Lucien J. Adams Jr., a native of Berwick and former resident of Morgan City, died May 22, 2025, at his home in Beaumont, Texas.
He is survived by his son, James “Jimmy” Braxton, and his wife of 62 years.
He was preceded in death by his parents, a brother and a daughter.
Raymond Charles Soumeillan, Jr., age 62 of Morgan City, Louisiana, died peacefully at home on Sunday May 18, 2025.
Raymond was born June 18, 1962 in Morgan City to Raymond and Jennie Marie Soumeillan. He had a long career working offshore in many roles. Raymond was an exceptional engineer and could fix any motor. He enjoyed commercial shrimping with his parents as a young adult, and this fueled his passion for being on the water. He was one of the best Cajun chefs anywhere and enjoyed sharing his love for cooking. Raymond was well known in town by many and was always willing to lend a helping hand where he could. He loved playing his guitar, and listening to great classic rock music. His joy of music and living life to the fullest will live on forever in those who knew him.
Raymond was preceded in death by his father Raymond Charles Soumeillan, and mother Jennie Marie Soumeillan (Dallas). Raymond is survived by his brother, Richard Giroir, sisters, Marjorie (Jack) West, Marie (Steve) Olmos, three nieces, one nephew, and two great nieces.
Raymond will be remembered for his zest for life and free spirit, his heart of gold, and his everlasting love for family and friends.
We love you, Raymond. Until we meet again…
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.
Revelation 21:4
Donald "Don" Joseph Zeringue, 87, a native of Thibodaux and a resident of Patterson, passed away on Sunday, June 8, 2025.
He is survived by his siblings, Mert Zeringue (Cathy), Robert Zeringue, Sr., Mona Hebert, and Cindy Zeringue (Dwayne Brassette); and many extended family members and dear friends he met throughout the years.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Irene Danos Zeringue and Sam Joseph Zeringue, Sr.; siblings, Geraldine Thibodaux, Ralph Henry Zeringue, Fredrick Peter Zeringue, Sam Zeringue, Jr., Daniel "Boone" Zeringue, Marion Champagne, and Betty Theriot; sister-in-law, Jane Zeringue; brother-in-law, Leon Hebert.
Memorial Services will be announced at a later date.
The family would like to thank the staff at The Lafourche Home for the Aged and the nurses and staff at Hope Hospice for their care and compassion.
Online condolences can be given at www.samartfuneralhome.com.
Samart Funeral Home of Houma, West Park is in charge of arrangements.
Elna Virginia Hardee Jones, 84, peacefully gained her angel wings at her home in Thibodaux, LA with her devoted daughters by her side on June 4, 2025.
Elna was born to Cecil Marvin Hardee, Sr. and Edna Virginia Boothe Hardee in St. Augustine, Florida on May 17, 1941. She was reared in Morgan City, LA, lived in Anchorage, AK, Northern California, Dallas and lived most recently in Thibodaux. She is survived by her daughters, Deanie Jones Soignier (Rodney Denis) and Elna Clair Jones Boudreaux (Greg “Bud”); grandchildren who filled her with pride, Mark Denis Soignier, Blake Allen Boudreaux and Virginia Claire Soignier; brothers, Cecil Marvin Hardee, Jr. (Maria Davis) of Plano, TX, Conley Hardee (Ruthie Aucoin) of Plano, TX, sister Dana Hardee Bruni (Joseph F. Jr.) of Bayou Vista, LA and sister-in-law, Ila Robicheaux Hardee.
She is also survived by her nieces, Denee’ Bruni Rosasco, Rhonda Bruni Guillory, Shannon Bruni and Jayme Hardee Hawthorne; and her nephews, Joseph F. Bruni, III, Hal Bruni, Townsend Hardee, Benjamin Hardee, David Hardee, Eric Hardee and Kern Hardee.
Elna graduated from Morgan City High School in 1960 where she lettered in basketball for three years, was chosen best athlete her senior year, and was president of her freshman, sophomore, and junior classes. She spent her childhood summers at her grandmother’s beach cottage on the Atlantic Ocean of Fernandina, FL.
