The USDA will hold an information session, sponsored by the City of Winnfield, on May 11 at 5 pm at the Winnfield Civic Center. Topics will include housing, farming, rural development and conservation so come learn about all the USDA has to offer.

By Brad Dison

Simon “Sam” Marrix was born in 1859 in Alsace, France.  In 1880, he emigrated to New York.  Because of the country of his origin, his friends in America called him “Frenchie.”  Four years after moving to America, he married an immigrant from Dornum, Germany called Miene Schoenberg.  To lessen confusion over the pronunciation of her name, she adopted the spelling “Minnie.”  In Germany, Minnie’s parents worked on the fair circuit.  Her father was a ventriloquist, and her mother was a yodeling harpist.  In America, Minnie’s younger brother, Adolf Schönberg, began performing in shows under a stage name that was easier to pronounce, Al Shean.  With Minnie’s help, her brother entered the vaudeville circuit and eventually became half of the popular musical comedy team called Gallagher and Shean.

In 1885, Frenchie and Minnie had their first child, Manfred, who died at the young age of seven.  Between 1887 and 1901, they had five more sons, Leonard, Adolph, Julius, Milton, and Herbert, respectively.  Rather than having aspirations for her sons to become doctors, lawyers, or engineers, Minnie wanted her sons to join the family business and become stage performers.  Minnie worked untiringly to develop her sons’ talents.  By 1907, Julius and Milton joined Mabel O’Donnell in a singing trio named “The Three Nightingales.”  In 1908, Adolph joined the Nightingales.  By 1910, with the addition of Minnie and the boys’ aunt Hannah, they renamed the group “the Six Mascots.” 

The members of “The Six Mascots” most likely would have faded into obscurity had it not been for a team of runaway mules.  During one lackluster musical performance in Marshall, Texas, the crowd grew bored.  Suddenly, a great commotion occurred outside the theater.  Audience members in the back of the theater could hear all sorts of sounds of destruction including breaking glass.  Many members of the bored audience rushed out of the theater to see what was happening.  A runaway team of mules was running wild through the streets of the town.  The Six Mascots continued performing their musical act to a much smaller audience.  Finally, after the mules were caught, the crowd returned to their seats to see the remainder of the performance.  They had paid for it after all.  Julius, Milton, and Adolph, irritated that “the audience had deserted Mozart for mules,” began insulting the crowd with wise cracks.  The result was unexpected.  Rather than resenting the remarks, the crowd began to laugh.  The crowd’s laughter grew exponentially with each new insult.  They tried the same wise cracks at their next performance and got a similar reaction.  The brothers took the hint and revamped their whole show. 

Over the next few years, the five brothers, in varying combinations, fine-tuned their characters.  Their success continued into Hollywood films beginning in 1929 with Animal Crackers.   For the next decade, they worked on at least one film per year, all of which were successful.  They continued to work together as well as in solo projects for the rest of their lives.  Had it not been for a team of runaway mules, we may never had heard of Leonard, Adolph, Julius, Milton, and Herbert, who purportedly received their nicknames from a friend during a poker game.  Leonard became Chico, Adolph became Harpo, Julius became Groucho, Milton became Gummo, and Herbert became Zeppo.  You and I know them as the Marx Brothers.

Sources:

1.      The Decatur Daily, December 9, 1930, p.2.
2.     The Peninsula Times Tribune, August 20, 1977, p.5.

William “Bill” Lee Cocherl
October 8, 1928 — May 4, 2023
Service: Saturday, May 20 at 10 am at Trinity Episcopal Church, located at 533 Second St. in Natchitoches

Howard L. Lynch
February 23, 1951 – May 9, 2023
Arrangements TBA

Master Alvin Johnson, IV
May 10, 2019 – April 29, 2023
Arrangements TBA

Joann L Knighton
February 27, 1942 – May 4, 2023
Service: Saturday, May 13 at 2 pm in the Winnfield Memorial Funeral Home Chapel, located at 318 North Street in Natchitoches

Winn Parish Medical Center’s Dr. Shelton and medical student Jianna Bona were guest speakers at last week’s meeting for the Kiwanis Club of Winnfield.

(Bob Holeman conducted this series of interviews with local World War II in 2011-12.  Most of those 34 American heroes have passed away in the decade since).

Many veterans maintain souvenirs and reminders of their service…photos, memorabilia, scrapbooks.  Paul Green carries his with him in the form of a portable oxygen tank and the entry scars of enemy shrapnel that remains in his body today.

