Woman among parade honorees
CLINTON — Living in a part of Louisiana with only the faintest of French connections, Annie Chapman hasn’t experienced much in the way of Mardi Gras celebrations during her rich 100-year life.
On Saturday, however, she will be one of four people chosen as co-grand marshals of the Feliciana Family and Friends Mardi Gras parade in Clinton, which rolls at 11 a.m. from the grounds of Silliman Institute.
Parade committee member Mildred Worrell said parade planners expanded the focus of their parade theme, “We Honor Our Own,” to include outstanding elders of East Feliciana Parish this year.
Joining the centenarian Chapman are Clinton natives and World War II veterans Jackie Brown Tandy and Clifford Babin, both of Baton Rouge, and Louis C. “Skeeter” McKnight Sr., of Clinton.
Babin and McKnight were in the Army and Marines, respectively, but they met up with each other during the island-hopping phase of the war in the Pacific.
Tandy joined the Navy and served in state-side hospitals during World War II and was called back to active duty during the Korean War.
Chapman was born on Dec. 10, 1911, in a rural part of the parish, where her mother worked on a farm.
“They’d go up and pick cotton and beans and things,” she recalled.
One of the bean varieties was raised and sold as cattle feed, but it also was an irritant to the skin of a young girl trying to help on the farm.
“They would eat you up to pick them. Cattle ate them. It took me a week to pick a sack,” she said.
“But my mama would come home and cook dinner. She kept a coop full of chickens… just walk out there and get one, wring its neck and pick him. A short while after that, we’re eating chicken and rice,” Chapman said.
She attended a one-room school, but classes were held for only two months of the year. “I remember we had a piece of corn bread and a piece of salt meat for lunch. That’s all we had, and didn’t know what a drink was,” she said.
Despite the meager rations, the children were glad to have something to fill their stomachs.
“The salt meat was so good, and you don’t find meat like that now. You fried it, and it went in the place of bacon. Been through the hardships,” she said.
Her mother, Mary Hays, eventually gave up farm work and did a variety of jobs while living in Clinton.
“She fit in anywhere you put her, and could make the best tea cakes in the world,” Chapman said.
Chapman did housekeeping and child-care work herself as a young adult, or helped nurse the sick.
“In other words, if it was something to do, we got out and done it. It ain’t like it is now. We cared more about you than they do now,” she said.
Chapman said she also worked for Clinton Bank for 30 years.
“I had good relationships with everybody. I cooked, I made tea cakes, I made coffee, and if anything else came up, I did it. When they had a board meeting, I fixed something for them to eat,” she said.
Chapman said she is looking forward to the parade and appreciates the committee for asking her to participate.
“I’ll have to admit, everybody’s been real nice to me,” she said.