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W e d n e s d ay, au g u s t 7, 2024
STAFF PHOTO BY LESLIE WESTBROOK
Connie St. Romain holds a piece of her fused glass art at her shop, Petite Rouge Antiques, in Grand Coteau.
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Shine through Artist’s fused glass creations fill Grand Coteau shop with color and light
BY ROBIN MILLER Staff writer
Paying attention in Mass was always a difficult childhood feat for Connie St. Romain. Really, how could anyone expect a kid to listen to the priest when the sun’s rays were casting colors on the walls through the church’s stained glass windows? Then, there were the windows, themselves. Each of the stories they told dazzled in reds, blues and yellows. “I was so enthralled with all the color on the walls and the glass,” St. Romain said. “And I just loved all the deep, rich colors, you know? That’s where it all really began.” Which is why sunbeams splash color on the walls of her Grand Coteau antiques shop, Petite Rouge. But there’s a difference. The glass in St. Romain’s shop isn’t leaded within her windows. It hangs from wooden frames in the form of crosses, mosaics, cardinals, mobiles and chimes, each a collection of colors fused into a single piece. That’s right — fused. It’s not a new art form by any means, especially for St. Romain, who has been created fused glass pieces for 15 years. Still, it’s an art form that has a way of catching visitors’ attention. How could it not when they, too, find themselves covered in color upon walking through Petite Rouge’s front door? St. Romain opened the shop 28 years ago, filling it not only with
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BIG DREAMS
How one woman’s birthday bucket list became a way of life
BY CLAUDIA LAWS Staff writer
It’s not about what I want to do before I die, it’s about how I want to live. It’s my dream list. That’s what I’ve dubbed my list of 50 things I want to do before I turn 50, rather than a bucket list. A few years ago, I shared how I started this journey — making a list of 40 things to accomplish before I turned 40. Then, as I aged out of that goal, I made a list of 50 things to do before I turned 50. I turned 45 this summer and I’ve accomplished 35 items on my 50/50 list. The remaining items are hard: They typically involve travel, more money than I have
on hand, or both. However, I’m plodding away at them, bit by bit. I’ve also edited the list, something I didn’t allow myself to do with my 40 before 40 list. (Aging brings grace for, and with, yourself.) For example, I initially wanted to go to a cranberry bog. Surprise! Cranberry bogs are home to thousands of spiders. That’s a hard pass. Some of the items make me feel proud, like reading 50 years of Pulitzer Prize fiction winners. Some are just silly fun, like renting a convertible and learning that feeling the wind in my hair makes me giddy. Others are imperative to my future: knowing how much I have saved for retirement and planning accordingly. But all of them are important to me.
Here are some of the highlights from the past few years:
Photo essay I started out in my journalism career as a photographer. But for years, I have worked as an editor, and now I’m on the business side of the newspaper, so I don’t get to take photos too often. When I was still a photojournalist, I began documenting my mom’s hometown: Onaka, South Dakota, population 12. Over the past 17 years, I’ve made about eight trips there to photograph and I’ve always wanted to publish them but kept telling myself it wasn’t good enough.
ä See DREAMS, page 2G
ä See GLASS, page 2G
There’s more to La.’s Berlin story State well-represented in 1936 Olympics BY ROBIN MILLER Staff writer
FILE PHOTO
Glenn ‘Slats’ Hardin, a member of LSU’s track and field team, won a gold medal in 1936.
Curious Louisiana’s story of Louisiana Olympian Billy Brown has stirred some interest in the past week. Brown was a 17-year-old kid from Baker when he qualified for the United States’ Olympic track and field team in 1936. He competed in the hop, step and jump, now known as the triple jump. But Brown wasn’t the only Louisianan on the 1936 team. As pointed out by readers this week, two others made that trip to Berlin, Germany, where Jesse Owens would become an American legend by winning four gold medals in track and field. Joey Webb, former mayor of Crowley who now lives in Lafayette, wrote, “There is another Louisiana connec-
tion. Dudley Wilkins, who grew up in Crowley and participated in the ‘hop, step and jump,’ which the triple jump was called at that time at Southwest Louisiana Institute (University of Louisiana) was a teammate of Billy Brown’s on the 1936 Olympic team and placed seventh. Louisiana was well represented in the ‘hop, step and jump’ that year.” Wilkins was just shy of 22 years old when he made the trip. Olympedia’s website, olympedia.org, states that Wilkins won the 1934 Amateur Athletic Union triple jump, then placed third in that event in 1936, which qualified him for the Olympic team. He also was the Southern AAU champion in the hop, step and jump
in 1935. Wilkins eventually graduated from Southwest Louisiana Institute (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette), then served in World War II. He was a lifelong resident of Crowley, where he died in February 1989. Webb also pointed out that Welsh native Rolland Romero also competed in the triple jump on the 1936 team. “Wow,” Webb wrote. “All three American Olympians in the triple jump event of the 1936 Olympics lived within 100 miles of each other down old Highway 90. There must be something in the water!” The 1936 Games actually were Romero’s second time competing in the Olympics. He also competed in the 1932 Summer Games in Los Angeles. Romero enrolled at Loyola University in New Orleans in 1931, where he was coached by Tad Gormley on the track team and was a member of the football team.
ä See OLYMPICS, page 2G