This is a picture of my beautiful best friend from high school, Claudette "Det" Gonsoulin. She, Mary Beth, and I were inseparable. She was sweet, smart, and soft spoken.
We used to quote lines from Hamlet in English class. I remember her... saying to me, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks,"about one of our perpetually angry teachers at Loreauville High School. She had an amazing collection of 45 rpm records and 33 1/3 albums. We sat on the floor at her house singing along to Barbara Streisand's "People." She told me that she saved money from picking pecans to buy that collection. At that time, few teens had disposable incomes, so acquiring that many records was unusual.
She and her younger sister, Perry Lee (Pae) hosted slumber parties in a "guest house" in their back yard. Our group of 8-10 girls gossiped, sang, sat around in our baby doll pajamas and kept watch in case our "boyfriends" tried to "peep" in the windows of the playhouse. We had a restroom facility hidden behind a curtain, sans bidette. Some weekends, dressed in our Baby dolls, at 2 a.m., I drove everyone to St. Martinville so Tisha could call her boyfriend Billy on the payphone in front of the courthouse. Det was paralyzed with fear. Amazing that we were never caught.
Whenever I drove our friends around town, Det sat in the back seat clutching a rosary. That was before seat belts were invented and also explains that I must have been a scary driver.
She and I "doubled dated" in high school. Today that is an archaic term. At that time 1960-1964, we dated lots of different boys, some from our high school in Loreauville and some from St. Martinville, a nearby town.
She attended Nicholls University in Louisiana, known as the Harvard of the South.
She continued to captivate hearts even in college. She dated Phillip, who drove a red convertible and earned a law degree. As a freshman, she was crowned Queen of the student body. After graduation, they moved to Baton Rouge where Phillip set up a law practice.
Det died of an illness 25 years ago, on May 30th. She was 42 years old. The last time I saw her, she and Phillip were sitting at the bar at Waffle House in Lafayette. She looked happy and amazing, shoulder length black hair and luminous brown eyes. I was living in Atlanta when she died in 1988, so I missed her funeral. I called her mom, Lil, to tell her how shocked I was at Det's death and sad that I was unable to be there. We both cried.
I hope she realizes how much we miss her.
We used to quote lines from Hamlet in English class. I remember her... saying to me, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks,"about one of our perpetually angry teachers at Loreauville High School. She had an amazing collection of 45 rpm records and 33 1/3 albums. We sat on the floor at her house singing along to Barbara Streisand's "People." She told me that she saved money from picking pecans to buy that collection. At that time, few teens had disposable incomes, so acquiring that many records was unusual.
She and her younger sister, Perry Lee (Pae) hosted slumber parties in a "guest house" in their back yard. Our group of 8-10 girls gossiped, sang, sat around in our baby doll pajamas and kept watch in case our "boyfriends" tried to "peep" in the windows of the playhouse. We had a restroom facility hidden behind a curtain, sans bidette. Some weekends, dressed in our Baby dolls, at 2 a.m., I drove everyone to St. Martinville so Tisha could call her boyfriend Billy on the payphone in front of the courthouse. Det was paralyzed with fear. Amazing that we were never caught.
Whenever I drove our friends around town, Det sat in the back seat clutching a rosary. That was before seat belts were invented and also explains that I must have been a scary driver.
She and I "doubled dated" in high school. Today that is an archaic term. At that time 1960-1964, we dated lots of different boys, some from our high school in Loreauville and some from St. Martinville, a nearby town.
She attended Nicholls University in Louisiana, known as the Harvard of the South.
She continued to captivate hearts even in college. She dated Phillip, who drove a red convertible and earned a law degree. As a freshman, she was crowned Queen of the student body. After graduation, they moved to Baton Rouge where Phillip set up a law practice.
Det died of an illness 25 years ago, on May 30th. She was 42 years old. The last time I saw her, she and Phillip were sitting at the bar at Waffle House in Lafayette. She looked happy and amazing, shoulder length black hair and luminous brown eyes. I was living in Atlanta when she died in 1988, so I missed her funeral. I called her mom, Lil, to tell her how shocked I was at Det's death and sad that I was unable to be there. We both cried.
I hope she realizes how much we miss her.