Elna studied physical education at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette, which led to a 30-plus years’ career with the American Red Cross. She was a Water Safety Instructor Trainer, as well as an Instructor Trainer for Standard First Aid and Back Injury Prevention. In 1977, she was recognized by the National American Red Cross for developing a special offshore water safety survival training program to meet the needs for oil companies in South Louisiana. Additionally, she taught public and private swimming lessons to children and adults for several decades. She found special joy in teaching ladies to lose their fear of water so they could enjoy swimming.
As the daughter of a shrimp dealer, Elna was selected as the queen of the 1963 Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival. During her reign, she traveled as the ambassador of Morgan City around the state, and she also attended the Mardi Gras Ball in Washington, DC.
As the mother of two daughters, she was a volunteer Girl Scout and held the following positions over the course of 6 years: Cadette and Senior Troop Leader, Area Service Unit Manager, Service Unit Cookie Manager and Sustaining Membership Enrollment Chair.
She was a lifetime member of the noncollegiate Beta Sigma Phi International Sorority in Morgan City, Northern California and in Dallas. She maintained friendships with her sisters for many years. A life-long practicing Methodist, she was an active church member in many places she lived, but especially at Pharr Chapel United Methodist Church in Morgan City and at Spring Valley UMC in Dallas. As a lay volunteer with Stephen Ministries at Spring Valley, she provided Christ-centered care to individuals who were home-bound.
While living in Dallas, she and her husband delivered Meals-on-Wheels. They were active members of the Aaron Family Jewish Community Center of Dallas and enjoyed regular Kosher meals with friends. She was also an active member of the Major James Kerr Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Elna’s hobbies included exploring places like Acapulco, Alaska, California, Guam, Texas and Japan; needle work such as sewing, cross-stitch, needlepoint, embroidery, and potholder making; reading, playing with her cats and visiting with her family and grandchildren. She loved to play games, like Uno, Pokeno, bingo and more recently, playing dominos with the Chicken Foot Gang at St. Joseph’s Manor. Her favorite place on Earth to visit was the beach.
Elna was proceeded in death by her husband of 57 years, Thomas Lynn Jones, her parents, Cecil Marvin Hardee, Sr. and Edna Virginia Hardee, brother Richard “Jiggie” Hardee, her granddaughter, Allie Marie Boudreaux, her niece Kara Hardee Coupe and her nephew Kevin Hardee.
The family wishes to express loving gratitude to the staff and residents of St. Joseph’s Manor assisted living facility for their friendship and compassion, as well as to the staff of Hope Hospice for their gentle care during her final days.
A memorial visitation will be held in her honor on Saturday, June 14, 2025, at First United Methodist Church, 1255 Canal Blvd., Thibodaux, Louisiana 70301 from 9:00 a.m. until the service at 11:00 am.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to First United Methodist Church, Thibodaux or to the American Red Cross.
Thibodaux Funeral Home is overseeing the arrangements.
Offensive linemen protect quarterbacks. So do running backs.
And, at Patterson Junior High, so did one enterprising mom.
Angelena Swords Brocato, a mother whose four children include three current and aspiring quarterbacks, set out to buy Guardian Caps for her boys. Guardian Caps are an extra layer of padding that fits over the hard shell of a football helmet, providing extra protection against head trauma and concussion.
Her boys are 13, 11 and 6. The youngest plays flag football.
“I figured I couldn’t be the only one who was concerned,” Brocato said.
So she began to collect donations, and people couldn’t give fast enough.
Within two weeks, she’d raised about $6,000, enough to buy 105 Guardian Caps for the entire Patterson High team as well as for the PJHS squad.
“People in your community want to help sometimes,” Brocato said. “But they don’t know how to turn that into action.”
She started with Patterson High alumni and Patterson businesses. Donations came in from those sources, former PHS principals, the Felterman Foundation and more.
They gave enough to cover the $56 bulk cost of each Guardian Cap for both teams.
Repetitive head trauma has been a growing source of worry for athletes, even – maybe especially – young athletes.