That came from Korea.  Green also served in the end of World War II, the “Big War,” and came out without a scratch.  The war in Korea, though never declared, was certainly fought.  “I don’t regret anything for serving,” he stated.  “When I see people going freely through the streets and everything, I see the results of my service.”

Paul Green, son of Mr. and Mrs. James M. Green Sr. of Cypress Creek, was born August 21, 1927, and his twin sister, Pauline, followed shortly thereafter.  Their father, like so many in those days, was a farmer trying to scratch a living from the ground by producing cotton, corn and peanuts while raising some cows and hogs.

“I learned the farm and everything,” Green said as he looked back on his youth.  “They taught Agriculture in school.  It was one of four mandatory subjects.  For my first year of schooling, I attended Cypress Creek school but didn’t get to go enough days to get a report card, what with the weather, rain, snow, then whooping cough, measles, mumps.” 

He got off on a better foot the next year when he started at Dodson.  “I stayed with it until I graduated in 1945.  I had average grades but I enjoyed all of the sports.  I played four years of basketball.  They’d dropped football the year before I started so if we played, it wasn’t competitive.  I was the catcher for both baseball and softball.  And I was on the boxing team.  We competed all over Louisiana and in Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi.”

Green was 17 when he got out of DHS.  The national draft had been lowered to 18 as the war in the Pacific was making grim progress towards Japan.  “I didn’t want the Army so just quick as I graduated, I went to Alexandria to volunteer for the Navy.  He was processed and sworn into service July 17, 1945.  Japan would surrender a month later but there was still much work to do.

Boot camp at San Diego was supposed to be eight weeks but he’d only been there six when they were sent to San Jose for a night.  Then to Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay where they boarded a ship that sailed to Pearl Harbor.  Nearly four years after the deadly Japanese attack, the devastation of the bombing to buildings, piers and sunken ships all over the bay was terrible, he said.

Next stop was Samar in the northern Philippines where an LST at Subic Bay transported the men to the USS Auman, an attack personnel destroyer heading to Manila Bay.  “I had some training with Navy SEALS in demolition…defusing dud mines that had been left behind.  They were caught in nets before they could float into ports.  We also handled prisoners.  We had to take prisoners from islands to Jap transport ships, then our job was done.”

In the spring of 1946, Green was assigned to the USS Wildcat, an auxiliary ship that desalinated saltwater.  “We sailed to the Atoll Islands.  On the way, we passed some of the most beautiful islands you’ve ever seen.  Palm trees, beaches, mountains, birds flying everywhere, deep blue water.  We couldn’t stop but the captain slowed down the ship and told us about what we were seeing.”

What else he would be seeing over the next few months was the dawning of America’s nuclear testing program.  At Bikini Atoll, 23 nuclear devices were detonated between 1946 and 1958. Green was part of the team that prepared for the first test.  One cruiser, two destroyers and two attack transports were anchored around the atoll.  Placed aboard was equipment connected by wires to monitoring devices.  “I put out wires and buoys, diving from one ship to another.  They were monitoring the area but we couldn’t see the results.  The morning they did the first test (July 1, 1946), they loaded us all up on a troop transport and shipped us out.  It was fast because we’d been gone just two hours when they dropped the bomb.  We were barely out of danger.  We heard it but didn’t see anything.  It was over the horizon.”

That was the final assignment for this Naval Reserve unit.  They returned to the states and Green was discharged in New Orleans on July 10, 1946.

He figured he’d seen the last of his service days.  He returned home and went to work in the log woods and enjoyed the work he did.  But the conflict in Korea broke out.  On Feb. 9, 1951, the Naval Reserve called Green back into service.  He was transferred to the Army and sent to Fort Rucker, AL, where he was trained in regimental combat. 

“By May of 1951, I was in Korea, above Pusan where I was picked up by Battery C, 99^th Artillery Battalion.  They took me to the front but we lost our jeep before we got there.  It was hit by mortar fire.  We jumped out and let it roll into a ditch.  Fortunately, we weren’t hit.  I was a map reader, a forward observer.  You had to be good in math.  At that time, all the guns were manual and the F.O. had to tell them how to adjust to hit the target.”

On Oct. 9 Green was hit by incoming shells and was dragged back to safety by another member of the P.O. team, Daniel O. Mestas, of Colorado Springs.  Unconscious for 12 days, he awoke in a Nagoya, Japan, air base hospital, totally deaf initially.  He was transferred to Yokohama for another five and a half months of treatment, improving slightly.

