SWLA Historical Association Newsletter

The next meeting of the SWLA Historical Association will be our annual dinner meeting, Monday night, April 21, 2008. We will meet at the Piccadilly Restaurant on Ryan Street. Come at 6:30 to munch and mingle. The meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m.

Carolyn Woosley, a Lake Charles native and graduate of Lake Charles High School, will be our dinner speaker. Carolyn has a B.A. cum laude in history from H.S. Newcomb College of Tulane University, an M.A. in urban planning from University of California, Los Angeles, and is a retired Certified Financial Planner^TM.

As a playwright, Carolyn wrote Louisiana Women, a composite of 12 stand-alone monologues, exploring the lives and key issues of the day of 12 Louisiana women ranging from the late 1700s to the 1970s. Seven of the twelve have been produced and performed by Carol Ann Gayle, a Lake Charles resident and student of the late Sanford Meisner. They premiered at the Lake Charles Little Theater under the direction of Adley Cormier, also of Lake Charles.

Carolyn has also studied the life and career of Nellie Lutcher, jazz vocalist and pianist. Born in Lake Charles, Nellie lived here until she was 22, leaving only to pursue her musical career. In California, Nellie became a top recording rhythm and blues artist during the 1940s-1950s. “Nellie,” Carolyn’s play written in 2007, was part of a city-wide festival spear-headed by the Imperial Calcasieu Museum and the American Press to honor Nellie. The play was produced by Leslie Berman and premiered in October 2007 at Central School under the direction of Brenda Bachrack.

Please try to attend this meeting and bring a guest - or two! We hope to see you there!

January 2008 Meeting Report

The October meeting was held at the McNeese Library. The speaker, Dr. Bruce Turner, archivist at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette discussed the collections in his depository that concern Lake Charles and the Southwest Louisiana area. Included in these are records relating to the oil field activities of the Heywood family in Jennings, oral history tapes from the Jennings area, rice milling records from mills in Jennings and Lake Charles, Intracoastal Seaway Association Records, and materials concerning Lether Frazar, former president of McNeese State University. If anyone has any questions concerning these holdings, they may see them online at http://library.louisiana.edu/Spec/policy_SAMC.shtml or may contact Dr. Turner at bturner@louisiana.edu.

McNeese State University's Frazar Memorial Library has created a new resource for scholars interested in Hurricane Rita resources. The Hurricane Rita Bibliography is a webpage listing print and electronic documents pertinent to studying the issues surrounding the catastrophic hurricane and ensuing recovery efforts. The Bibliography covers a wide range of subjects, from environmental science to artistic endeavors.

On the evening of Friday, September 24, 2005 and into the next day, Hurricane Rita ravaged Southwest Louisiana and Southeast Texas and added to the flooding woes in New Orleans. Hurricane Rita, the third Category 5 hurricane of 2005, was a life-changing event for the people, communities, and natural environment of the area.

The Bibliography features resources available at McNeese State University's Frazar Memorial Library or on the Internet and is divided into four sections:

Because Hurricane Rita is a rapidly developing field of interest, the Bibliography is a preliminary compilation. As the scholarly community creates more resources, the Library will continue to update the Bibliography. The Bibliography is available from the Library website at http://library.mcneese.edu/depts/archive/rita.htm.

Frazar Memorial Library
Box 91445
McNeese State University
Lake Charles, LA 70609
337-475-5726

The 13 entries for the Dr. Donald J. Millet Memorial Award for Historical Writing for 2007 covered a wide variety of types: fiction, biography, historical accounts, photography, short story, play, fact book, and exhibit catalog. Some of the entries were gathered through nomination, others through the author’s submission. The judges are to be commended for their creative judging abilities with such a wide range of writing types to consider.

The judges this year were Vi Threatt; Gerald Mills, Licensed Clinical Social Worker; and Dr. Derek Blakeley, Assistant Professor of History at McNeese State University. The judges are invited to attend the dinner meeting where the winner of the award will be announced. Please thank them for their time and effort in making this contest such a success.

Judges this year were Walt Fontane, Paul Drake, and Josh Finnell, with Pati Threatt serving as the Chair of the Judging Committee. The judges chose from 9 projects in Division II, Individuals, at the Calcasieu Parish School Board’s Social Studies Fair.

Winners of the SWLA Historical Association's Dr. Joe Gray Taylor Louisiana History Essay Contest Award March 18, 2008. Congratulations to all the student winners!

