Known to our family as “Mitt”. As tradition goes, the name “Mitt” was given to him because my aunt could not say “Mister”. He was never married and did not have any children. Mitt moved in with my family and became a boarder to help support my mother and my aunts at a time when everyone was recovering from the Depression. Hence, Mitt continued on to also help raise me and my 2 sisters and brother. He also contributed monies to his two sisters who
lived on Telemachus St., in New Orleans, LA. He was quiet and very generous with his time and money. He worked as a baker for various bakeries. Mitt built chicken coups in our backyard where he raised chickens and turkeys. This was our main source of meat and eggs. He also planted vegetable gardens in our yard which provided us fresh vegetables. Numerous times he brought us to movies, sometimes more than one, at the theatres on Canal Street in NOLA, and brought us to Pontchartrain Beach for many years. He brought us to Mardi Gras parades every night that they rolled which was usually 4-5 day nights per week, always buying us cotton candy and candied apples. He always spent his own money and was very generous with us. Mitt built us a playhouse and a homemade swing set in our backyard. He walked us to and from school every day and brought us to and attended mass with us even though he was a Lutheran and we were Catholic. Mitt loved and protected us as if he was our father. Around the age of 75 years old he began to show signs of “senility” and was forced to retire from his job as a baker at Judice’s Bakery. Twice he lost his way home and was then confined to our home. He would not leave the house without his hat, so my grandmother had to hide his hat so that he would not leave our home and wonder off as he had done before. Once he went missing for one whole week and was found at the school gate thinking that was where he was suppose to pick us up from school; however that was not the school we attended. We loved Mitt more than words can say and were heartbroken when he became so disabled that my grandmother could no longer take care of him at home. So, my aunt placed him in a nursing home in the uptown area of New Orleans where he only lived for one month and died on March 17, 1972. We were so blessed to have Mitt in our lives. He is buried in our family plot in Greenwood Cemetery in New Orleans, LA.
lived on Telemachus St., in New Orleans, LA. He was quiet and very generous with his time and money. He worked as a baker for various bakeries. Mitt built chicken coups in our backyard where he raised chickens and turkeys. This was our main source of meat and eggs. He also planted vegetable gardens in our yard which provided us fresh vegetables. Numerous times he brought us to movies, sometimes more than one, at the theatres on Canal Street in NOLA, and brought us to Pontchartrain Beach for many years. He brought us to Mardi Gras parades every night that they rolled which was usually 4-5 day nights per week, always buying us cotton candy and candied apples. He always spent his own money and was very generous with us. Mitt built us a playhouse and a homemade swing set in our backyard. He walked us to and from school every day and brought us to and attended mass with us even though he was a Lutheran and we were Catholic. Mitt loved and protected us as if he was our father. Around the age of 75 years old he began to show signs of “senility” and was forced to retire from his job as a baker at Judice’s Bakery. Twice he lost his way home and was then confined to our home. He would not leave the house without his hat, so my grandmother had to hide his hat so that he would not leave our home and wonder off as he had done before. Once he went missing for one whole week and was found at the school gate thinking that was where he was suppose to pick us up from school; however that was not the school we attended. We loved Mitt more than words can say and were heartbroken when he became so disabled that my grandmother could no longer take care of him at home. So, my aunt placed him in a nursing home in the uptown area of New Orleans where he only lived for one month and died on March 17, 1972. We were so blessed to have Mitt in our lives. He is buried in our family plot in Greenwood Cemetery in New Orleans, LA.
