Assessor Lawrence Desadier.  More than that, you’ll find Desadier himself, his familiar smile on his face.

This is news to folks of Winn because Desadier has been missing from that picture for a long time due to surgeries and complications.  Prayer groups across the community have followed the reports of surgery and complications, recoveries and setbacks, rehab and coming home.

“I was in the hospital and rehab for 68 days,” he told the Journal.  “They cut me open three times.”  When Desadier was taken to the hospital for the first time, he weighed 177 pounds. By the time he entered rehab in Ruston, he was down to 135 pounds.  But they got him fed up a bit and he now tips the scales at 149 pounds.

“I missed being about everyone,” he said.  “I’m thankful for the work of my staff while I was gone.  I’m glad to be back to serve the people of Winn Parish and am grateful for their prayers and support.

He added that he will begin his fifth term of office in a week, on January 1.  He’s already taken his oath of office for that next term.

WSHS senior Emily Nevils has been selected as a delegate to represent Louisiana in the United State Senate Youth Washington Week Program in Washington, D.C., in March 2025. Only two students in each state received this honor, with 104 from across the country heading to the nation’s capital.

There were over 70 applicants submitted from across Louisiana.  That was narrowed down to four semi- finalists and Emily Nevils and Neal Tandon (Metairie) were chosen as the two delegates to represent the state at the 63th annual USSYP.

Thanks to the William R. Hearst Foundation all expenses involved in her participation will be paid for the March 1 thorough 8 event and a $10,000 undergraduate scholarship will be provided for college studies.

The highly competitive merit-based selection process for students with demonstrated leadership abilities is based on portfolio scores, written exam results and interviews.

During that Senate week, delegates will attend meetings and briefings with senators, cabinet members, officials from the departments of State and Defense as well of leaders of federal agencies.  Delegates traditionally participate in meetings with a Supreme Court justice and the President of the United States.

The USSYP mission is to instill within each class of delegates a more profound knowledge of the American political process and lifelong commitment to public service.

Emily was notified of her selection by the Louisiana Department of Education.  She is the daughter of Chris and Kim Nevils of Winnfield.

The Winnfield City Police are calling the 18th annual “Shop with a Cop” a total success, held Saturday, December 14.  Even the weather cooperated, and the rain held off until well after the festivities.  It felt as if the entire community became participants as the number of children given a better outlook on Christmas surpassed the goal.  A Christmas was provided for 125 kids.

It’s been suggested that the name of the program should be changed, as the children were assisted in their shopping by volunteers across the community.  In addition to police officers, there were firemen, the mayor, council persons, police jury members, secretaries, jailers, 911 dispatchers, city hall employees, and Walmart associates.  

“We had special visitors this year as Santa and Mrs. Clause were present for the entire day, escorted by, I believe, two of his secret elves, Judge Keith and Mrs. Amber Gates of Winnfield,” observed Asst. Chief Charles Curry.  “Children, families and volunteers met at the Winnfield Civic Center where the children were allowed to ride fire trucks, special service vehicles and police cars.  

“They were followed by parents and friends in their cars which made for a parade that stretched for about 2 miles.  There was plenty of noise to welcome the Christmas season as sirens wailed throughout the parade.  Mr. and Mrs. Clause were in the back of Judge Gate’s truck waving at all who were watching.

“This event has always made children happy but from where I stood, I believe the adults learned just how close-knit this city is city can be.  Donations were made through the year by our own businesses and were topped off with a boot drive held in November.  The entire program is coordinated by the local non-profit organization “Operation Save a Kid.”

That organization is run by the Police Department’s Liaison Officer, Jessie Phillips, and his wife, Councilwoman Theresa Phillips.  There are many members of this organization but without these two pulling it together, it would be next to impossible to accomplish”

“This is my one pet program that I am most proud of,” stated Winnfield Chief of Police Johnny Ray Carpenter.

Curry concluded, “Each year Shop with a Cop grows just a little bigger.  At this rate, we might just have to change the name to ‘Shop with the Community.’  Merry Christmas from all of us to all of you!”

This past Tuesday, Winnfield Middle School hosted “The WMS Christmas Play”  with over 150 students and teachers participating,  making it one of the largest events of the year involving students and teachers in front of a standing room crowd at the WSHS Auditorium. 

