OJ - What do you remember about your father?

Dr. O - He was one of the strongest men I ever knew. He was only about 5 foot 8 inches and weighed 175 pounds. He was O'Neill Sr., I am Junior, my son is the third and his son is O'Neill the fourth. He was a great father. He took me everywhere he went. We lived in Opelousas, Louisiana. My father was a farmer and planted cotton, rice, and various other things. He started out with tenant farmers because in those days nobody had machinery to handle farming as they do today. There were no cotton pickers. He had 17 tenant houses and they were nice houses. He once told me to paint the houses. As a matter of fact, I painted five of them in one day, if you can believe that. I had a 55 gallon drum of green paint and a sprayer. I went around those houses in a truck and sprayed every one of them. Back then, there were no glass windows so I would close the shutters and spray up and down each house. Then a couple of days later I went back and painted the roofs red. So I ended up with green houses with red roofs.

OJ - Was your father a healthy person?

Dr. O - He was very healthy but he had a heart attack at age 52. He lived a few years longer and died at 64. He was born sometime about 1894 or 1900.

OJ - What can you tell us about your mother?

Dr. O - I think she was the best mother in the world. Her name was Zula Richard and she came from Sunset, La. We went back there during Hurricane Katrina. It is not far from Grand Coteau and Opelousas. When Daddy died, she raised the four children - two brothers and one sister and me. I was the oldest. It was rough on her. When she met Daddy, he was in Lafayette and she lived in Sunset. They got together somehow. After he died, she didn't work the farm. Now, my two brothers are long gone. One had cancer of the lung that went to the brain and the other was killed in an automobile accident. Mother died at age 84 in Opelousas of a stroke. She went to the Academy of The Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau as a young girl. After she had the stroke, she was lying in the bed and I was holding her hand. She couldn't move or talk. I told my brother that I thought Mama had a minor stroke and would be OK in a short while. I said that because I wanted her to hear it if she could. It would make her feel better. Then I asked her to squeeze my hand if she could hear me. I felt the slightest pressure from her hand. You know, you have to be careful what you say when you think a person can't hear you.

OJ - Your wife, Barat, was an interesting person to me. She was what I would call a "Proper Lady." Tell us how you and Barat first met.

Dr. O - Barat went to school at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau and I had a great aunt who also lived there, Mother Bassett, who was a nun. Amalie Bassett was her name. She is buried in Grand Coteau. She was a great aunt on my father's side. Barat's older sister Marie Corinne also went to school in Grand Coteau. She was two years older than Barat. Mother Bassett first told me about Marie Corinne, who was 19 while Barat was only 17 at the time. Mother Bassett also told me to go over and meet Barat when she was visiting New Orleans. The family lived at 1553 Calhoun Street, so I went over there when I knew Barat was in town visiting. She was 17 and about to graduate from Loyola. People went to school year-round then. As it turned out, we got married right after I got my medical degree.

OJ - What do you remember about your father-in-law, Charles Patout?

Dr. O - I do not remember much except that he tried to talk me out of marrying his daughter. He said she was too young. About that time, he had gone to Alaska to raise some money to send back home to support his eight children. Can you imagine? When he got back home, Barat and I were engaged, and Barat's sister was also engaged. Lots of things had happened while he was away. He was glad he got home when he did. He went by the name of Pat and must have been in Alaska working the timber industry. I graduated from medical school on December 23, 1943 and we were married on December 27. I didn't stick around when he was trying to talk her out of marrying me. In those days, everybody got married right after they graduated. He finally gave his permission and we were married at Holy Name Church in New Orleans.

OJ - What you were dating, what did you do for entertainment? You were in medical school and Barat was just 16 at the time. Where did you go and what did you do?

Dr. O - We went to the show. She lived very near St. Charles Ave. and we took the street car downtown. The first time we ever dated we came back uptown from the show and in front of the house I told her I was going to graduate and I asked her if she would marry me. Just like that! She said she would give it some thought! She was dating some other guys and I asked her where I fit on her list. She said that since I had asked her to marry me, I was right on top of the list. I took her home and didn't see her for four or five days after that night. We had two other dates and were married after just three dates. As it turned out, Mother Bassett arranged another marriage for my brother and another girl from Grand Coteau.

OJ - What can you tell us about your mother-in-law, Barat's mother, Mary Elizabeth "Lilla" Withnell, called Grandmere?

Dr. O - I didn't know too much about her because I only dated her daughter three times. She did make candy for me and did approve of me.

Michele Reed - Mary Elizabeth "Lilla" Withnell was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. Her family home was called Mount Albion and was located on Meramec Street. I believe she attended Maryville College in St. Louis, which was a college founded by the Religious of the Sacred Heart. It was there that she met two Levert sisters from New Orleans and they forged a great friendship. The Levert sisters invited Lilla to visit them in New Orleans at their home in the Garden District. It is through the Leverts that Lilla met Charles "Patout" Burguières.

OJ - After you were married, you moved to Germany. How many years was it before you came back to the States?

Dr. O - We were in Paris for a year and a half, then in Germany for a year and a half.

