Luncheon For Fair Contestants

This photo shows the luncheon hosting the St. Tammany Fair Association's "Rodeo Queen" contestants in the late 1970's. The photo was taken by Jack West. Click on the image to make it larger. 
 

Golf Game Champs

With all the golf courses in St. Tammany, there was a constant supply of tournament winners. Here are a few from the ladies at Covington County Club in the early 1980's. Apparently the after-tournament awards ceremony was a lot of fun.

The Championship Flight

 

Clowning around with overall winner Lois Evitt

Sid Gale Remembers Mandeville

On Memorial Day weekend in 2016 at the Mandeville Family Reunion Sid Gale got on stage and for 17 minutes told stories and memories from the early days of Mandeville. Vernon Smith posted the video of his talk to the "I lived in Mandeville when..." Facebook page, and the audio is available below.

Click on the sound link below to hear what he said. 

CLICK HERE to hear the presentation. 

Choctaw Artifact Mounds

An article about Louisiana Choctaw Mounds in the Mandeville- Lacombe area can be found at this link on the "Access Genealogy" website. Written by Access Genealogy member Dennis, here are some of its interesting items.

The article begins by describing several mounds that can be found within the Mandeville/Bayou Lacombe area. The largest of these is situated off the right bank of Chinchuba creek. The mound has an elevation of between 4 and 5 feet; it is circular in form and has an average diame­ter of approximately 90 feet.

A trench dug near the center of the mound uncovered two fire beds, so the mound was determined to be a domicile.

A deposit of shells was revealed a short distance from fire bed. The shells were those of an edible clam (Rangia cunteata Gray) found in vast quantities in Lake Pontchartrain. Intermingled with the shells were quantities of bones of deer, rabbits, and alligators. Fragments of many pottery vessels also were recovered, but no entire objects of any sort were found.

Although some of the pieces represent jars and vessels of exceptionally good workmanship, the report went on to say, the majority appear to have been rather crudely made. A pipe was the most interesting object found in the shell deposit. According to Mr. J. D. McGuire, this belongs to the oldest type of pipe found in the lower Mississippi valley; under his classification it is of the biconical form.

Arrow points of white quartzite were found nearby, but these were probably made far to the northeast. Small grooved axes are likewise met with, but they are quite rare. The jasper of which the specimens figured were made was obtained in the form of pebbles from the beds of certain streams in St. Tammany parish.

Some shells and a few pieces of pottery were found exposed upon the surface beneath the branches of "Pere Rouquette Oak," on the very spot where the Choctaw were said to gather to hear the teachings of Père Rouquette. These latter examples of pottery and likewise the shells appear to be of comparatively recent origin, and were undoubtedly left there by the Choctaw not more than one or two generations ago. As the pottery is similar to that found in the deposit of shells beneath the mound, all should probably be attributed to the same people.

See also:

Louisiana Choctaw Mounds

Aerial Drone Photography of Slidell

Interesting aerial drone photography of Slidell and other St. Tammany locations were recently produced by ecko360 Media for the home pages of several ShopLocalUSA.com community pages. 

Here is a link to the video shot by the company showing downtown Slidell. Click on the "play triangle" to start the video, then click on the [ ] in the bottom right corner to enlarge the view. 

 

Downtown Slidell

 

See also:

Aerial drone photography of Covington, Abita Springs and Madisonville

Celtic Connection

Eleven years ago, in 2008, the St. Tammany Parish Public School System celebrated "Celtic Connection Week" with stage shows, music, art exhibits, and special lesson plans. 

Singer/Entertainer Danny O'Flaherty performed at a number of shows in schools across the parish, with one of the last ones being at the Fontainebleau High School theater with groups of local students, along with a number of teachers from the Talented Art Program on hand.  

Here are some photos.Click on them to enlarge them for better viewing. 

 

Student Art Shows

If you're a parent with kids in school, then you've probably been to a Student Art Show Exhibit. Here are some pictures from a mid-1990's art show at a local school, featuring students proudly displaying their work and parents enjoying looking at all the pictures. 

 

Mayor Edward Badeaux

Here's a newspaper article from 1974 about Eddie Badeaux, mayor of Madisonville, and all of his community involvements. 

  

 

Emily Diamond

Without Emily Diamond, Covington would be a different place. Emily started Habitat for Humanity St. Tammany West in 1981, the tenth Habitat in the United States and the first affiliate in the state.
 
She brought people together to build homes working with Habitat homebuyers in the community, and the effort was a great success. Her early endeavor continues through the local Habitat chapter's ongoing work and was spotlighted seven years ago by the naming of a street located in the Groves at Mile Branch community in Covington "Emily Diamond Way."

 

She was born Nov. 25, 1921, to Daniel Independence and Edna Josephine Glossbrenner, and was raised in Indianapolis, Ind. She attended Swarthmore College and Indiana University.

She came to Covington in 1959 and first worked as a receptionist and secretary at St. Paul's School from 1964 to 1967, taught third grade at Rosenwald Elementary in Covington in 1967 and taught kindergarten in Madisonville from 1970 to 1975.

In 1981, thirty-eight years ago, she launched the chapter that has since built more than 270 homes for those in need in the area. She had gone to Americus, Ga., to personally meet with Millard Fuller the founder of Habitat, to talk to him about starting the Covington chapter.
 
She lived in Covington for 50 years, during which time she endeared herself to many residents throughout the community for her volunteerism and activist involvements.

 

Emily Diamond standing between Wallace and John Poole of Poole Lumber Co., a building materials supplier for Habitat

While she was best known for her work with Habitat, Ms. Diamond also was a co-founder, secretary and treasurer for the Community Relations Council of Covington, which worked to better race relations during the 1960s and 1970s.

With the assistance of famed writer and Covington resident Walker Percy, the council formed its own credit union which served to assist low-income families in securing loans for housing. From 1969 when it opened until 1985, Diamond served as manager of the credit union.Emily served as president of the Covington Habitat Chapter for four years and was on the board for 17 years, and she also started and managed the Habitat Restore in Covington. The Covington Habitat Chapter created the Emily Diamond Habitat for Humanity Community in 1986. 

Continuing her work as a community volunteer, Ms. Diamond until 2008, she worked at  Faith Bible Church in Covington from the late 1990s to the mid 2000's assisting in the ministry's drug rehabilitation program. In 1995 she received the Angels Among Us Volunteer Award  and the St Tammany Parish Chamber of Commerce Community Volunteer Award.

Her son David Diamond said that she believed that one person can make a difference in the world and that every human being on earth has amazing and absolute value.

Ms. Diamond died at 89 years of age in September of 2011 in Robbinsville, N.C. She had moved to Robbinsville to live with her daughter, Kathryn Lynch, in 2009 due to illness.

In 2012 a Covington street was renamed for her. The Covington City Council voted unanimously to name a street Emily Diamond Way for Diamond's longtime efforts in the community, recognizing her many years of service to the less fortunate in the area.

Emily Diamond in 1989

See also:

Habitat for Humanity

Women Build 

Emily Diamond Planned Giving Society

Obituary

Christmas Lights At The Courthouse

Taking pictures of the Christmas tree lighting at the courthouse in Covington was a colorful affair in 1996, but the low lighting posed some challenges. Here are photos taken using both black and white and color film (with flash). You choose which ones you like best.

Click on the images to make them larger. 
 

 

 

 

 

See also:

Christmas Under the Oaks