The theme featured the true meaning of Christmas with each grade playing a role in depicting an important event is can associated with Christmas.  The program even had the Manger scene, WMS band, chorus lines topped off with Cindy Lou Who and the Grinch!  

“Merry Christmas from WMS!”

Why would a pediatrician with a successful practice in south Louisiana (Sulphur) decide to come to a small community like Winnfield to care for children?  Just ask Dr. Jeanette Bergsteadt who told the Journal that it was the pressure of patient numbers and related responsibilities that were taxing on her health.

“I love this place,” she said about Winn Community Health Center, “because here I can be a country doctor.  There’s no rush.  I can take the time to spend with my patient.  That way, I am really able to understand their problems.  Here, it’s more about care than it is numbers.  I know pediatricians in Lake Charles who have to see 100 patients a day.”

She explained that in this current work environment, she can “look at the big picture.”  She also admits that through the years she has personally faced hardships in life, both with health and family, “that help me better understand where these parents are coming from.  It’s what you go through in life that makes you up.”

She’s been at Winn Community Health Center since December 10, 2013.

Winn families with children ages birth through 17 may also appreciate that Dr. Bergsteadt is able to take the time to use her full profession skills as that “country doctor” to take care of the medical needs of their children.  For that age group, she handles any medical issues and can even assist in the area of mental health.

Dr. Bergsteadt is a Lake Charles native who received both her undergraduate and medical degrees at LSU-Shreveport which she achieved after having a family.  With her medical license as a general practitioner in 1991, she went on to serve her three years of clinical research in Shreveport to get her doctorate as a pediatrician in 1994.

That may sound like a lot of ‘Louisiana’ but this doctor had traveled extensively in her childhood and youth.  Her father was career military.  “I attended 11 different schools by the time I reached seventh grade.  He was stationed in Africa, Japan and it states all over the country.”

Dr. Bergsteadt may enjoy the work she does in Winnfield but her heart is in Lake Charles with her two grandchildren.  “I never had grandparents around me when I was growing up so I want to be involved with mine.”  She’s here in Winnfield during the week but travels to south Louisiana weekends to give her attention to them.

“I am also blessed to have my nurse, Samantha McManus, working with me.  She’s working hard and hopes to be a nurse practitioner.  I try to assist in that.”

Story Courtesy Rapides Parish Journal

Officials in Winn and seven other parishes are seeking almost $39 million to expand the Renaissance Juvenile Detention facility.

The applicants constitute the Central Louisiana Juvenile Detention Center Authority.

Rapides, Grant, Avoyelles, LaSalle, Vernon, Winn, Catahoula and Concordia will kick in a total of $2.67 million for the proposed operating budget of the expanded facility and the state Office of Juvenile Justice $1.55 million in guaranteed daily bed rate (30% of the beds reserved for OJJ), according to the proposal submitted to the Division of Administration.

The expansion of the current facility at Bayou Rapides Road and Vandenburg Drive in Al3exandria would add 56 beds for housing juveniles either awaiting court resolution of their cases or whose cases have been through the system, juveniles charged as adults and 17-year-olds (no longer juveniles under Louisiana law but unable under federal law to be housed with offenders 18 or older).

The Renaissance proposal is in competition with many others for the $100 million to $150 million appropriated this year by the Legislature for such projects.

The bill initially was for juvenile facilities alone but along the path to passage was amended to include other uses as eligible categories.

Thus about $500 million in requests have been submitted, several having nothing to do with the juvenile justice system, and are undergoing screening and scoring by Division of Administration staff and state/local stakeholders.

Once scored on the pre-determined point system, the applications will go to the Criminal Justice Priority Funding Commission.

From that review, applications will go the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget for action

Dr. Cameron McMahen is the new podiatrist in town and recently took time to talk about himself and explain his work at Winn Wellness Clinic, a rural health clinic.

Dr. McMahen is a podiatrist who has been on staff for several months.  He has family in

Shreveport and his parents live in Dallas where he was raised.  He received his degree from Oklahoma State and Kent State and did his residency and surgical residency at Ohio State. As he was doing his residency he knew that he wanted to come back to the south.

