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Samuel Cross Jr., 82, a native of Franklin and resident of Jeanerette, died Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, at Ochsner St. Mary in Morgan City.
Visitation will be Saturday from 9 a.m. until services at 11 a.m. at Jones Funeral Home in Franklin. Burial will follow in St. John Cemetery-Pecot Street in Franklin.
He is survived by eight sons, Jerry Cross, Alfred Favors, Ray Favors, Jerry Favors, Samuel Favors, Mark Cross and Sammy Cross, all of Patterson, and Troy Singleton of Baldwin; two daughters, Yvonne Williams and Evelyn Cross, both of Patterson; four brothers, Calvin Cross, James Cross and Ernest Harrison, all of Franklin, and Edgar Harrison of Houston; three sisters, Glenda Savage and Thelma Coleman, both of Houston, and Joyce Jones of Baldwin; 14 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; and a host of other relatives.
He was preceded in death by his parents, two brothers, two sisters, four sons and one grandson.
Jones Funeral Home of Franklin is in charge of arrangements.

Given the fact that we will celebrate almost anything, it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that Louisiana was the first state to recognize Christmas as a legal holiday.
We’ve celebrated the day from the time the first settlers set foot on our shores, but nobody declared it an official holiday until we did it in 1831. In fact, celebration of Christmas was banned for many years in the Puritan colonies of the northeast. Pilgrim leaders thought it shared too much with some old pagan rites. In Massachusetts they went so far as to punish anyone who baked or ate a plum pudding during the Yule season.
Puritan preacher Cotton Mather’s description of the celebration made it sound like Mardi Gras. He wrote in 1712 that the “Feast is spent in Reveling, Dicing, Carding, Masking, and in all Licentious Liberty,” and, even worse, by “Mad Mirth, Long Eating, by Hard Drinking, by Lewd Gambling, by Rude Reveling” and more.
It’s true that we can trace some of our Christmas customs back to ancient Roman days, even to the Druids who lived long, long ago in Britain. But the French and Spanish and Germans who were among our first settlers embraced the ancient ways and adapted them to their celebration.
The French and the Spanish adopted the tradition of midnight Mass at Christmas, followed by a huge feast. Nobody knows for sure how that custom began. Canon law decrees that the first Mass on Christmas should be in nocte (while it is still night). Early Christians sang that nocturnal Mass at the first cock’s crow, around three in the morning. In Spain, an early Mass is still sometimes called Missa del gallo, Mass of the Rooster.
Réveillon is the French name for the feast that followed midnight Mass, and a feast it was. Extension Service agents recreated a typical réveillon during a convention several years ago. It included, among other delicacies, deviled eggs; baked eggs; a loaf of French bread laced with dates, apples, almonds, wine, and spices; daube glacé, dates soaked in wine, and three different wines to drink. Many of the feasts included gumbo, ducks or geese fresh from the wild, and dishes such as candied yams, rice and cornbread dressings, turkey, and ham, all of it topped off with coffee noir comme le diable, fort comme la mort, doux comme l’amour, et chaud comme l’enfer — black as the devil, strong as death, sweet as love, and hot as Hades.
According to legend, our Christmas trees originated in Germany, as did the ornaments we put on them. American trees were decorated with nuts and cookies and homemade ornaments until the 1890s, when dime-store mogul F. W. Woolworth began making buying trips to Germany. One year he came home with what today would be about half a million dollars’ worth of blown-glass tree ornaments. He sold every one of them in just three days. Christmas tree lights were invented about the same time by a guy who had the job of installing little bulbs on telephone switchboards. One year he made a string of them and put it on his tree, and that was that.
And, of course, we all have our private, family rituals. I don’t know if I invented the Ritual of the Great Shaking, but as a kid I was one of its most fervent practitioners.
Our family gathered at my grandparents’ house each Christmas Eve to distribute gifts, most of which were put under the tree well before the big evening. That is how the Ritual of the Great Shaking began. Each grandchild (I presume the others did it, too) sneaked into the “tree room,” found their presents, shook them to get a clue about what they might be, then carefully placed them in the front of the tree so that Grandad would hand them out first.
I was reminiscing about it a dozen or so years ago when one of my cousins pointed out that Grandad knew all about the ritual. “Boy, were you a dummy,” she said. “That’s why Grandad always started at the side of the tree and the girls and the grownups got their presents first.”
I refuse to believe that kindly old gentleman was, in fact, sneakier than me.
A collection of Jim Bradshaw’s columns, "Cajuns and Other Characters," is now available from Pelican Publishing. You can contact him at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.

Alcorn State University will close its season Saturday when it competes for the HBCU National Championship in the Celebration Bowl in Atlanta against North Carolina A&T.
