"Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea, But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too full for sound and foam, When that which drew from out the boundless deep Turns again home."
---"Crossing the Bar" by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Washington Parish lost a legion of lovely ladies and gentleman in 2024, from a myriad of maladies. While I issued special remembrance of close friends like Clara Sue Watts Driftmier and Rose Conerly and close cousin Sue Brumfield Griggs, it is incumbent on me to remember more - folks that I once knew but perhaps didn't know well enough. I wish I could write about everyone. But for most - life details, I don't have. And to others, I apologize for omission in the fall. With the grandbaby's impending arrival, things were topsy turvy in the second half of the year. My absence began late summer. But the following remembrances I had penned beforehand. We lost a passel of people in the winter and spring.
Back to the beginning of 2024, Richard Bruce Schilling of Franklinton, formerly of Mt. Hermon, departed too soon at age sixty-six on Valentine's Day. The son of J. W. "Doc" and Eleanor "Pete" Schilling, Richard was well known in Washington Parish. A devoted LSU fan, he was also present at countless athletic events at Bowling Green when his sister Gale Schilling (Williams) was in school with my husband Rodney and me. A member of Mt. Hermon Baptist Church, Richard became a dairy farmer, and he was a part owner of Schilling Brothers Dairy. In addition to Gale, he was survived by his brother and sister-in-law Juiet and Melinda Schillings of Bolivar and also sister-in-law Laura Schilling of Mt. Hermon. Richard was preceded in death by a brother Billy Schilling.
On February 28, 2024, Larry Knight of Pine passed away. While he was a great deal older - he graduated from Franklinton High School the year I was born - I knew who Mr. Larry was all my life. The husband of Verdie Mae Rogers Knight, he was the son of Virgil E. Knight, Sr., and Bertha Tynes Knight and the brother of Virgil E. "Vic" Knight, Jr. (Angel), Carole McCue (John Perkins), Jeanie Brumfield (George), James Irby Knight, and Virgil "Oakie" Knight, Jr. He played on the Franklinton High School Demons basketball team before graduating from Franklinton High School in 1964 and attending LSU. A member of Pine First Baptist Church, Larry owned and operated Knight's Dairy Farm for thirty-one years and continued to raise beef cattle. From what I gleaned, he genuinely loved his land, the defining characteristic of a Washington Parish farmer.
Then came the passing of Richard "Rich" Victor Richardson, beloved husband of Nancy Carroll Richardson, on March 2 at age eighty-one. The son of H. C. Richardson, Jr., and wife Lucille and the brother of Chess Richardson (Linda) and Michael Richardson, Rich was born in the Crescent City in December of 1942 before, at age six, moving to Franklinton where he grew up. A graduate of Franklinton High School, he attended LSU before joining the New Orleans police force in 1965 where he remained in service until 1971. Then, he moved to California. It was there that he got into the electronics industry. And he found his beautiful bride, Nancy Carroll Richardson. When the couple moved home to Franklinton, Rich continued his hobbies of fishing, fast vehicles, and golf, and he merged his West Coast and Washington Parish friends. I was lucky to count myself among Nancy's friends, and through her I met Rich.
On March 11, I lost an early friend, Laurel Kirby Green Northcutt whose life was cut short just shy of sixty. She was the daughter of Jeff and Cecile Garrett Green of Enon, born to them on December 20, 1965, in Washington Parish, and she was the sister of Molly Morris (Reggie), Lawrence Green (Memory), and David Green (Cristina). A graduate of Auburn University in Psychology, Kirby was the wife of the late Benjamin George Northcutt and the devoted mother of William Green Northcutt and Bankston Lyle Northcutt of Enon. She attended First Baptist Church of Franklinton and enjoyed nature and the outdoors. With our mothers friends, Kirby with a head full of curls and I with bone straight hair played together as young children. I regret not knowing her later in life.
Then, Percy Cliff "Buddy" Manning, Jr. - longtime Franklinton native and 1957 Franklinton High School graduate - succumbed on April 5 at age eighty-four. The son of Percy Cliff and Regina Manning, Sr., and the brother of Betty Manning Schilling, he was married to Florence Reedy Manning, the love of his life, for fifty-seven years. Perhaps it sounds like I know. One only had to watch the two lovebirds skate hand-in-hand around the Family Recreation Center, which they owned and operated for years, for confirmation. An entrepreneur, Mr. Buddy also operated Reedy Farms, Manning Construction, and Manning Enterprises. He served his country in the Louisiana Army National Guard. And a dairyman, he also enjoyed riding horses and collecting arrowheads.
Mr. Buddy had a colossal collection of arrowheads at his home which Ms. Florence showed me just before her passing. In fact, it was that very visit that led to me having my own childhood collection framed, though I have only eight. Rodney and I attended Bowling Green with the Manning children - Chad (Terri) Manning, Dan (Chelsea) Manning, Matthew (Kerri) Manning, and Ben (Penny) Manning.
Stay tuned next week as we continue our remembrance of locals who passed away in 2024.