He told Rotarians this is his first practice after he completed his residency in the summer. Dr. McMahen lives in Ruston and will have a clinic there one day a week and will also perform surgeries at North Louisiana Medical Center. 

He explained that “a podiatrist treats anything to do with the foot and ankle up to mid-shaft.”

Dr. McMahen opened the floor for questions and Rotarian feedback proved a there is a lot of interest in this particular field of medicine.

Dr. McMahen will probably work 3 or 4 days a week in Winnfield depending on surgery

schedule. A referral may be required to see him or for insurance to pay. You can call the clinic to request an appointment.

Tuesday School volunteers got together to create some soft Christmas pillows for the children with reassuring Biblical citations to show that God loves and cares for them.

The pillows were presented to the children as part of a gift pack.

The priest heard about a devout Christian man who had once been wealthy but was now poor.  The devout man had three daughters who were nearing marrying age, but without proper dowries were at risk of being forced into prostitution.  The priest learned of the plight of the devout man and his daughters.  He wanted to help the struggling family, but the devout man refused to accept charity.  Late one night, the priest threw a small purse filled with gold coins into the open window of the devout man’s home.  Without knowing who the coins came from, the devout man could not return them.  Believing them to be a gift from God, the devout man paid for his daughter’s dowry and for her wedding.  The devout man still fretted over his two other unmarried daughters.  Late one night soon after the wedding, the priest threw another purse filled with gold coins into the devout man’s window.  Again, the man was unable to determine who had left the coins.  After his second daughter’s marriage, the devout man was determined to learn the identity of person responsible.  He stayed at the window for two days and nights.  On the second night, he heard the sound of another purse filled with gold coins as it plopped on the floor of the room.  The devout man jumped out of the window and caught the priest as he tried to escape.  The devout man fell to his knees and thanked the priest.  The priest quickly pulled him back to his feet, looked around to make sure no one had seen, and asked him not to tell anyone that it was he, the priest, who had given the purses of gold coins.         

Several miracles were attributed to priest, one of which occurred while on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.  During the trip across the Mediterranean Sea, a violent storm battered the ship.  Everyone but the priest feared the worst.  The priest began praying.  At that moment, the high waves were instantly calmed, and the ship continued its journey without further incident.  News of the miracle preceded the priest.  While in Palestine, the priest stayed in a crypt near Bethlehem.  A church named after the priest still stands above this crypt. 

When the priest returned to Myra, he learned that the bishop who had replaced his uncle had recently died.  The other priests selected him as the new Bishop of Myra, a post he retained until he died of old age.  The bishop was buried in a crypt within the church.  By 520, the church had deteriorated to nothing more than a pile of rubble.  In that year, the emperor of Rome had another church built on the site and named it in honor of the orphan who became a priest, who became a bishop, who became a saint.   The church, which still stands, is called St. Nicholas Church.  St. Nicholas, the miracle-worker and gift-giver, was the origin of Santa Claus.

Sources:

1.     “St. Nicholas of Bari, Bishop of Myra,” Vatican News, Accessed December 16, 2024, https://www.vaticannews.va/en/saints/12/06/saint-nicholas-of-bari–bishop-of-myra.html.

2.     “Bishop of Myra,” St. Nicholas Center, Accessed December 16, 2024, https://www.stnicholascenter.org/who-is-st-nicholas/bishop-of-myra.

Huey Dewayne Sanders
February 10, 1957 – December 17, 2024
Service: Services f0or Mr. Sanders took place with visitation at the Southern Funeral Home on Thursday, December 19, 2024 from 5 PM-8 PM. Funeral Services were held at Southern Funeral Home Chapel on Friday, December 20, 2024. Burial will be in Gorhamtown Cemetery in Joyce, LA.

Sharon Louise Sullivan
December 15, 1944 – December 23, 2024
Service: Graveside services for Mrs. Sullivan took place at 3:00 PM on Tuesday, December 24, 2024, at Hurricane Grove Cemetery.

Harry David Baldridge
November 12, 1964 – December 17, 2024
Service: Services for Mr. Baldridge will begin with visitation at 10:00 AM on Friday, December 27, 2024, at Welcome Home Baptist Church in Dodson, LA.  A celebration of life will be immediately following at 11:00 AM, also at the church. 