“When they turned me loose from that hospital, I was tagged EVAC-21.”  They were going to send me home.  I pulled that off and threw it away.  I was going back to my outfit.”  He succeeded but the cost was high.  Nearly the entire First Cavalry Division was lost in hand-to-hand combat.

“They finally pulled us back off that line, we’d lost so many men.  They sent us to Hokkaido, the most northern island in Japan.  Replacements arrived to strengthen our manpower and equipment.  On Oct. 15, 1952, we made our final invasion in Korea, landing in Wonsan, on the northeast coast above the 38^th Parallel.  We stayed up there until Christmas Eve night 1952.  It was cold, colder than you’d believe.  We left the front line at 9:30 and loaded onto a ship Christmas Day.”

Processed through Japan, the soldiers began their journey home.  That journey for Green took him through Fort Sam Houston TX for discharge.  “The Army wanted me to go to the hospital there but I’d had enough of that.  I ran away from them.”

The disabled veteran found himself a job at the paper mill in Hodge but he said the people in his own Cypress Creek community got together in August and wanted him to take over the school bus route for Wayne Taylor.  For the next 18 months, he did both, working the graveyard shift at the mill but he finally dropped the mill work.

“I drove the bus until 1961,” he said.  “Then I went back to cutting logs.  I really enjoyed being outside.  Then I got an offer to cut virgin hardwood in Concordia Parish at twice the price of cutting Southern pine.  I spent 4-1/2 years there.  I cut logs until 1989 when my breathing problems showed up.  Shrapnel in my body started breaking loose and messing up my lungs.  I was hit three times over there.”

In his early life, Green had known Betty Durbin.  She was just in third grade the year he graduated.  “She tells me I picked at her, saying I’d marry her one day.  I saw her between the wars but she was still a schoolgirl.  I had one date with her in 1951.  We stayed in contact while I was gone.  I went to see her three days after I returned in 1953.  I had bought a new pickup truck.  I dated her every time I had a chance.  She graduated that year…she was 17 at the time.    But we waited until July 26 to get married so she’d be 18.  Her birthday is July 21.”

The couple had two sons, Tommy and Danny, as well as five grandsons and three great grandchildren.

For his services, Green received the Purple Heart, commendations for bravery and good conduct and numerous ribbons and citations including 4 bronze stars for major battles.

Seniors from Winnfield Senior High and Atlanta High School received Honor Cords on May 1 for their work in the Winn Parish 4-H Program. 

Date: 4-25-23
Name: Austin Wise
Address: Winnfield, LA
Race: White
Sex: Male 
Age: 24
Charge: Simple criminal damage to property, Simple burglary of inhabited dwelling, Domestic abuse battery (strangulation), Purse Snatching 

Date: 4-26-23
Name: Leslie Miller 
Address: Eldorado, AR
Race: White
Sex: Female 
Age: 58
Charge: Failure to appear (Union County-AR)

Date: 4-27-23
Name: Adam L Shirely 
Address: Dodson, LA
Race: White
Sex: Male
Age: 35
Charge: First Degree Vehicular Negligence (injuring)

Date: 4-27-23
Name: Monte L Campbell 
Address: Winnfield, LA
Race: Black 
Sex: Male 
Age: N/A
Charge: Direct contempt of court (warrant) 

Date: 4-28-23
Name: Courtland J Turner 
Address: Winnfield, LA 
Race: Black 
Sex: Male 
Age: 21
Charge: Burglary

Date: 4-28-23
Name: Robert L Brown 
Address: Winnfield, LA
Race: Black 
Sex: Male 
Age: 61
Charge: Theft (>1,000)

Date: 4-28-23
Name: Alicia D Nears 
Address: Winnfield, LA
Race: Black
Sex: Female 
Age: 25
Charge: Second Degree Murder (cruelty to a juvenile)

Date: 4-28-23
Name: Alvin Johnson III
Address: Winnfield, LA 
Race: Black 
Sex: Male 
Age: 30
Charge: Second Degree Murder (cruelty to a juvenile)

Date: 4-30-23
Name: Jarel L Hudson
Address: Zwolle, LA
Race: Black
Sex: Male 
Age: 29
Charge: Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, Prohibited Acts ( with a schedule 2)

Date: 5-1-23
Name: Chelsea D Allen 
Address: Winnfield, LA
Race: Black 
Sex: Female   
Age: 33
Charge: Theft (< 1,000)

This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

This past Saturday, April 29th, Dylan Womack (a Winn Parish ’23 Sheriff’s candidate) and his team were out in Joyce, passing out plates and Mr. Womack’s intentions for office along with a smile.