OJ - What attracted you to Barat?

Dr. O - She was a pretty girl and she was smart.

OJ - As the years passed, did you entertain and give parties?

Dr. O - We gave all the Christmas parties and all the birthdays. Barat loved to entertain. She orchestrated everything. It didn't matter what it was.

OJ - I remember your wife as always being impeccably dressed and so very nice to everyone. Surely there must have been bad days in all that time.

Dr. O - Not a bad day in 60 years! Not one! I never saw her wear pants in all those years.

OJ - Barat had seven siblings. Did you know them well?

Dr. O - In those days a doctor had to go into the Army after graduation and then there was residency before and after the service. There just wasn't time to do much else. Then I went into private practice and I was on call 24 hours per day until I retired some years later. I specialized in orthopedics and was told by another doctor one time that I had the largest orthopedics private practice in New Orleans. I don't know whether that was true, but I was told I did. If my phone didn't ring at least once after midnight each night, I would think it was broken. That was early on in my career. After I retired and had more time, I did help with the brothers and the doctor visits. The home on Calhoun St. was almost like a nursing home. Barat and I took care of anything that went wrong with the house and we shopped for groceries. We made sure the sitters arrived and if they didn't, we went over and did the sitting. There were five people being cared for in the house: Barat's mother and father, Charles Patout "Pat" and Mary Elizabeth "Lilla," and three brothers, John, Bill, and Pat Jr. Barat's other brother Greg helped when he could, but he had Lou Gehrig's disease and was often sick. We had to help him, too. It was an everyday commitment.

OJ - What can you tell us about Barat's brother Patout, Jr.?

Michele Reed - The story always went that he, Patout, Jr., was born fine. He was fine until about two years of age and became allergic to something. That led to his becoming mentally handicapped. They lived on Midway plantation until my mother was seven years old. Then they moved to Calhoun St. He was about five feet tall and had a little mustache. He lived on Calhoun St. with his parents and was very sweet but was not able to communicate well. The same was true with Uncle Bill. He was brain damaged from a car accident. The irony was that Bill was an athlete at Jesuit. From 1964 on, he was crippled, but his mind was good. He had a great sense of humor and came up with clever jokes. Mom and Dad were very devoted to everybody in that house.

OJ - What about Barat's brother, John Paul?

Dr. O - In the last four or five years of his life, he had slowed down to a crawl. He lived in a nursing home. He had a mental breakdown while still a teenager. We visited him every week or 10 days. He was at Covenant House on Magazine Street in New Orleans. He stayed in bed for most of the day. He died at about 85 and was never married.

OJ - How is your health?

Dr. O - In 1970, when I was 50 years old, I developed high blood pressure. I had been giving a lecture at the time to the hospital staff. All of a sudden my nose started to bleed. My blood pressure was sky high and I didn't realize it. I took three months off and enjoyed my vacation time. Then I went back to work. A friend of mine asked me to fill in for a doctor who was taking care of police and fire department personnel. He talked me into it and I enjoyed it so much, I stayed 10 years.

OJ - Tell us about Marie Corinne.

Dr. O - She was a very nice person. She and Barat were very close. Mom Oui is what the children called her. She would come and visit us on Fontainebleau Dr., where we lived. She and Patsy came. Patsy lived in Atlanta so she didn't visit often. Barat and I lived in the Fontainebleau house for 50 years.

OJ - So you work like crazy until you're 50 and you travel. You retire from private practice, then go to work for another 10 years. You also take care of Barat's mother and father and their sons at the house on Calhoun St. When Barat's mother and dad pass, you sell the house and the brothers go to nursing homes. You wake up and you are 70 years old. Is there anything that you and Barat ever wished you had done and didn't get done?

Dr. O - We did everything that we wanted to do. We went to every state except Hawaii. We saw everything we had to see in each of those states. We had a motor home and we really used it. Put 70,000 miles on it. I never got tired. Barat always told the children not to ask me to do anything after 3 PM because I would be up all night working on it. I never get worried and I never get upset. In my spare time I built a cabin cruiser. I also bought a boat house out on the lake front. It didn't last long because my wife didn't like the boat.

OJ - What do you remember about Gregory, who married Dorothy Cummings?

Dr. O - He died at 76. He had an examination or check up and they were not able to find reflexes in his upper extremities. I didn't know anything about Lou Gehrig's disease, myself. Later they made the diagnoses. He ended up being bedridden. He couldn't get up but his mind was very sharp.

Barat Leefe - I want to add that Uncle Greg helped out as much as he could. He was all about family, with a capital F. He was very loving. He was a wonderful person and a WWII paratrooper with many jumps.

OJ - What became of his wife, Dorothy?

Michele Reed - She is still living at Chateau Notre Dame. They lived together right up to his death. They had a little house on Walmsley Ave.

OJ - Were you always a good Catholic?