Our staff will be stepping away from work today and tonight to spend time with their families celebrating the arrival of Santa Claus and moreso, the anniversary of the joyous news of the birth of the Christ child.

Please look for us this coming Friday, December 27th, 7 AM for a new edition. 

We wish you and yours peace on Earth, goodwill to all, and a very, very Merry Christmas!

She’s a pediatrician who had 30 years of experience in the field even before moving back closer to home to join Lincoln Community Health Center in 2019, working with health problems and complications that arise in patients ages birth through 21.

Her name is Dr. Angela Odom-Austin, a Shreveport native who received her undergraduate degree in general biology at Dillard University in New Orleans before heading to medical school at Duke in North Carolina.  In that process, she had done summer research at LSU Medical Center in Shreveport in deep tissue burns then took on intense studies of the immune system at Dillard.

“I really wanted to go to medical school,” she told the Journal, with reference to her studies of immunology.  Her training was honed during those years by working in the medical field through a series of pandemics.  “I was at Duke in the middle of the AIDS pandemic.  Early on, people in the medical community were panicked about how you deal with handling those affected folks.  But we learned.”

She said the same fear “in the early going” of COVID was witnessed.  By that time, Dr. Odom had worked through AIDS, Avian flu, SARS, Ebola then COVID.  “The rule is ‘First, do no harm.’  But then you must accept that we’re here to help our community.  So we help others.”

The young doctor did her pediatric residency at Eastern Virginia Graduate School of Medicine (Old Dominion) and stayed in Virginia where she had family for the next 30 years with her medical practice and raising her own family.

She came to Ruston at Lincoln Community Health Center in 2019.  “My mom was still living in Shreveport but getting on in age and needed me near.  I wanted to get back to Louisiana.”  She put out the word and Trinity Community Health Centers of Louisiana responded.  “It was not quite Shreveport but close enough.  Since I also have family in Grambling and as a child, I went to Girl Scouts camp there, this brings good memories.  As a Federally Qualified Health Center, Trinity serves an underserved community.  I’m quite happy to be here.”

Faith and church are important parts in Dr. Odom’s life.  A member of New Rocky Valley Baptist Church in Grambling, she notes that during the COVID pandemic, many learned to worship online so she is able to do that occasionally with several of her churches back in Virginia.

“So what do I do outside of work?” she asks.  “I enjoy looking in on the Ruston Community Men’s Shed, a place for woodworking and fellowship.  Men and women get together, repair and build projects for those who need help.  And they build friendships.”

Photos Courtesy Troy Rogers

Girls have their Barbie dolls.  Boys have their trains and fire trucks.

As boys become men, many retain their fascination of trains, whether that’s in going to view historic engines when they travel nearby or in collecting model trains, or both.  The attraction is not so much an “addiction” as it is an “affliction,” explains Troy Rogers of Winnfield who has a self-professed interest in both real and model trains.

“There are thousands of us across the U.S.” said Rogers.  “Most are men but there are some women as well.  This is especially big in the northeast, particularly in the Pennsylvania area.  This is something you learn as a kid then get into as an adult.”

In late November, he drove up to Arcadia to watch as the CPKC “Holiday Express” passed through on its way to Jackson, MS, for its first stop on its annual Christmas tour.  For those not conversant with trains, the familiar Kansas City Southern (KCS) merged with Canadian Pacific (CP) about a year ago to become CPKC Railroad.

“Each year, the KCS Holiday Express toured the country for a very successful food and fund drive to support food banks,” explained Rogers.  “After the merger, they created two separate routes.  Along the way, they have scheduled stops which they publicize.  At those stops, the public can tour the trains, see setups of model trains and more.  There’s Santa Claus and elves.  People bring their donations of food and money for food banks.  This brings a lots of each.”

He explained that the Arcadia experience was just a pass-through as the Holiday Express powered its way to Jackson.  Some Louisiana stops on the Christmas schedule included Monroe, LaPlace, Leesville and DeQuincy.

While waiting at the Arcadia Depot, Rogers visited with a group of mini rail fan and learned that they had traveled from as far as New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts to see the train.  “We’re here to watch this historical train pass through,” they told him.