In this installment of the Faces From the Album series we profile Mr. Murray Henderson and the Reverend Bazile Jolicoeur. Mr. Henderson is best known for the funeral home and public school in Algiers which bear his name. The Reverend Jolicoeur served as the seventh president of the First District Missionary Baptist Association, which awards a scholarship in his memory annually.
The Reverend Bazile A. Jolicoeur (1880-1949)
Bazile Alexandre Jolicoeur was born on 16 April 1880 in Fazendeville in Saint Bernard Parish to Alexandre Jolicoeur and Catherine Mitchell. His father worked as a cattle driver and farm laborer. His known siblings were Alexandrine (Mrs. Sidney Cook); Octavie (Mrs. Henry Elam); Nunez; Hilaire; and Robert Jolicoeur.
He obtained his education at Straight University and Leland College. In 1900, he married Louisa Scott, to whom he was married for forty-nine years. After living briefly in Saint Bernard Parish, they made their home at 827 Egana Street and later 1305 Gordon Street in the Lower Ninth Ward. He worked briefly as a farm laborer before he began his association with the St. Louis Industrial Life Insurance Company, which was founded by Dr. Louis-August Meraux. He worked as an insurance agent until 1919, when he assumed the pastorate of the Amozion Baptist Church at the corner of Deslonde and Burgundy streets.
The Reverend Jolicoeur travelled extensively in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. In addition to pastoring Amozion, he was an active member of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, First District Missionary Baptist Association, Louisiana Freedmen Missionary Baptist General Association, and the National Baptist Convention. Like so many civic and religious leaders, he interested himself in Republican Party politics and was elected an alternate delegate to the 1944 and 1948 Republican National Conventions. He was also an active Prince Hall Mason through Berry Lodge No. 2, as well as a Shriner and member of Scottish Rite Eureka Consistory No. 7.
In addition to remodeling the Amozion Church following a fire, the Reverend Jolicoeur increased the membership of the church exponentially. He died on 1 April 1949, after serving thirty years as pastor at Amozion, which was founded in 1870. He was elected President of the First District Missionary Baptist Association, which was founded in 1863, in 1942. He served the association as its seventh president until his death in 1949. He was buried on 4 April 1949 with services in his beloved Amozion Church and was interred in Mount Olivet Cemetery. He was predeceased by his son, Bazile Jolicoeur, Jr. (d. 1921) and survived by his widow and daughter, Mrs. Viola Jolicoeur Reed Jefferson, a lifelong registered nurse.
Each year, the First District Missionary Baptist Association awards a merit scholarship to a deserving young person entering college.
Mr. Murray Henderson (1883-1930)
Murray Henderson was born in the McDonoghville section of Algiers on 2 January 1883. His father, Christopher “Chris” Henderson, was a laborer and a native of Tennessee. His mother, Rose Parker, was a native of Louisiana. He attended public school up to the fourth grade and then began working. He worked as a driver or drayman, which was the route many young men took into the undertaking profession. On 21 November 1901, at the age of eighteen he was married to Olivia Calvary by the Reverend Andrew Wagner, pastor of the First Free Mission Baptist Church. They had three daughters Lillian (Barrow; later Dunn), Erma (Franklin; later Gibbs), and Della. He was hired as a carriage driver for the undertaking establishment of John A. Barrett, which was located at the corner of Pelican and Vallette streets. He familiarized himself with the business under the tutelage of funeral director, Mr. John Acker and Mr. Barrett, himself, who was the embalmer.
In 1908, Mr. Henderson went into business for himself. He began in the backyard of his home at 324 Diana Street in Algiers with one carriage and two horses. In 1913, with the help of his brother Daniel H. Henderson and nephew Charles Henderson, the business moved to 1209 Teche Street. He was widely known as a charitable man whose success in business was accompanied by a strong sense of noblesse oblige. During the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918-19, he paid the medical expenses of many victims and provided food for impoverished convalescents. He buried many of the victims at little or no cost. As a civic leader in the Fifteenth Ward, he worked untiringly to obtain recreational facilities and other community improvements. Tragedy struck close to home during this period. His brother and business partner, Dan H. Henderson, died on 27 January 1918 at the young age of twenty-nine years old.
At the time of his early death in 1930, the Murray Henderson Undertaking Company was valued at $25,000 with a fleet consisting of two LaSalle limousines, a Peerless, a Cadillac, two hearses, a wagon, a Ford business car, and a permanent payroll of five employees.
Mr. Henderson was a devoted member of the First Free Mission Baptist Church, as well as a Prince Hall Mason through Pride of Algiers Lodge No. 102. Much of the work of undertakers in those days was generated by benevolent societies and membership in several of them was practically a prerequisite for business. Murray Henderson was a member of the Friends of Progress Benevolent Association, Perseverance Benevolent Association, Young Men Aid Social and Pleasure Club, and the Eagle Eye Benevolent Association.
Murray Henderson died at the age of forty-seven on 15 April 1930. He was buried on 18 April 1930 from First Free Mission Baptist Church and interred in the McDonoghville Cemetery. His business was carried on by his daughters, Erma Henderson Gibbs and Lillian Henderson Dunn, with the assistance of his nephew, Charles Henderson, Jr. For his outstanding community involvement and his generosity, when a new 600-seat elementary school was opened on Whitney Avenue in September 1958, it was named for Murray Henderson. The Murray Henderson Funeral Home continues to serve the people of the Westbank some one hundred and twelve years after its founding.
Sources: The Times-Picayune, 15 May 1942, page 21; 5 April 1949, page 2; The Louisiana Weekly, 24 February 1940, page 7; 1870, 1880, 1900 Censuses, St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana; World War I Draft Registration, Bazile Jolicoeur, New Orleans Draft Board 8, 12 September 1918. The Times-Picayune, 28 January 1918, page 2; 18 April 1930, page 2; The Louisiana Weekly, 26 April 1930, page 1; 18 April 1931, page 5; Murray Henderson Funeral Home website, www.murayhendersonfuneralhome.com/history.
Jari C. Honora
First, this was wonderful! Bazile was my grandmother’s great uncle. She affectionately called him Uncle Baz. Is there evidence that supports the surname of his mother as Mitchell? I’ve only seen it as Clarke.
Thank you for your comment. The maiden name of ‘Mitchell’ comes from the death certificate of Bazile’s sister, Alexandrine Jolicoeur Cook from 1942. I have seen Clarke in several family trees online but never a primary source that says Clarke. Here’s the link to the transcribed information:
(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:ZRR5-4L3Z : 14 June 2020), Alexandrine Cook, 1942.
Murray Henderson was my great-grandfather.