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Surrounded by family and friends, Bernard L. "B.L." Como Jr. celebrated his 100th birthday at Maison Jardin Assisted Living Facility in Morgan City.
Born Nov. 7, 1919, in Patterson, Como lived in Patterson until moving to Maison Jardin with his wife, Jackie, in 2017. He graduated from Patterson High School in 1938.
He married Jacqueline Breaux in June 1953, and raised four children, Adrienne C. Smith (Randy), Brady L. Como (Patricia), Barry J. Como and Byron G. Como. The Comos have five grandchildren, Greta Mays, G.J. Schexnayder, Lindsey S. Kelley, Benjamin Como and Katie Como and four great-grandchildren, Ian Leblanc, Jaxon Schexnayder, Briggs Schexnayder and Gia Kelley. His parents were Bernard L. Como Sr. and Alice Brady Como and sisters Wanda Como (deceased) and Merlyn C. Hering.
B.L. or “Como” known by his friends, is best known for his love of tennis, playing over a span of 80 years, from a young boy until he retired at age 89. Playing local and around the country in various sanctioned tournaments, he won many championships well in to his 80s, including two National Senior Olympics titles.
Playing tennis was one of his greatest pleasures with friends young and old. He recounts starting to play as a young boy on grass courts before hard surface and played often including playing on the UL Lafayette tennis team in 1939, when enrolled in college.
He was drafted in the Army Air Corps where he served his country four years in Okinawa, Japan and South Korea. He claimed this was the only time he didn’t play weekly tennis, as the military had no time for tennis during wartime.
After an honorable discharge from serving his country, he returned to Patterson to marry Jackie and raise their four children. Jackie taught music in the St. Mary Parish school system for 25 years.
His local banking career spanned over 50 years. He worked for Teche Federal Bank and Patterson State Bank, assisting the community with home loans and appraisal services for many years. He was a lector and an active member of St. Joseph Catholic Church.
B.L. and Jackie spend their time visiting with many friends and family at Maison Jardin and enjoying the various activities from bingo, to games, parties and planned outings. He enjoys watching a variety of sports on TV including tennis, football, basketball, and old movies. Additionally, he loves telling stories about the old times; when he was a boy growing up on the banks of the Lower Atchafalaya River, swimming, fishing and hunting.
He has historical knowledge of the Cypress Sawmill industry from the 1920’s where his father worked for the Williams Cypress Lumber Co. founded by Harry and Kemper Williams. In the 1930s, he frequently watched the airplane races at the Patterson Airport that made Patterson famous with the Wedell-Williams Aviation air racing team. Both of these industries are highlighted in our local Patterson Wedell-Williams Aviation and Cypress Sawmill Museum.
B.L. and Jackie enjoyed their many travels including memorable trips to the U.S. Open Tennis Championship in New York, numerous Savings and Loan conventions, and many trips to Hawaii to visit his sister and her family, longtime residents of Honolulu, Hawaii.

BATON ROUGE — With voting complete in Mississippi and Kentucky, President Donald Trump is turning attention to the last gubernatorial contest of the year, bidding to drive out Louisiana’s Democratic governor in a display of political influence ahead of the 2020 elections.
The president is to travel Wednesday to the northeastern Louisiana city of Monroe hoping to muster votes for Republican businessman Eddie Rispone and keep Democrat John Bel Edwards from a second term in a crimson state Trump won by 20 percentage points. Early voting ends Saturday in the Nov. 16 election.
An endorsement video circulated by the state GOP shows Trump describing Rispone as “a fantastic man, a great success. Everything he’s touched has turned to gold.” The president calls Edwards “a disaster.”
Republicans want to reclaim the governorship in a Deep South state where they believe Edwards won in a 2015 fluke election against a flawed candidate beset by a prostitution scandal. Democrats believe securing a second Edwards victory could demonstrate competitiveness in states where the party rarely achieves a statewide office.
Trump’s visiting the heart of the congressional district represented by Republican Ralph Abraham, the third-place finisher in the gubernatorial primary. Both Rispone and Edwards are competing for Abraham’s voters. Polls show a tight race, with few undecided and both campaigns hoping Trump will mobilize voters in their bases.
“Most people have made up their mind. This is essentially a tie race at this point. It’s who gets out the vote,” Rispone told a Republican women’s luncheon Tuesday.
A longtime Republican political donor who has poured millions of his own money into the campaign, Rispone has tied his candidacy to Trump, introducing himself to voters in TV ads by talking about his support for the president.
The owner of an industrial contracting firm, Rispone avoids many specifics about what he would do in office. Rispone’s campaign strategy involves panning Edwards as a “liberal, tax and spend, career politician and trial lawyer” and nationalizing the race. He regularly compares himself to Trump, declaring both are “conservative outsiders.”
Edwards, a former state lawmaker and military veteran, downplays national issues, in favor of a defense of his own performance. He reminds voters about his Medicaid expansion program that dropped Louisiana’s uninsured rate below the national average and his work on a bipartisan tax deal that ended years of budget instability.
Both anti-abortion and pro-gun, Edwards in many ways doesn’t match the platform of the national Democratic Party. But he holds positions that helped him draw support in 2015 from the Republican and independent voters he needs to win again.
Even as Trump campaigns against him, Edwards sidesteps criticism of the president, describing a good working relationship with the White House.
“The president is doing what his party expects him to do. When it was time for governing, he invited me to the White House nine times,” Edwards said.
He calls Trump’s criticism “just general talking points that he uses regardless of the state he’s visiting or the candidate he’s talking about.” He notes, for example, the president suggests Edwards threatens Second Amendment rights — but Edwards, Trump and Rispone don’t differ in their positions on guns.
Ahead of Wednesday’s rally, Rispone blamed Edwards for anti-Trump radio ads recently released by a New Orleans organization. The ads link the president and Rispone to white supremacist David Duke and encourage minority voters to “vote against hatred” by choosing Edwards. Rispone called it fearmongering. Edwards’ campaign said it had nothing to do with the advertising.
Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte

Lillie M. Brook, a native and resident of Patterson, died Monday, Oct. 28, 2019, at Terrebonne General Medical Center in Houma.
Visitation will be Friday from 9 a.m. until services at 11 a.m. at New Salem Baptist Church in Patterson. Burial will follow in Home Industrial Cemetery in Patterson.
She is survived by a daughter, Arlene Stewart of Patterson; and three grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents and two sisters.
Otis Mortuary of Franklin is in charge of arrangements.

SENIOR CITIZEN
Free Thanksgiving meal at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20, at Patterson Area Civic Center, 116 Cotten Road. Doors open at 10 a.m. Menu: herb-roasted turkey breast with gravy, cornbread stuffing, green beans, cinnamon-dusted butternut squash, and cushaw spice cupcake with cream cheese frosting. Sponsored by St. Mary Council on Aging in coordination with Second Harvest Food Bank and Peoples Health. To RSVP, call 337-907-6310. Limited space available, reservation is first-come, first-served.