. After burning the town, Sherman wrote in his journal, "Meridian . . . no longer exists." Meridian did survive and became Mississippi's largest city due to its railroad and timber industries and progressive settlers like the Weidmanns, Marks-Rothenbergs, Threefoots, Rushes, Rosenbaums, Rileys, Andersons, and others. Within these pages, meet the people who proved Sherman wrong and continue to influence the area today.




Legendary Locals of McLean


Book Description

McLean, Virginia, a whistle stop along the Great Falls & Old Dominion Railroad, came about in 1910. It was named after John R. McLean, publisher of the Washington Post newspaper and an owner of the railroad. This was a farming community that never incorporated. A few of the families instrumental in the formation of the village that followed were Mackall, Laughlin, Storm, Carper, and Smoot. Because of its proximity to the nation's capital, McLean attracted people from all walks of life. But it was the arrival of the Kennedy families in the late 1950s that put McLean on the map. The thread that holds the community together is spirited volunteerism. This volume contains images of a few of the personalities who give McLean a sense of place. The majority of the photographs have been donated by individuals to ensure that history does not lose these significant personalities, past or present, who left an imprint on their community.