The Elders Speak: The West Feliciana Parish African American Oral History Project
By Teresa Parker Farris
The Interviewees
Travis Carter
Travis Carter (1914-2010) was born to James and Gustina Rucker Carter and raised with four siblings in the parish's Sage Hill community. He attended school in the Sage Hill Baptist Church from the age of six until his early adolescence. In 1935, he married Martha Comena, whom he had met in grade school, and together they had twelve children. During the same year, he was baptized by Sage Hill's Reverend Washington Moore. In addition to farming cotton and sweet potatoes, Mr. Carter worked at the Crown Zellerbach paper mill in St. Francisville from the 1960s to the early 1980s as a machine operator and occasional janitor.
Rev. Zack Cavalier
Rev. Zack Cavalier (1929-2010) was born to Zack and Virginia Raby Cavalier in the Plettenberg community near Greenwood Plantation. He worshipped at Greater New Canaan Baptist Church as a child and was baptized as a member at seventeen. In 1970, he became the church's pastor. He attended school in the Greenwood Baptist Church through the fifth grade. When he was sixteen, he began working at a sawmill near Plettenberg. He was later employed by Princeville Canning Company, and, for nearly 35 years, Crown Zellerback paper mill. Rev. Cavalier married Susiana Jackson in 1954 and together they had nine children.
William J. Gilmore, Sr.
William J. Gilmore, Sr. (1919-2006) was born to Linda Pickett and Frank Gilmore in the Weyanoke community, five miles south of the Mississippi state line. The second of eight children, Mr. Gilmore attended school for four months a year at the Union Bethel Church, leaving after the third grade at the age of fifteen. In January 1940, he married Mattie Pate at the Old Hollywood Baptist Church—which he later joined. In addition to farming, Mr. Gilmore cut logs at the Dwyer Lumber Company in Hardwood, located north of St. Francisville, and trucked sugar near Donaldsonville. Mr. Gilmore and his wife had fourteen children.
Ellen Douglas Hardy
Ellen Douglas Hardy (1908-2007), one of eight children, was born in Baton Rouge to Anderson and Lucy Williams. Living initially in the parish's Star Hill community, the family later moved to St. Francisville where they attended St. Andrews Baptist Church. Mrs. Hardy went to school near the Rasberry Baptist Church but spent much of her youth assisting with her mother's laundry business and tending crops with her father. She later worked as a midwife and as a cook at Dawson High School. She married George Douglas in her early thirties and had two sons. After his death in 1950, she married Sylvester Hardy; he passed away in 1979.
Alice Lee Johnson
Alice Lee Johnson (1932-2009) was born in the Elm Park community of West Feliciana Parish to Lena Veal and Max Stansberry, both from Woodville, Mississippi. At the age of eight, she was baptized in a pond adjacent to the Elm Park Baptist Church where she also briefly attended school. Mrs. Johnson did housework for approximately thirty years and was employed as a janitor at the West Feliciana Parish Historical Society for nearly two decades. She was married to Tom Johnson from 1951 until his death in 2002. Mrs. Johnson had two children.
Elizabeth Lee
Elizabeth Lee (1932-2018) was one of nine children born to Major and Sarah Thompson Anderson. Attending elementary school in the Solitude community, she completed high school in Baton Rouge and matriculated to Leland College in Baker and later Southern University. She taught at Dawson High School and, upon integration, Bains Junior High, St. Francisville High School, and West Feliciana Parish High School. Following her 1990 retirement, she opened Liz's Lounge in Solitude. She had one son with her husband Sylvester and was a lifelong member of New St. Luke Baptist Church.
Geraldine London
Geraldine London (b. 1940) was the only child born to Lee Ethel Stewart and Anthony Chriss. Following their move to New Orleans for work, she lived with her grandparents in the community of Polk. There, at age fourteen, she was baptized in a pond behind the Pleasant Green Baptist Church. She attended Polk-Rosenwald Elementary School and Dawson High School. In 1958, she married Dave London, Sr. and together they had five children. Mrs. London was a cook at the Fairview Plantation, an employee at the Red and White grocery store, and a childcare provider in the Solitude community.
Sallie Duncan Whitfield Mackie
Sallie Duncan Whitfield Mackie (1921-2011) was born to Jim and Delphine Canty Duncan on the Highland Plantation. One of seventeen children, she attended St. Paul #2 Baptist Church on the plantation grounds, and, in 1937, was baptized in a pond near the property's cotton gin. Mrs. Mackie went to school in the St. Peter Baptist Church three months a year through the fourth grade. As an adult, she attended night school to finish the ninth grade. Mrs. Mackie married Sam Whitfield, Sr. in 1941; following his death in 1963, she married Ledell Mackie to whom she was wed until his passing in 1987. Mrs. Mackie was employed as a domestic and worked at Idlewood Nursing Center. She had nine children.