The officers for the next term will be installed at the April meeting. The new officers are:

The membership of the association stands at 100 members. Of these, 29 are lifetime members. George Ann Benoit, Treasurer, and Kathie Bordelon, newsletter editor, try to keep the membership list current. All of the officers strive to keep you informed of association events and would love to see more active participation by the members. If you would like to volunteer for any of our current activities, or you have projects or ideas you’d like to see the association take on, please contact us about it. Past accomplishments include primarily publications, historical markers, a writing award and history essay contest, and the Gingham Ladies’ participation in local events. We also maintain a webpage: www.swlahistory.org, which features On This Day in Louisiana History, an historical calendar of daily events. This calendar is also accessible on the McNeese Library website.

Please invite your friends and anyone else who may be interested in the history of Southwest Louisiana to join and become involved in our association. And please pay your dues if you have not done so already! (Lifetime membership is $100, individual is $10, family is $15)

Nellie Lutcher, singer: born Lake Charles, Louisiana 15 October 1912; twice married, secondly Leonel Lewis (one son); died Los Angeles 8 June 2007.

Nellie Lutcher's passionate vocals and piano playing have influenced many performers, notably Nina Simone, although Lutcher herself is only known for a few records, notably "He's a Real Gone Guy," "My Mother's Eyes" and "Fine Brown Frame." The American jazz critic Leonard Feather wrote in 1947 that she was "not pretty, or even handsome, but she is a tall, big, somehow striking person whose visual appeal lies in the ability to change moods and express a wide range of ideas, both musical and humorous. Nellie 'sells' every word of every song."

When Nellie Lutcher started recording in her own right in 1947, Capitol Records, wanting to make her seem younger, said that she was born in 1915, but in fact she was born in 1912, in Lake Charles, Louisiana. She paid tribute to her home town with her exuberant piano playing on "Lake Charles Boogie."

Her father, Isaac, was a jazz musician, and her mother, Susie, a church organist. She was one of 15 children. Nellie's mother realized her daughter's latent talent and arranged piano lessons with the wife of Nellie's headmaster in exchange for doing her washing. "Mrs. Reynaud couldn't improvise, but she touched my life forever with her marvelous way of playing," Nellie Lutcher said later.

At only eight years old, Nellie would play the piano and the organ at church meetings, and then she learnt the mandolin and guitar. When the legendary blues singer Ma Rainey arrived for a booking in Lake Charles, her pianist was ill and the 12-year-old Nellie took his place.

She joined her father in Clarence Hart's Imperial Jazz Band when only 14, but both Mrs. Reynaud and Nellie's mother were worried about this move. "She may be going straight to hell," said Mrs. Reynaud, who saw her instead as a concert pianist. (Nellie Lutcher was to merge the possibilities with a jazz interpretation of Dvorák's Humoresque in 1947.) Whilst in her early teens, Nellie Lutcher married the band's trumpet player, but it lasted only two months.

In 1933, Lutcher joined the 16-piece Southern Rhythm Boys and soon started writing their arrangements. In 1935 she moved to Los Angeles, where she married Leonel Lewis, also from Lake Charles, and they had a son, Talmadge, although the marriage only lasted four years. By now, Lutcher was developing her own style, influenced by Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and her friend Nat "King" Cole. One of her best recordings, admittedly little known, is of Ellington's "Baby, Please Stop and Think About Me" (1949). It contains a glorious example of Lutcher singing scat to her own piano accompaniment.

In 1947 Talmadge suggested that his mother should take part in a charity show at Hollywood High School. An executive at Capitol Records heard the broadcast and, after receiving a recommendation from the crooner Joe Alexander, signed her to the label. Her first session, attributed to Nellie Lutcher and Her Rhythm, included the song she performed that night, "The One I Love Belongs to Someone Else," as well as her first hit single, the risqué "Hurry on Down,, which went to No. 2 on the rhythm and blues chart. This was followed by her equally successful composition "He's A Real Gone Guy." A revival of "My Mother's Eyes" was, by Lutcher's standards, sung straight. She returned to the innuendo for "There's Another Mule in Your Stall."

Capitol Records did not have a UK outlet until 1949, when seven singles were released in as many months. Jack Jackson on his Record Round-up for the Light Programme promoted her songs, "Hurry on Down" and "Fine Brown Frame," and she appeared on a UK variety tour, compared by Jackson, the following year. She received very good reviews, with the Daily Herald describing her as "12 stones of fine brown frame and a 39-inch waist."