Alcorn State (9-3 overall, 6-1 in Southwestern Athletic Conference play) is in the Celebration Bowl for the second straight year and for the third time since 2015, while North Carolina A&T (8-3, 6-2 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference), the two-time defending HBCU national champions, are making their third straight appearance in the bowl as well as their fourth overall in the bowl’s five-year history.
The two teams will meet in an 11 a.m. contest at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in a game that will be broadcast on ABC.
Alcorn State has a local connection as former Morgan City High School standout Kevon Marsh is a redshirt senior running back on this year’s Braves’ squad. In 10 games this year, Marsh has rushed 35 times for 162 yards and has one reception for four yards.
Alcorn State enters Saturday’s matchup riding a three-game winning streak.
Offensively, Alcorn is averaging 32.8 points per game, which ranks No. 26 in Football Championship Subdivision.
Redshirt junior quarterback Felix Harper, redshirt junior wide receiver LeCharles Pringle and senior wide receiver Chris Blair are standouts in the Braves’ passing attack.
Harper has completed 179 of 296 passes for 2,613 yards with 30 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
Harper, the SWAC Offensive Player of the Year and an HBCU All-American, ranks No. 38 in FCS in passing yards and is tied for No. 10 in passing touchdowns.
The redshirt junior also has rushed 55 times for 157 yards and four touchdowns.
Pringle has 42 catches for 762 yards and 14 touchdowns. He is tied for No. 4 in FCS in receiving touchdowns.
Blair is the team’s leading receiver in terms of yards with 781 yards on 37 catches with six touchdowns.
On the ground, freshman running back Niko Duffey leads Alcorn with 152 carries for 790 yards and six touchdowns.
On the offensive line, redshirt senior Michael Ajumobi was named both a first-team All-SWAC honoree as well as an HBCU All-American.
On defense, Alcorn is surrendering 336 yards per game and 19.7 points per contest. The team’s scoring defense is ranked No. 12 in FCS, while its total defense yielded ranks No. 22.
The Braves’ defense is led by senior linebacker Solomon Muhammad and junior defensive back Qwynnterrio Cole. The duo earned All-SWAC first-team defense honors as well as HBCU All-American recognition.
Muhammad has recorded 81 tackles (58 solo and 23 assists), including 9.5 tackles for loss. He has two sacks, two interceptions, three pass breakups, one quarterback hurry, two fumble recoveries and two forced fumbles.
Cole leads the team with five interceptions. In addition, he has 78 total tackles (46 solo and 32 assists). Cole has recorded 0.5 tackles for loss and has one forced fumble.
Junior defensive back Juwan Taylor is second on the team with 80 tackles (52 solo and 28 assists). He has 5.5 tackles for loss, one sack, two interception, five pass breakups, one fumble recovery and two forced fumbles.
North Carolina A&T is led by its defense, which ranks in the top 30 in Football Championship Subdivision in four categories, including top-5 rankings in total defense and total rushing yards allowed per game. The Aggies are ranked No. 3 in total defense, surrendering 270.4 yards per game and are ranked No. 4 in rushing yards allowed per game at 76.4 per contest.
The Aggies also are ranked No. 10 nationally in scoring defense, surrendering 18.6 points per contest, and they are ranked No. 26 in the country in passing yards per game allowed at 194 per contest.
North Carolina A&T’s defense is led by redshirt sophomore linebacker Kyrin Howard, who has a team-high 70 tackles (39 solo and 31 assists), eight tackles for loss, two pass breakups, two passes defended, one quarterback hurry, one fumble recovery and two forced fumbles.
Redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Devin Harrell leads the team with seven sacks.
Offensively, North Carolina A&T is ranked in the top 25 nationally in rushing yards per game, scoring offense and total offense. North Carolina A&T is ranked No. 11 in rushing, averaging 237 yards per game, while the squad is ranked No. 14 in scoring offense at 35.7 points per game. The squad is ranked No. 24 in total offense, averaging 430.8 yards per game.
The offense is led by redshirt junior running back Jah-Maine Martin, who is a finalist for the Black College Football Player of the Year Award. Martin also made the Walter Payton Award Watch List for the best offensive player in FCS.
Martin, a first-team Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference selection and an HBCU All-American, is ranked No. 6 in FCS in rushing yards with 1,336, and he is ranked No. 4 in FCS in rushing touchdowns with 21.
The Aggies also boast three other HBCU All-Americans. Senior offensive lineman Marcus Pettiford and sophomore offensive lineman Dacquari Wilson made the squad along with junior placekicker Noel Ruiz. Pettiford was named this year’s MEAC Football Offensive Lineman of the Year, too, while Ruiz was a first-team All-MEAC selection.
In addition to Martin, quarterback Kylil Carter has rushed for 483 yards on 104 carries with two touchdowns. The graduate student also has completed 137 of 254 attempts for 1,856 yards with 12 touchdowns and three interceptions.
Carter’s top receiver is senior Elijah Bell, who has caught 53 passes for 782 yards and six touchdowns.