T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History
Collection
ABSTRACT
INTERVIEWEE NAME: Emeritte O. Perret COLLECTION: 4700.0513
IDENTIFICATION: Cousin of Louise V. Olivier, director of
the Acadian Handicraft Project
INTERVIEWER: Pamela Rabalais and Yvonne Olivier
PROJECT: Acadian Handicraft Project
INTERVIEW DATE:
August 12, 1995
FOCUS DATES: 1940s – 1960s
ABSTRACT:
Emeritte
Perret's parents, Dan Olivier and Mary Agnes Barry; Her parents were from the
Grand Coteau, Louisiana area; Discussion of the Olivier family house; Perret
tells of how Louise Olivier wanted to develop Louisiana's culture and use it to
promote the state; Olivier got people to make different craft items; Olivier's
relationship with Chep Morrison's mother [Chep Morrison was the Former Mayor of
New Orleans], Alex Melancon (a writer out of Houma, Louisiana), and Harnett
Kane [Louisiana author]; Perret attended the Acadian Bicentennial Celebration
in St. Martinsville, Louisiana; Perret tells about conflicts Olivier had with
townspeople when she was getting projects started; Olivier played the violin;
Perret tells the story of going to the Eucharistic Congress in Europe with
Perret's father, Ben, and Louise
Olivier; Louise Olivier taught at Sacred Heart School in Grand Coteau,
Louisiana; Interviewers read names of women who were involved in the Acadian
Handicraft Project to see if Perret remembers them; she knows Mary Howard
McLaughlin who painted plates with Louisiana scenes; Mena Decoux was a woman
who made Acadian dolls and sold them at Louisiana festivals through the Acadian
Handicraft Project; Perret had two children, Earl and Ann; Perret has one
sister named Elizabeth Lauve who is in a nursing home; Elizabeth Lauve had four
children; Louise Olivier was friendly with the French Counsel; Interviewers
read from a letter Louise Olivier wrote to Perret about bringing Mena Decoux to
St. Martinsville, Louisiana, to the Acadian Bicentennial Celebration in 1955;
The Olivier family owned a few stores including Louisie Olivier's brother;
Interviewers read from a letter that Perret wrote to Louise Olivier about a
museum that was not built near Jeanerette, Louisiana; Perret went to visit the
Chitamacha [native American tribe in Louisiana] to try to encourage them to
make baskets for the Acadian Handicraft Project;
Louise Olivier
was able to get the Coushatta [native American tribe in Louisiana]; Louise
Olivier had Sarah Knot come to Louisiana to design the Acadian Bicentennial
Celebration; Perret describes a pilgrimage from the church to a park in St.
Martinsville, Louisiana, during the Acadian Bicentennial Celebration; Louise
Olivier's mother spoke very little English and was the child of a sugarcane
planter; Louise Olivier's father would not speak French to his children because
he only spoke Cajun French; Louise Olivier's father, Agricole, was very
generous and fed many people at his house; The cook in the Olivier house used a
lot of pepper in their cooking; Perret cannot walk well since she had a brain
tumor; one of the Olivier relatives, Jules, has a store in Lydia that has
old-fashioned toys
TAPES: 735 TOTAL
PLAYING TIME: 1 hour 30 minutes
# PAGES
TRANSCRIPT: 37 pages
OTHER
MATERIALS: None
RESTRICTIONS:
None