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Bicentennial Presentation: 'Ada and the Doc'

Wednesday will see another installment of this year’s Franklin Bicentennial celebration events, with this month’s presentation of “Ada and the Doc” by Fran Middleton, at 7 p.m. at the Teche Theatre for the Performing Arts.
Admission is free.
The full title of the book is, “Ada and the Doc: An Account of the Ada Leboeuf-Thomas Dreher Murder Case.” It was written by Charles M. Hargroder and was published in Feb. of 2000 by University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Middleton will be discussing the book in detail, its title case’s peculiarities and ramifications, and the effect the trial and its trappings had on the social fabric of St. Mary Parish.
Franklin Bicentennial Committee Co-Chair Diane Wiltz said of the upcoming presentation, “Of course, everyone remembers that ‘Ada and the Doc’ was a well-known story about a love triangle which ended with one person murdered, and two people hanged; and they were hanged here in Franklin, in the St. Mary Parish Courthouse square.”
Wiltz further commented that she anticipates Middleton’s presentation will not only parse through the known details of the case, but should also “shed new light on some things that have been uncovered and that continue to be investigated,” since the book’s publication.
She continued, “The historical part of that, (the case) as far as Franklin’s bicentennial is concerned, is that the hanging happened here in Franklin because we were the parish seat, and both she (Ada Leboeuf) and the doctor (Thomas Dreher) were jailed here in the parish courthouse.”
Of the bicentennial committee’s rollout matrix, Wiltz said, “Our guiding statement is that by celebrating our bicentennial, we are looking at who we were, looking at who we are, and looking at who we are yet to be. So, in this particular presentation, the second one of the year, we are still looking back at who we were.
“Hopefully throughout the year, as we move forward with these presentations, we will begin to look at who we are, and I can’t wait to see the visions of who we are yet to be.”

ST. MARY NOW

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