The Guardian Caps company cites research using a variety of metrics measuring the impact of the extra protection. BioCore reported a reduction in a particular kind of head motion acceleration of 5-9%, depending on the type of protection.
National Football League data show a 50% decrease in the number of concussions.
The company says more than 5,000 high schools are using its product, but Guardian Caps haven’t caught on yet in this area.
“If we can eliminate one obstacle, one deterrent, I think we’re doing pretty good,” Brocato said.
The Review/Bill Decker
A row of American flags in front of Patterson City Hall is a reminder that Flag Day will be observed Saturday. Flag Day is the anniversary of the date on which the Stars and Stripes was adopted as the new nation's emblem in 1777.
Parish President Sam Jones hinted at an economic development win for St. Mary at Wednesday’s Parish Council meeting. But the ghost of budgets past also rattled some chains, leading to a couple of sharp exchanges between Jones and the chairman of the council’s budget committee.
The positive hint was what Jones said is a business that could create 200 construction jobs and 60-100 longer-lasting jobs. He said he isn’t ready to name the prospective employer yet.
That would follow the April announcement that Texas company Saronica has acquired the Gulf Coast shipyard on the Charenton Canal. That move is expected to create 500 jobs over the next few years as Saronica develops its Marauder autonomous surface vessel for the military.
“If you produce the jobs,” Jones said, “people will live here.”
The parish has lost employment during the last two council terms, Jones said, even while neighbors Terrebonne and Iberia have been growing.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that St. Mary has experienced year-over-year declines in employment in six of the last 10 years. St. Mary employment has fallen from 27,072 at the end of 2014 to a provisional total of 19,838 in December 2024.
In shipbuilding alone, a core industry for St. Mary, employment has fallen from 1,238 in 2015 to 764 in 2024, according to the bureau’s statistics.
“What went wrong?” Jones asked.
From there, Jones segued into a warning that another tough budget year is ahead.
After trimming $4 million from the first budget of this term, the parish government faces about half a million in work at the “Babe” Landry Landfill in Berwick in the next parish government budget.
In the past, Jones has said the parish carries too much debt, has had to struggle to make its payroll, and either couldn’t or failed to take advantage of opportunities to match grants.
Councilman the Rev. Craig Mathews of Jeanerette, who chairs the budget committee, has heard it before. Jones implies that past councils have mishandled the budgets, Mathews said, and “I strongly disagree with that.”
He accused Jones of trying to “hijack every part of the combined budget. … I think it’s in poor taste to do it in the manner you have.”
“The facts are the facts,” Jones said. “I’m not saying any one person did it. But there was failure here.”
Jones and Mathews had words again over Mathews’ request for $5,000 from the 0.3% sales tax dedicated to wards 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 and 10. The request was for the Baldwin Police Department.
Baldwin voters overwhelmingly approved a penny sales tax in December for public safety, including police. The tax is expected to raise $180,000 per year.
Jones noted that fact and said the department has also received a $50,000 grant.
“You can vote for it,” Jones said. “But we’ll use Article V if we have to.”
Article V of the parish home rule charter says that if revenues aren’t enough to cover appropriations, the parish president must report the amount of the deficit, any steps taken to fix it and recommendations for further steps.
Mathews argued that efforts to reduce violence in Baldwin are important.
“The parish president doesn’t get to say what we’re going to do by himself …,” Mathews said. “You’re doing it for selfish reasons.”
“No, I’m not,” Jones said.
The council approved the appropriation on a voice vote.
Also Wednesday, Chief Administrative Officer Paul Governale passed along a report from the St. Mary Levee District on progress on the pump station upgrades in Consolidated Gravity District No. 2A. A $12 million-$14 million boost from the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority is funding the upgrades after Morgan City experienced widespread flooding during Hurricane Francine.
The report included news that a generator has been received for Pump Station No. 9 near Lake Palourde and that two natural gas pumps are being overhauled at Pump Station No. 4, which serves the Marquis Manor and Cypress Garden area. They’ll be available while a contractor installs new engines and pumps at that station.