With a little over two-hundred and fifty plates shared, and hundred and twenty pounds worth of fish, and seventy-five spuds cleared in its making, Womack and his team feel confident they not only filled plenty of bellies but the air with good discussion and community fellowship!

We at WPJ appreciate ‘Dylan Womack for Sheriff’ for sharing their weekend with us! Though we here at Winn Parish Journal have no political affiliations with any running candidate within the Parish we appreciate seeing the comings and goings of the hard-working individuals and what they’re doing for and within our community! Please remember to utilize the ‘wpjreporter@gmail.com’ email address should you or yours have any information or an occasion you’d love to share with our neck of the woods!

Thank you Chancellor, distinguished guests, proud parents and family members, fellow alums, my probation officer, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, and most of all thank you, the newest crop of graduates.

It is a pleasure and honor to be here today, though the flight was tough. I just flew in from Vegas and boy are my arms tired!

No, that’s just a little commencement humor. Ha! Seriously, great to be here. Better than being in jail. Or in Russia. Same thing, right? Where are my geography and history majors? There you are! Nice to see you two.

I congratulate you because I know how hard you’ve worked to get here. Well, I don’t know from personal experience and all, but I can imagine. Just getting those square hats and tassels to stick to your heads long enough to get a diploma today is a testament to your ingenuity and persistence. And talent with bobby pins. I’m impressed.

Your administration, ill-informed but well-meaning, has asked me to speak today in hopes you’ll be inspired. After all, if I can get a job, you can, right?

Lessons learned from my experience are both timeless and proven. Also simple. Some of it you will not believe until you’ve tried, and failed. No problem; it’s called being human.

But remember what John Wayne said: Life is hard. It’s harder if you’re stupid. Don’t overdo tempting fate. The world loves to chew up people who insist on having self-induced brain cramps.

Don’t spit into the wind. If you’re a cowboy, drink upstream from the herd. If you’re a plumber, don’t bite your fingernails. Bet a home dog on Monday Night Football, and if you’re in a plane, wear a seatbelt. Muhammad Ali once told a stewardess, “Superman don’t need no seatbelt.” But the stewardess then told The Greatest, “Superman don’t need no airplane.” Ali put on his seatbelt. Know your limitations.

Don’t scoff at the simplicity of “a penny saved is a penny earned.” Compound interest is a beautiful thing. Granted, a penny saved is hard to do, especially if you have children, if you like to eat, and if the transmission goes out on your car.

But mainly – and I wish I’d have accepted this several years and tens of thousands of dollars ago – know that life is difficult. For the prince and the pauper, it’s a tough row to hoe. Not everything is an Orioles-Red Sox game in September. Not everything is your favorite TV show or CD or Sunday dinner or vacation. I used to think that if things weren’t funny, I must be doing something wrong. Very depressing.

But a rule here is that not everything IS funny, or easy. Each of us is always heading into, coming out of, or in the middle of a violent life storm. How do we react? There’s your moment of truth. Learning how to put those fires out, knowing they’re part of the game. Nothing’s wrong with you if “bad” things happen. Just means you’re human.

There are no secrets. Simply, life will put you through the meat grinder. Expect it, and you aren’t perpetually surprised and disturbed. Then instead of getting ground up, you can grind it out. Make every inning, every game, count. Never give an at-bat away.

You have teammates. And they have you. Stick together.

You’re today’s starting pitcher. Until this moment, it’s all been warm-ups. The game starts now.

(From Prom Season, May, 2011)

Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu or Twitter @MamaLuvsManning

Typically, when I do a community spotlight, whether person or place, it’s… well, within our community, Winn Parish. Nevertheless, as I’m continuously learning, the news isn’t just reoccurring; more often than not frustrating; it’s organic. It forms fingers, arms, and legs; before long, it’s upright and breathing. It lives a life exchanged verbally and is easily influenced by right or wrong, changes shape, and is even capable of great distance. In that, we can sympathize. We, too, are upright, impressionable, and capable of great depth, so I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to touch on Dr. Lindsey Thurmon Norris and her participation just a few weeks back in the 127th Boston Marathon (est. 1868). Though she now calls Madison, MS home, she was born here, in little ole Winnfield.

