In May 1946, The Negro South, a popular New Orleans magazine, assigned its James A. Holland to write a brief article offering some of the history of the Crescent City’s charming colored Creoles. To accompany the article and brighten the magazine’s first issue of the spring, were featured seven lovely demoiselles. These young ladies were: Mrs. Olivia Duplantier Daliet, Miss Isabel Rouzan, Miss Eulalia LaBostrie, Miss Louise Trevigne, Miss Hybebah Ahmed, Miss Fatima Ahmed, and Miss Beatrice Perkins. All of these ladies hail from New Orleans, except Miss Beatrice Perkins of Pascagoula, the sole representative our many dear families along the Gulf Coast.
J.C.L.H.
Isabelle is my grandmother. I can’t believe I came across this picture of her on your website!
Isabelle is my grandmother, my mother’s mom and she had a great part in raising me and my siblings and cousins in New Orleans. I love and miss her so. Until we see each other again. #mygram.
Louise is my mother! Where can I read the entire article?
Hey GRAM… Isabelle is my grandmother…:-)
Ms. Beatrice Perkins was my grandmother. She passed a few weeks ago. She actually was born in New Orleans and moved to Mississippi at a very young age. Moved back to New Orleans when she graduated from Southern. She was one of the best people on this planet. We miss her everyday.
Olivia Daliet was my mother. I am currently writing a book about my heritage and history of the Creoles from New Orleans. I would really love to write more about this story if you can find the rest of the story.
Hello Iris, This is Sonja Lewis Thompson, Nancy Cheval’s
cousin. We lived in the pink house on 3rd Avenue with Angele. Your mother was good friends with my Aunt Grace.
I would love to talk to you about your book and what you have been up to since you sold the winery. My daughter, Jacqueline is married to a Vintner and lives in New Zealand. My e-mail address is sonjathompson@earthlink.net.
Hello there, may I ask: what is the origin of the surname “Ahmed” for the ladies Hybebah and Fatima?
I previously read part of the book “Bengali Harlem” (by Vivek Bald and Alauddin Ullah) and learned that New Orleans (as well as Harlem) had a small community of Bengali Muslim merchants from the 1890’s onward. In New Orleans they sold Indian goods on the beach, & lived in or around the Storyville district. Some of these gentlemen settled permanently. They were considered “people of colour” in the U.S., and so they found a home for themselves in Black communities, often through marriage to Black women.
Could Hybebah and Fatima be descendants of these early Bengali migrants to New Orleans, or are their Arabic/Islamic surnames of a different origin?
Thank you
Sofia
Toronto, Canada
The Ahmeds are definitely a part of the intermarriage between Bengali mean and Black women here in New Orleans. Another family with a similar history are the Shaiks. One of the descendants, Fatima Shaik, is a retired professor and fiction writer in New York City. She has been a part of documentary projects about her Bengali/Black American roots. She also has a play one of her aunts wrote about their family’s story. You can reach her through FatimaShaik.com. Interestingly, their is a very large “Arabian Plot,” as it is designated, in Mount Olivet Cemetery, which otherwise serves the African-American community.
I am Juan LaBostrie. Eulalia LaBostrie has to be related to me as the name LaBostrie is a shortened form of Gotard de la Bostrie. I would like to get more information on her if possible.
Juan, I will send you some basic information on Eulalia LaBostrie to your personal email within the next day or so. Hopefully, you will be able to link her to your family. Thank you for getting in touch with us…. Lolita
I am doing research about Big Joe Turner.
I wonder if anyone can help me find an interview by Big Joe Turner, published in The Negro South June 1946.
There is also a photo of Joe on stage and as he is being interviewed.