Anna Parks
May 4, 2018
LEMONADE Love
May 4, 2018
*Listen to a Mary about a man named Jed,
A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed.
Then one day he was shooting at
And up through the ground come a bubbling crude.
Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea.”
(Excerpts from “Beverly Hill-billies” theme song.)
There are paranoia with the song and the main subject of this column with exceptions “POOR Mountaineer My subject was not poor but the Appalachian Mountains were only “a stone’s throw as the crow flies” away from his home in Louisville, Kentucky.
“Shooting for food™: He didn’t have to. His father had left him financially proficient.
“Patch”: His patch of land with “rbubblingJ crude” was a continuous 50,000 acres of farm land in
Iafourche Parish known as the Golden Ranch Plantation Today the community is the Town of Gheens, Louisiana 70355.
His name was C. (Charles) Edwin Gheens (1873-1961).
A Brief Biography
Typhoid fever prevented him from attending Yale University but after recovering in L 899 he bought into a Louisville candy factory which he took over as the Bradas Gheens Candy Company in 1920.
He married Mary Jo Lazarus (1891-1982 and in 1927 they journeyed to New Orleans to visit the sugarcane plantation his father had bought after the Civil War, 50 miles southwest of the dry.
Gheens found that the heavily mortgaged land was about to he sold due to financial reversals suffered by Ma father. Wisely, he bought it.
Less than 10 years Iater, Amerada-Hess struck oil. and Mr. C. Edwin Gheens. already a wealthy man became a multi-millionaire.
He traveled often to Lafourche Parish, to manage his Golden Ranch plantation with over 100
sharecroppers. He was a kind owner who furnished medical care and housing for his wookers
I am fond of the Gheens community, having made many friends there through the years. I kidnapped Louis Breaux to play in my band when he was 10 years old. (Just kidding but he was very young.)
Other friends were musician Lawrence “Dupe the Drifter” Dupre and members of the Triche/Dufrene Brothers hand. Clarence, Lester and Jerry I recently lost one, Lafourche Parish Councilman Lindel Toups, a first class public official
I played several benefits through die years in Gheens and campaigned for Assessors Hubert Robichaux, myself and am Michael We always carried the bores. Thanks Gheens!
Louis, whose father Harry managed South Coasts Home Place store, told me he often saw Mr. Gheens chatting with his Ded while drinking a coke Louis described him as a nice but frugalman
A Lafourche Parish Street in central Lafourche is named after another Gheens friend, Police Juror Johnny Dufrene. That’s not accomplished without merit. I often had coffee with Shedrick Domini quest his grocery store on my official rounds before he left for his school bus route.
How I met Mr. Gheens
Owning 50,000 acres of Laid in Lafourche Parish made Mr. Gheens a major taxpayer and as most taxpayers he often visited Assessor Hubert Robichaux’s of fice to discuss taxes They were both soft spoken men but some-times their soft conversations could be heard through the wall. Who likes tales? My duties were to fetch documents and serve coffee
In 1968, 1 had been employed by Lafourche Parish Assessor Hubert P. Robichaux for 5 years and we had bonded pretty good Being his only male employee I got to drive him on overnight trips on office business. were preparing to drive to Cleveland, Ohio. for an Assessors’ conference when he said “Leroy know we’re driving through Louisville Kentucky, Mr. Gheens’ home town I have always treated him fairly and he often invited me to visit him if Tin ever in his dry. Call him and see if that can be arranged.
I did and Ma wife Mary Jo answered the phone with the sweetest southern accent I had heard since the movie Gone with the Wind I handed Hubert the phone.
When he hung up he said” He really wants me to visit and have lunch with him at his mansion. Well stop. He might have Some-thing for us. HE had and IH tell you about it next week BYE NOW!
In this week’s column Historical Columnist Leroy Martin Talls about playing benefit shows in Gheens and also some time he spent in political office.
