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Dr. Brent W. Allain has practiced medicine in Franklin for 40 years, and at the end of this year, he is retiring from public life.
“We (Allain and Dr.’s Horton and McCormick) came back to Franklin in August of 1979, and we didn’t have an office at the time. So, we practiced at the hospital (Franklin Foundation Hospital) where the ICU is now, at the old hospital. We stayed there about eight months until we built this office.”
Allain said that for the first 19-and-a-half years of the three doctors’ practice, they did obstetrics.
“So,” he said, “we delivered babies all the way from St. Mary Parish to St. Martin Parish to Iberia Parish. But, Terrebone Parish, they came to Franklin, and we had 350 deliveries-a-year for 10 to 15 years. That’s a lot of babies that often grew into adults and became patients of our practice.”
He exhibited his account by pointing to one of the nurses on his staff, who he delivered.
He said that what he will miss most will be the patients he sees.
“I’ve had a nice run as a physician,” he said. “The patients have been great. The community has been great.”
As for Allain’s practice, his replacement will be Dr. Claude Meeks, from Abbeville.
Meeks has bought Allain’s practice, and according to Allain, he is well-liked and is expected to do well.
Allain said he has not ruled out participating in missionary work in Nicaragua sometime in the next year, as his license is still good for that amount of time.
He said lastly, that he will miss working in family medicine, as he has found it most rewarding.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Reese Witherspoon remembered when she met with several film production studios in 2011 to ask them how many movies were being developed for women.
The studios’ responses nearly floored her.
“Of all the major seven studios, the answer was one,” Witherspoon said after she received the prestigious Sherry Lansing Leadership Award at The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment breakfast gala Wednesday in Los Angeles. The Oscar and Emmy-winning actress was handed the award by her friend actress Kerry Washington for excelling in film and her philanthropic efforts.
Witherspoon said she was grateful to receive the award named after Lansing, the former Paramount Pictures CEO who was the first woman to head a Hollywood studio. While she called Lansing a “trailblazer,” the actress hearkened back to her meeting with studios that felt “grim.”
“One movie was being made with a female lead out of 140 movies,” she continued. “As I was told by a studio head at the time, ‘Well, we already have one female star this year. We can’t make two.’ Can you guess which year this was? 2011. Not 1911. ... 2011.”
Witherspoon said the moment helped empower her to start her own production company, Hello Sunshine, which has produced Oscar-nominated films “Gone Girl,” “Wild,” and the HBO drama series “Big Little Lies” with an all-female leading cast.
The actress, who starred in films including “Legally Blonde” and “Sweet Home Alabama,” told the packed room of about 600 people, mostly women, that “this is our time.”
The star-studded event included Charlize Theron, John Legend and Mindy Kaling. It also had about 40 young women who are taking part in THR’s Women in Entertainment mentorship program, established a decade ago.
“A lot of people can recognize a problem, look at it and complain about it,” said Witherspoon, who is also a member of the Time’s Up movement, an initiative for anti-harassment and gender equality. “But not everybody is going to do something about it. Leaders are really doers. Even though you don’t think of yourself as a leader, or you’re hesitant or you’re hypnotized by words saying ‘You can’t.’ Too bad. Do it anyway.”
Around $1.5 million in university scholarships were presented to high school seniors from under-served communities in south and east Los Angeles. All of the seniors have taken part in the program.
Often shedding tears onstage, Theron said the gala “fed my soul.”
Actress Olivia Wilde, a guest editor of THR’s Women in Entertainment issue that was released Wednesday, said women should explore their feminine strength.
Ronan Farrow received the Equity in Entertainment award for his journalistic work against gender-based discrimination.
Political activist Stacey Abrams spoke during her keynote speech about storytelling holding an extraordinary power. She said she’s witnessed moments when women and others who “look like me are often footnotes not chapters in stories.”
Abrams, who is African American and once served in the Georgia House of Representatives, encouraged those in the room to make a difference. She also acknowledged that when she ran for Georgia governor in 2018, she went against the advice of those who told her she needed to “change my look and use smaller words.”
Abrams encouraged attendees not to allow anyone to stifle them.
“This is power you all possess as leaders in Hollywood: With a word, with a scene, with a script, you become advocates for the voiceless,” Abrams said. “You become the cyphers who tell the whole truth of who we are in society. As women, you can leverage to highlight our complexities, our strength and our capacity for redemption.”

Submitted Photo
Coach Maggie Bennett and Coach Robin Carline along with the Immanuel Christian School Cheer Team collected coats for kids in need. All the coats and a check were donated to St. Mary Outreach to help our community.

Albert James Robinson, 61, a native and resident of Franklin, died Thursday, Dec. 5, 2019, at Franklin Health Care Center.
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 three sons, Quincy Lightfoot of Morgan City, Keenan Larry of Charenton and A’Reandre Willis of Texas; three daughters, Bethany Larry of Houston, D’Auntia Bowie of Baton Rouge and Taylor Morris of Lafayette; three brothers, William Robinson Jr. and Edmond Robinson, both of Franklin, and Christopher Robinson of Four Corners; six sisters, Helen Clark, Bessie Kelly, Annie Green, Gloria Robinson, Delores Polidore and Victoria Robinson, all of Franklin; five grandchildren; and host of other relatives.
He was preceded in death by his parents and his siblings.
Jones Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.