•PART ONE
"Southerners tend to live in one place where they can see whole lives unfold around them. It gives them a natural sense of the narrative, of the dramatic content of life." --- Eudora Welty
One would be hard pressed to find a Southerner with a better narrative of life than R. W. "Dick" Richardson, a Washington Parish native who turns ninety this month. I have known Mr. Dick and his wife Marilyn --- dear friends of my folks --- since I was knee high to a grasshopper.
Courting at LSU in the early 1950s and marrying in 1957, Dick and Marilyn subsequently moved to Franklinton, where they made their home. This is where he has watched "whole lives unfold" --- the natural drama about which renowned author Eudora Welty wrote. I am willing to wager that in the beginning Dick's bride, a New Orleans belle, didn't know what was in store when she landed in Franklinton --- but together, they recollect, "We have had a wonderful life."
In order to grasp the extent of Mr. Dick's connection to our community, it is necessary to go back to the beginning. We had just commenced congenial conversation when he remarked, "You see how my roots run." Yes, indeed --- they run deep as the longleaf pine grows tall. The son of Frank Lampton Richardson and Nora Wood Richardson, Dick has family that penetrates every nook and cranny of Washington Parish, from west to east and north to south. Right off the bat, Mr. Dick distinguished his paternal and maternal ancestors by socialization, declaring, "The Richardsons didn't gather very often. The Woods got together at the drop of a hat." Yet, both were prominent in Washington Parish.
On Dick's paternal side, his father Frank Lampton was the son of Stephen Pinkney "Pink" Richardson (1849-1907) and Lena Leota Burch Richardson (1864-1952). Going back a generation, Stephen Pinkney Richardson had been born in 1849 to William Porter Richardson (1824-1875) and Nancy Lampton Richardson while Leota Burch Richardson was the daughter of John R. Burch and Melissa Brumfield Burch from Fisher. Married in 1881, Pink and Leota Richardson had a passel of children.
Though Pink had been born on the Enon Road on the Richardson farm, he moved to Fisher where he established a general mercantile and served as postmaster of the post office at Richardson. The two --- merchant and postmaster --- went hand in hand back in that day. A proponent of good education, Pink became a trustee of the Gorman School, before it became parish operated.
Mr. Dick recalled the community activism of his grandfather, a devout Methodist. Generously donating the land, Pink not only helped build the Fisher Methodist Church at Richardson but also built the church pews. In addition, he was also a member of the Franklinton Lodge - a Master Mason.
And Pink Richardson was quite active politically in our parish, beginning in the 1870s. Not only was he the Parish Clerk of Court in 1873, serving for almost (one short lapse) twenty-five years straight, but he was also a Representative in the Louisiana House, winning the position in 1892 and serving one term. Upon his demise in May of 1907, Pink was buried in the Fisher Methodist Church Cemetery, on land which he had donated.
Pink and Leota Richardson's children included the following: Myra Dee Richardson (1883-1887); Rosa Vidette Richardson (1892-1978), who married Eddie H. O'Mara; Hammond Eustis Richardson (1888-1940), who married Allie Burris; Alice Richardson (1888-1972), who married Varnado Jones; Mary Ella Richardson (1882-1969), who married Jacob Kinza "Jake" Johnson; Hazel Richardson (1890-1971), who married Thomas Edward "Ed" Foil; Anita Richardson (1898-1992), who married Alvin Ray Willard; Eloise Leota Richardson (1896-1983), who married William Carey Graves; Frank Lampton Richardson (1904-1990), who married Nora Wood; John Pinkney Richardson (1900-1975), who married Katherine Varnado; Walton J. Richardson (1902-1956), who married Clarice Magee; Lamar Merriot Richardson (1906-1978), who married Alma Ernestine Burris; and Chretien Lorett Richardson (1894-1956), who married Inez Moore.
My sources for the historical information on Stephen Pinkney Richardson include his grandson Dick Richardson, who has a mind like a steel trap, and "History of Washington Parish, Louisiana 1798-1992 The Story of a Land and People on Three Rivers: The Pearl, The Bogue Chitto, and The Tangipahoa in Southeast Louisiana" by Dr. E. Russ Williams, Jr. Also, I utilized valuable online information posted by Bonnie Dier, of the Washington Parish Library. And, as always, I conducted my own research.
Dick and Marilyn have vivid memories of the offspring of Stephen Pinkney and Leota Burch Richardson. I was enthralled as they unfurled the stories of each Richardson aunt and uncle. Too many to tell, but suffice to say the Richardson family tree ties Mr. Dick to most every family in Washington Parish. And I learned that his Uncle Walton Richardson had a cotton gin and feed mill. His Uncle Ed Foil worked at the Great Southern Lumber Commissary. And the late Steve Richardson was Dick's first cousin; more on that in April.
Indubitably, it was the story of the Foils --- Dick's Uncle Ed and Aunt Hazel Richardson Foil of Bogalusa who were relatives of my beloved teacher Madonna Foil Fowler --- that hit home. Their only son William P. Foil, who was born in 1919, the same year as my dad, never came home from World War II. Killed in service to our country, on July 26, 1944, while in the Central Pacific, Lt. William Foil was twenty-four years old and their only child --- a greater loss I can't imagine. It was enough to make the angels weep. As Ms. Marilyn explained, the Foils left his room exactly as it was. He is buried in Fisher Methodist Church Cemetery, the cemetery his grandfather Stephen Pinkney Richardson founded.
Stay tuned next week for Part 2. And in the meantime, on Saturday, Hail MCCA and Hail Iris! My daughter and I will be riding in the latter on Float 22, top, passenger side.
