Uptown Messenger (https://uptownmessenger.com/category/recognition/)
Uptown resident and long-time philanthropist Mary Keller Zervigon, who died Aug. 27 at 83, will be memorialized and celebrated Saturday (Sept. 10). Throughout her lifetime in New Orleans, Zervigon was dedicated to serving her community. When Zervigon was inducted into the Tocqueville Society in 2018, Danae Columbus interviewed the Carrollton area resident for Uptown Messenger.
The thousands of tourists and locals who will attend the long-awaited New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival will surely cause an increase in cases of Covid-19 and it newest sub-variant, BA.2. A friend coming in for the festival wants to wear his mask at the Fair Grounds. While a good idea, that’s probably not very practical considering the heat and the ongoing consumption of libations at Jazz Fest and the evening events. Ensuring each attendee takes the personal responsibility to avoid infection at this mostly outdoors event is a better solution. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, reported Tuesday that the coronavirus has infected nearly 60% of people in the U.S. at least once, including about 75% of children.
Join us for exhibits from the Notarial Archives Research Center! These showcases and blogs are available by visiting our website.
This month we highlight historic women educators in New Orleans. ABOUT THE CLERK OF CIVIL DISTRICT COURT’S OFFICE FOR THE PARISH OF ORLEANS:
The Clerk’s Office consists of two divisions – Land Records and Civil. Our Civil Division is where civil cases — such as personal injury, accidents, successions and foreclosures — are filed. Domestic matters, such as divorce and child support, are also handled in the Civil Division.
It has been a hundred years since the Touro Infirmary established its maternity services in 1922. “Before then,” said Jessica Muntz, the director of marketing and communications for Touro, “of course there was the occasional baby born in the hospital. But the maternity service was established as a formal department in 1922. At first, the doctors and nurses went to the birthing mother’s home for the delivery.”
Over time, it transitioned into births in the hospital, but the home services continued into the 1940s. Now the Family Birthing Center at Tourooccupies much of the second floor.
Lawrence Brooks, who died Jan. 5 as the nation’s oldest World War II veteran, was laid to rest Saturday (Jan. 15), amid pomp, gratitude, gospel, admiration and jazz. After the the eulogies, the gospel songs, the Victory Belles’ tribute and the solemnity of his funeral service, the men of Brooks’ former Army battalion carried his flag-draped casket outside of the National World War II Museum. The measured cadence of the honor guards’ heels pierced the silence as they slid Pfc.
The Mayor’s Office will mark the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday Monday (Jan. 17) with a ceremony at the monument to the slain civil rights leader at South Claiborne Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The memorial wreath-laying ceremony will be held in front of the Martin Luther King Jr. monument at 11 a.m.
The city has traditionally honored King on the national holiday with a march through Central City, beginning at A.L. Davis Park, pausing at the statue on MLK and Oretha Castle Haley boulevards, and culminating with the wreath-laying ceremony. The parades traditionally featured high school bands, dance troupes, and city officials, church leaders and civil rights activists linking arms.
The march will not be held this year, Mayor’s Office spokesperson Sharmaine Russ said in an email. In 2021, the city’s official MLK Day events were cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lawrence Brooks, the nation’s oldest World War II veteran at 112, died Wednesday morning (Jan. 5) at his home in Central City, his daughter Vanessa Brooks told Uptown Messenger. Brooks had been in and out of the Veterans Affairs Hospital several times in recent months, but was still alert, enjoying the holidays and watching his beloved Saints play until the end. He was able to relish the Saints’ win against the Panthers on Sunday. He died as he had planned — in his own bed.
Central City resident Lawrence Brooks, the nation’s oldest living World War II veteran at 112, is back at his home after a recent stay at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and a few nights in the intensive care unit. When his daughter and caregiver, Vanessa Brooks, was notified of his impending release last Thursday (Nov. 4), she was asked whether she planned to ride home with him in the ambulance. She shook her head and laughed. “He’ll have six people with him,” she said.
Furniture maker Ruppert Kohlmaier Jr. was just 6 years old when he started working in his father’s shop on Harmony Street in the Irish Channel. Almost 80 years later, he still works there every single day. His long career has been blessed, he said, by having a legion of New Orleanians as clients, whom he considers to be his extended family. Select pieces from his clients’ collections will be on view at the Louisiana State Museum’s Cabildo beginning Nov. 4 in the exhibition “A Century on Harmony Street: The Kohlmaier Cabinet Makers of New Orleans.” Curated by gallery owner Cybèle Gontar, the retrospective honors both father and son Kohlmaier and will be accompanied by a catalog.
The New Orleans Police Department announced a change of command in the Second District, which oversees police services for Audubon, Carrollton, Hollygrove and other Uptown areas. Capt. Jeff Walls, the Second District commander since 2019, assumed command of the Eighth District on Friday. He replaced Capt. Anthony Caprera, who retired Friday after a 37-year career with NOPD. It’s Walls’ second leadership assignment to the Eighth District, which comprises the French Quarter, CBD, Marigny and Warehouse District. On Monday (June 21), Lt. Eric Gillard, the second in command in the Second District for the past four years, will be promoted to the rank of captain and assume command of the Second District.
Sedonia M. Duffel, an Uptown native and long-time resident, will turn 100 on Tuesday (June 15). She has lived Uptown for most of her life, beginning in a shotgun double on Louisiana Avenue and eventually in her current home on Austerlitz Street that she and her late husband, Whelmon Duffel, purchased more than 50 years ago. The centenarian is the mother of eight, grandmother of 13 and great-grandmother of 17. Her grandchildren hosted a celebration in her honor on Sunday with limited family, friends and neighbors. One of 14 children, Duffel overcame a serious case of dropsy (edema) as a child but was still able to help raise at least seven of her siblings.