Dr. O - Yes. I was an alter boy when I was younger. We were all good, committed Catholics. I got slowed down quite a bit, but I went to Mass at least twice a day in New Orleans at St. Rita's Church. I'd go to 7:30 AM Mass at St. Rita's and then to a 9 AM Mass up on Carrollton Ave. And on the weekend, it wasn't unusual for me to go to four Masses including one on television.

OJ - Did all of Barat's brothers and sisters get along through the years?

Michele Reed and Barat Leefe - I don't think we've ever thought about it before you asked the question, but yes. They all got along beautifully. They were very gentle and devout people in spite of the many physical problems the family had. And we were around them very often. There were undoubtedly small issues that they faced and worked through, but never anything major. This was a very special, holy family.

OJ - Dr. Pollingue, as a couple, how many times did you move throughout your married life?

Dr. O - Our first house was on Carroll Dr. in New Orleans right after we were married. Then we moved to France where we lived in a house, not officer's quarters. Then back to New Orleans to an apartment and finally we moved to 79 Fontainebleau Dr. where we lived for over 50 years. We bought a lot out near Lake Pontchartrain but never built on it.

OJ - Where were you when Barat died?

Dr. O - I was with her at Ochsner Hospital. Everyone was there except my son, 0 'Neill, who was on his way from Alabama. She had been losing blood and the doctors checked her out to find out why. They couldn't find anything, so they gave her blood. By the time she died, she had received 40 pints. A few days before she died they found a mass in her lower stomach. They operated and did a biopsy and sewed her up and let her come home. We knew it was cancer. The day she came home she was laughing and having a good time. Later that night she developed a severe pain. I brought her to the emergency room. They readmitted her to Ochsner Hospital and she died two or three days later, on April 5, 2003. From the first indication of illness to her death took three and a half years and during that period of time we were told that she didn't have cancer.

Michele Reed - There's one story I want to tell about. My mother was seven and the family was moving to the city from Midway Plantation. All of the people who worked the plantation came out with torches and serenaded the family as they stood on the front porch before they left. That tells you something about how people felt about the family. It was one of the most touching stories I remember.

The Charles Patout Burguières family lived at Midway Plantation on Bayou Sale for several years. The boys attended the local schools, but the girls, Pat and Marie Corinne, were sent to board at the Academy of the Sacred Heart at Grand Coteau in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. Our mother, Barat, would tell us that it would take all day for Granddad, Charles Patout, to travel to New Orleans which included taking two ferries. Grandmere, who had eight children, had help in the home from a woman named Sally and a man who tended the horses. During the Depression, the family moved from Midway to New Orleans. Barat attended Holy Name of Jesus grammar school for one year and then decided at about the age of eight that she would attend boarding school with her sisters. Our mother enjoyed her time at Midway but always said it was so far out in the country that she preferred living in the city with all its activity.

Barat Leefe - The essay below was written by my son Eric Leefe for an English class in 2009. I think it depicts very well the sort of family togetherness my parents created, and I wanted it to be included here.

Essay by Eric Leefe

Sunday just before lunch, I encounter a wholesome family atmosphere. As I step inside, I immediately notice my great uncle sitting peacefully in his accustomed chair in the front parlor. I then smell the delightful scent of freshly cooked roast beef coming from the kitchen, where the meat has just been pulled from the oven. My grandmother comes scurrying out from somewhere in the back of the house to greet the new arrivals with warm smiles and big hugs. Quickly, she rushes back the the kitchen, and if one listens closely, he can hear her telling my grandfather that the food is excellent. Walking into the main dining room, I hear the joyful squealing of my sister and my cousins running through the room engaged in some sort of chase game. Potato salad, rice dressing, peas, and corn have already been placed on the table awaiting eager diners. Traveling deeper into the house, I must pass my grandfather’s bedroom where my dad is already ensconced in today's Saints' game. I stop here for five minutes to watch the game and then continue on my quest toward the kitchen. Returning to the hallway, I am suddenly overtaken by a herd of screaming girls, still playing their game. I finally arrive in the kitchen where my mother and her sister are laughing uproariously about an event brought back from their childhood. My grandfather and my uncle are talking intently by the stove, which is still hot from the just finished roast. My grandparents; house is bustling with family activity every Sunday around noon, which is a nurturing environment in which to grow.

Charles Patout Branch Editors' Notes

This is something to think about. The JMB Company is a medium-sized Louisiana, privately held, 6th generation land company that is over a hundred years old. It was eventually owned by five families, some who thought and responded like city slickers and some who worked the land. They each had their own agendas.

And then there were some who knew the country and the city. In the case of Charles Patout, born in 1888, his mother died when he was just two years old. He was moved from the country to the Burguiéres home on Prytania Street in New Orleans when he was five years old by his step-mother, Ida Broussard, with a passel of siblings. Then his father died when he was twelve. We can assume there was very little guidance in his life at that point. His older brothers were just old enough to become significantly involved in the management of the JMB Company. We don't know about Charles' education, but he met and married Lilla Withnell. We know he raised a wonderful family of eight children in the country at Midway Plantation and was employed by JMB for some years in some capacity. By the age of 45, he moves his family back into the city.

However, this man would continue to face family challenges throughout his life.