Welcome!

Genealogy Meeting June 11, 2019 - 10:00 am

We are pleased to announce that Mrs. Viola FONTENOT, the author of the recently published book
   A Cajun Girl’s Sharecropping Years will be the guest speaker at 10:00 am this Saturday, June 8th at the Monthly meeting of the Imperial St. Landry Genealogical & Historical Society at the OPELOUSAS Public Library at 212 East Grolee Street.
The book was published by the University of Mississippi Press and has been widely acclaimed & received recognized by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities with their award.
The public is cordially invited to attend and become informed, be amused and reminded of the many stories you have heard all of your life that tell the real-life stories of this Acadiana area.
Coffee will be served, so come early and greet old friends and maybe discover new cousins.
She has just a few books on hand but we asked that she bring them with her in case anyone cares to make a purchase.
We attach a short Bio that we asked Mrs FONTENOT to provide so you will know where she got the material for her book!

Below is an Introduction Bio:

            I grew up in Acadia Parish near Richard and Church Point with French speaking parents. My Cajun sharecropper father made a verbal bargain with a landlord to provide farm labor for a one/third share of profits from the crops. "I will not speak French at school," was my first grade lesson. If I forgot, I felt the shame of whacks from the ruler on my fingertips. Eighteen years a sharecropper's daughter, I worked tediously side by side with Mama and Daddy picking cotton and digging sweet potatoes. It was1948/1949 when I watched (South Louisiana Membership Corporation) SLEMCO 's crew erect poles, lines, and transformers to connect electricity to our house. Education was my key out of the cotton fields. I graduated fifth in my class then married a Cajun boy in Eunice where we raised four children.

            Retiring as an Asst Vice President of a bank, I enrolled in a 2009-2010 ULL writing class. I wrote my sharecropper stories during those four semesters. The essays, intended for my children, were the basis of my 2014-2016 manuscript. The completed works took me more than  two years of perseverance, writing four days a week, and divine alignment. Getting published stretched two more years. 

            My book, A Cajun Girls Sharecropping Years, published by University Press of Mississippi made its' debut on July 14, 2018, in Lafayette at the Barnes & Noble Book Store.  On April 4, 2019, the Louisiana Endowments for Humanities (LEH) awarded the Bright Light's Award to A Cajun Girls Sharecropping Years which took place a University of Louisiana Student Union

Viola Fontenot, Author

A Cajun Girl's Sharecropping Years 

“2019 Book of the Year Award

 

LEH (Louisiana Endowment for Humanities)