Also in 1950, Lutcher sang with Cole on the witty "For You My Love," a prototype for the duets from Dinah Washington and Brook Benton. The B-side, "Can I Come in for a Second," written by Sammy Cahn, was an attempt to write another "Baby, It's Cold Outside."

In 1951 Lutcher, with an orchestra for the first time, recorded "The Birth of the Blues" and "I Want to Be Near You," but, for some inexplicable reason, she was losing her appeal with the record-buying public and Capitol dropped her. She was a subject on the US version of This Is Your Life in 1952, but even that did not boost the sales of her single "Muchly Verily" for Okeh. An excellent album of standards, Our New Nellie, for Liberty in 1956 was promoted as a comeback album, but it sold poorly. She said at the time, "You've got to be honest and play the music the way you feel it, no matter what type of music is popular."

With minor exceptions, Lutcher's recording career was over in 1957. Ironically, Nina Simone effectively started where she left off and showed Lutcher one way her talent could have developed. Lutcher performed very little after the 1950s, preferring to deal in property and using her astute personality to resolve problems as a director for the Musicians' Union.

Nellie Lutcher

1915 – 2007

Ron Yule was born in 1943 in Missouri and began playing the fiddle in 1968 while a student at the University of Texas, where he received a B.S. in microbiology. He received his M.S. in microbiology from McNeese State University in 1974 and worked as a health inspector for the State of Louisiana, retiring in 1999.

In 1973, Ron began producing fiddle contests and promoting bluegrass shows throughout Louisiana and southeast Texas. He and his wife, Georgia, produced the first bluegrass/fiddle club and newsletter in the state of Louisiana, the Southwest Louisiana Fiddler and Bluegrass Club, from 1974 to 1976. Ron continues promoting several bluegrass shows each year, including the Beauregard Parish Fair Fiddle Contest, an event that has been viable since 1925.

After retiring, Ron began amassing all the data and pictures he had collected over the previous 30 years and started a written documentation of fiddling, bluegrass, Cajun, and country music in Louisiana with a focus on Southwest Louisiana. Also, Ron's large collection of home tapes is the focus of a future project -- making these fiddlers come alive on audio. Ron continues to do what he loves best, "... play music with bluegrass, country, and Cajun friends at jam sessions, festivals, nursing homes and anywhere they'll allow the noise.

Ron Yule is the winner of the 2007 SWLA Historical Association’s Dr. Donald J. Millet Memorial Award for Historical Writing. Yule has written a total of six books on the history of Cajun, country, and bluegrass music in Louisiana. These include:

When The Fiddle Was King: Early Country Music from the North and West Regions of Louisiana. The story of pre-World War II country music in the northern and western regions of Louisiana

Cajun French Music Association Hall of Fame Lake Charles Chapter. A compilation of short (one page) biographies (plus pictures) of the 175 inductees into the CFMA Hall of Fame in Lake Charles.

Iry Lejeune : Wailin' the Blues Cajun Style. The life and legacy of the legendary Cajun accordionist, Iry Lejeune, from the memories of those who knew him.

And his newest: My Fiddlin’ Grounds: Northern and Western Louisiana Fiddlers. A 360-page reference book, which cites the state of country fiddling in 20th century Louisiana.

Yule’s book on Iry Lejeune concerns the life and legacy of this legendary Cajun accordionist, from the memories of those musicians, friends, and relatives who knew and loved him. Included are photos and excerpts on his first musical experiences, life at the School for the Blind, the Oklahoma Tornadoes, courtship and marriage, Eddie Shuler and Goldband Records, the Musical Aces, the Lacassine Playboys, and the Lake Charles Playboys. Numerous photos of Iry and his musical family are included. Added features include a foreword by Ryan A. Brasseaux and articles on Iry LeJune, Jr., “Iry's Accordion Style” by Chris Miller, “Country Dances with Amedé” by Milton Vanicor, and translations of Iry's recorded works, “In Iry’s Words”, by Jeanette Aguillard with David and Simone Marcantel.

Copies of Yule’s books may be purchased through his website: www.ronyule.com or by calling him directly at (337) 463-5884. He will also have order forms at the Historical Association meeting on April 21^st.

If you are not a "Lifetime" member, please send a check for $10 ($15 Family) to George Ann Benoit, 4201 Alma Lane, Lake Charles, LA 70605 for your 2008 dues. If you are a new member or your address has changed, please use this form to help us keep our records up-to-date. Thank you!!

April 2008 Meeting

January 2008 Meeting Report