Dr. Norris, wife and mother of four, is usually found practicing her craft, nephrology (the care and treatment of the kidneys), any given day of the week up in Jackson, MS, but Monday, April 17th, she was busy maintaining a consistent eight-minute mile throughout the entirety of her twenty-six-mile trek–no easy feat! Especially considering the time, provision, and discipline necessary to qualify for the marathon, let alone balancing a healthy family and a demanding career while preparing.

The qualifying window began in September of ’21, requiring runners to have completed a certified marathon within the allotted time, distinguished by age and gender, due to the field limitations dictated by the B.A.A (Boston Athletic Association), achieving the qualified time did not guarantee entry, just the right to submit. Therefore, only the fastest within the applicant pool, which included Dr. Norris, was selected for the opportunity. She finished 13,807 overall in three hours, thirty-six minutes, and forty-four seconds out of 30,000 participants!

Lindsey’s performance is a point of pride but not a surprise for her family and friends here in the Parish. She’s described as diligent, unyielding, and without barriers, consistently set on achieving every goal she sets for herself. From her athletic achievements while attending WHS (graduated 2000), her academic performance through out high school and college, raising a loving family, having a successful practice, and now running in the Boston Marathon. Dr. Norris is clearly a spirited woman who has shown her grit and drive from an early age and continues to push past her limits, forming a direct and powerful example for anyone who stands still long enough to listen!

Congratulations to Dr. Lindsey Thurmon Norris for her acceptance and participation in the 127th Boston Marathon!

THE 1ST ANNUAL CITY OF LIGHTS CRAWFISH BOIL COOK-OFF WILL BE HELD MAY 6TH AT THE NATCHITOCHES PARISH FAIRGROUNDS. THIS EVENT IS THE 1ST OF ITS KIND IN OUR AREA AND IS SURE TO BE A BIG DAY! THE GATES WILL OPEN AT 10:00 AM AND WILL FEATURE THE FOLLOWING:

· $25 ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT CRAWFISH FROM 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

· LIVE ENTERTAINMENT FEATURING: KELLY ROBERTS BAND, THE LACOUR TRIO, & BECKY & THE SHUFFLE KINGS

· KIDS PLAY AREA WITH CANE RIVER INFLATABLES BOUNCING HOUSES, & CORN HOLE GAMES

· OTHER FOOD AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE – A TASTE OF HEAVEN FOOD TRUCK, CANE RIVER PIZZA CO., AND NENE’S CAKES & COOKIES

· ANTOON’S SELLING BEER – MUST SHOW ID & BE 21 & OVER-A SEPARATE WRIST BAND WILL BE ISSUED

· AVAILABLE EATING AND SEATING AREA UNDER A BIG TENT; LAWN CHAIRS ARE ENCOURAGED

· EVENT T-SHIRTS WILL BE ON SALE FOR $25 AND KOOZIES FOR $5

TEAMS WILL BOIL THEIR BEST RECIPES TO COMPETE FOR CASH PRIZES OF -1ST -$1000; 2ND – $750; 3RD – $500; AND THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE WILL RECEIVE FREE ENTRY INTO NEXT YEAR’S COMPETITION!

(BUSINESSES & INDIVIDUAL TEAMS MAY STILL ENTER ON THE CITY OF LIGHTS FACEBOOK PAGE OR CONTACT LYNN LACAZE -AT 318-332-0419)

*NO OUTSIDE FOOD, DRINKS, OR COOLERS

*ALL BAGS WILL BE CHECKED AT THE GATE (CLEAR BAGS ONLY)

***ALL PROCEEDS FROM THIS EVENT WILL BE DONATED TO: THE WOMEN’S RESOURCE CENTER AND ST. VINCENT DE PAUL CHARITIES! BOTH ORGANIZATIONS ARE INTEGRAL PARTS OF OUR COMMUNITY!!

THE NATCHITOCHES PARISH FAIR BOARD WOULD LIKE TO THANK SPONSORS: RHODES PROPERTY & DEVELOPMENT, EASTON & CO. CHILDREN’S BOUTIQUE, SERVICE WORKS OF MARTHAVILLE, BOM FINANCIAL, CITY OF NATCHITOCHES MAYOR RONNIE WILLIAMS, SENATOR LOUIE BERNARD, NRMC, CITY BANK & TRUST, AND CAMPBELL MONUMENTS.