Submitted photos
The Marine Corps League's St. Mary Detachment on Tuesday paid tribute to law enforcement officers in St. Mary Parish. Among the honorees were, top photo: Detective Jeremiah Rink from the Morgan City Police Department. Middle photo: Lt. Detective Quentin Menard of the Berwick Police Department. Bottom photo: Sgt. Blake Giroir of the St. Mary Parish Sheriff's Office, who also received a Hero award from the Louisiana Passenger Safety Task Force.
BATON ROUGE — Lawmakers passed two bills this week aimed at expanding the state’s role in immigration enforcement, joining states like Texas and Florida in helping the Trump administration crack down on undocumented immigrants.
One bill would require agencies to track the legal status of people using public services, and the other would criminalize interference with federal immigration operations.
The Legislature last year empowered local and state law-enforcement to arrest people on suspicion that they were undocumented immigrants. Gov. Jeff Landry signed that bill into law, and the two bills passed this week will now go to him for his signature.
The latest legislation comes amid growing national tensions over immigration policy.
One of the new bills, Senate Bill 100, by Sen. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, would mandate that state departments — including Health, Education, Motor Vehicles and others — disclose whether individuals receiving services are “illegal aliens” or “unaccompanied alien children.”
Senate Bill 15 by Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, would prohibit private individuals and public officials from obstructing federal immigration enforcement or civil immigration proceedings.
That would include refusing to cooperate with requests from agencies like the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, or failing to honor written detainer requests when releasing someone suspected of being in the country illegally.
The bill updates the state’s obstruction and malfeasance laws to cover immigration-related violations. Penalties range from six months in jail and a $1,000 fine to one year in jail and a $5,000 fine.
More serious violations involving public officials could lead to felony charges and prison sentences of up to 10 years. The law would take effect Aug. 1.
If SB15 is enacted, Louisiana would be the first state to institute state criminal penalties for interfering with immigration enforcement efforts. Under current law, these issues are handled as a civil matter.
Both measures reflect Gov. Jeff Landry’s broader agenda to position Louisiana as a more active player in immigration enforcement, which echoes moves in the other Republican-led states.
Advocates against the legislation highlighted the negative impact the bills would have on immigrant families in the state.
Tia Fields, policy manager at the Baton Rouge-based Louisiana Organization for Refugees and Immigrants, told the Louisiana Illuminator that the bills convey a “chilling message” and portray immigrant families as expendable.
Louisiana leaders this week touted numbers tied to the Super Bowl in New Orleans, claiming the game will yielded a $1.25 billion statewide economic impact, support nearly 10,000 jobs, and generated $82.7 million in state and local tax revenue. But at least one economist says those figures are misleading.
Victor Matheson, a sports economist at the College of Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, told The Center Square that the state’s claims about the economic impact of the Super Bowl seemed “wildly inflated.”
Matheson pointed to a trio of well-known distortions in economic impact studies: the substitution effect, crowding out and leakages.
Locals spending money on the Super Bowl aren’t adding new dollars to the economy; they’re just shifting spending they would’ve made elsewhere in town.
“If I buy a $10 beer at the Super Bowl instead of on Bourbon Street, that’s not new economic activity,” he said.
Matheson also says that big events can displace regular tourists.
“New Orleans is already full most weekends in February,” he said. “The Super Bowl may just push out visitors who would’ve come anyway.”
Lastly, not all spending stays local. High hotel prices largely benefit out-of-town corporate chains. NFL ticket sales flow back to league headquarters.
“Even though it looks like there’s economic activity that’s happening in New Orleans because of the Super Bowl, none of that’s actually accumulating in the pockets of New Orleans or Louisiana residents,” Matheson said. “It’s going back somewhere else.”
More concerning than the headline figures, Matheson said, is what’s missing:
The costs of bringing the Super Bowl to town. Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois said the state spent $24 million, but did not know how much New Orleans spent.
“If you’re going to tout $1.25 billion in benefits, you’d better be transparent about how much was spent,” Matheson said. “How many millions in public subsidies, free police, discounted hotel blocks, free use of the Superdome — what did the NFL get at ‘no cost'?”
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