Rev. George Norflin
Rev. George Norflin (b. 1935) was the second of seven children born to Alex and Mary Stevenson Norflin in the Plettenberg area. He attended elementary school in the Greenwood Baptist Church, Seven Stars Baptist Church, and Union Bethel Church before matriculating to Afton Villa Baptist Church for high school. Withdrawing when his father became ill, he later obtained a correspondence degree and several trade degrees. He attended the seminary following his call to preach in 1963 and soon after began pastoring at St. Mary's Baptist Church. Rev. Norflin was a leader in the local civil rights movement, hosting members of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) and organizing efforts for voter registration. With his first wife, Maple Pate, he had two children. Today he is married to the former Doretha Thompson.
Rosia Pate
Rosia Pate (1935-2013) was raised in the parish's Hollywood community, the seventh of thirteen children born to Samuel and Mary Martha Leon Pate. Ms. Pate attended school in the Old Hollywood Baptist Church but left after the eighth grade to farm alongside her family. As an adult, Ms. Pate worked as both a maid and part-time assistant at the Hollywood Post Office. She was later employed as a sales person at the Rinaudo's Hardwood Store in St. Francisville and at the Feliciana Pharmacy. When the parish established a Head Start program in 1965, Ms. Pate briefly served as the meeting secretary. She had four children with her then husband Charlie Hilliard.
Violet Whitfield Pate
Violet Whitfield Pate (b. 1932) was born at Afton Villa Plantation, the second and youngest child of Charlie and Carry Johnson Williams. Raised by her maternal grandmother, Violet Joseph Johnson, she was baptized in 1944 on the Spring Grove Plantation. She attended school in the Afton Villa Baptist Church through the seventh grade; she would earn her G.E.D. in 1972. In 1954 she married Bobby Whitfield and, after his death in 1965, wed Reverend Samuel Pate. He died in 1992. Mrs. Pate was a private cook for roughly 25 years and was also employed as a janitor for the Bains School, retiring in 1994. She had two children, one of whom died as an infant.
Turlie Harris Richardson
Turlie Harris Richardson (1917-2012) was born in New Orleans to Polly Mae Carter and Bennett Harris, both originally from West Feliciana Parish. After her mother's death in 1923, Mrs. Richardson moved to St. Francisville to be raised by an uncle. She attended the Sherobee Baptist Church where she was baptized at the age of nine. Mrs. Richardson went to school through the sixth grade at the Sage Hill Baptist Church where she met her future husband, Eddie Richardson; they separated in 1953. Mrs. Richardson was employed at the Warriner Starch Company and the Princeville Canning Company. In later years, she was a cook at a Solitude area restaurant and at Bains Elementary School. Mrs. Richardson had five girls and four boys.
Sallie Roach Smith
Sallie Roach Smith (1911-2011) was one of eight children born to Richard and Elizabeth Roach, both of West Feliciana Parish. As a youth she went to Beech Grove Baptist Church and in 1928 was baptized there by Rev. Will Robertson. Mrs. Smith attended school in the church for approximately two months a year through the fourth grade—the highest offered. She married Joe Johnson in 1933; they separated in 1937. In 1940, she married Ben Smith who died ten years later. The mother of three sons, Mrs. Smith worked as a nanny and maid.
Robert Sterling, Sr.
Robert Sterling, Sr. (1925-2011), originally from the Sherobee community, was the last of fifteen children born to Lev and Mary Wilson Sterling. He attended various church-based schools as a youth but left after the fourth grade at age sixteen to farm cotton and sweet potatoes with his parents. Several years later, he moved to New Orleans to work at the Dibert, Bancroft and Ross foundry but eventually returned to West Feliciana Parish where he was variously employed at the Hardwood sawmill, Princeville Canning Company, and, for approximately 20 years, Crown Zellerback paper mill. Mr. Sterling was married twice, raising twelve children with his first wife, Lenora.
Louise Cathern Williams
Louise Cathern Williams (1900-2011) was born at Weyanoke Plantation in northwest West Feliciana Parish. The second of nine children born to Harry and Annie Payton Cathern, Mrs. Williams went to school approximately four months a year at the St. Paul #1 Baptist Church but left after the sixth grade to assist her parents harvesting cotton. She was baptized in a creek near the same church when she was seventeen-years-old. In addition to farming, Mrs. Williams worked as a family maid in New Orleans for seven years and laundered clothes in Arkansas for three years. In 1930, she married Andrew Williams and together they lived in Mississippi, farming cotton and corn and rearing their two children.
