Mrs. Leonard M. Beauford at is pictured on May 4 at the Bonnet Carre Spillway with her two daughters, Gertie Marie and Kathy Beauford. The Mississippi River water was still flowing through the sluices. The level was a 20 feet.
She is holding a mounted copy of her poem, “O Mighty River How Dare You,” that was written in 1977 when the spillway first opened.
The mounted poem was given to her by Col. Richard Hunt with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Her husband, the late Leonard M. Beauford, was a long-time corps employee.
Mrs. Beauford was born Gertie Lorio and her family settled in St. Charles Parish in 1770.
Her direct ancestor Joseph Loriot immigrated from Pointe Aux Tremble (now Neuville) near Quebec, Canada to St. Charles Parish.
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