THE
ACADIANA
ADVOCATE
T H E A C A D I A N A A D V O C AT E.C O M
|
S u n d ay, M ay 10, 2026
$2.50X
ELECTION 2026
Cassidy
Fleming
Letlow
Down to the wire
Candidates in Senate election jockey to emphasize Trump ties as voting day nears STAFF PHOTOS By BRAD KEMP
Lafayette sheriff motor officers escort the hearse to Martha Odom’s funeral at Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Lafayette on Saturday. Odom was killed in the Mall of Louisiana shooting in Baton Rouge on April 23.
SAyING FAREWELL
At funeral, family and friends remember mall shooting victim BY KRISTIN ASKELSON Staff writer
During a brief respite from heavy rains, family and friends of Martha Odom gathered Saturday morning to say goodbye to the 17-year-old. A somber procession rolled down Johnston Street past oak trees still decorated with colorful Mardi Gras beads. Dozens of Odom’s classmates from Ascension Episcopal School — many seniors preparing to don graduation gowns on May 15 — entered the church wearing dark suits and black dresses. Odom Odom died April 23 after being caught in the crossfire of a shooting at the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge. She and two other Ascension Episcopal students were visiting the mall for “senior skip day” when gunfire erupted after an argument between two groups escalated, police said. On Friday, Gov. Jeff Landry ordered U.S. and state flags at the Capitol and state buildings flown at half-staff in Odom’s honor, according to an executive order. Her funeral Saturday drew a
BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
Louisiana’s contentious U.S. Senate primary race enters its final week centered on the same question as when it began: Which Republican candidate best aligns with President Donald Trump? U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, state Treasurer John Fleming and U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow — each is relentlessly claiming to have the preeminent pro-Trump credentials. At the same time, all three have been broadcasting TV ads and making campaign appearances where they try to undermine the others’ pro-Trump claims. “They respect the power that Trump has with Republican rank-and-file, even though Trump has diminished in popularity with independent voters and has zero support among Democrats. His approval rating still runs around 80% among Republicans,” said Pearson Cross, a politicalscience professor at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Election day is Saturday throughout Louisiana for the Senate race and, in different parts
ä See CANDIDATES, page 6A
Amendment on inventory tax could affect local revenue BY STEPHEN MARCANTEL and ADAM DAIGLE Staff writers
Mourners arrive at the funeral for Martha Odom at Episcopal Church of the Ascension on Saturday. heavy law enforcement presence, including officers from Lafayette police, the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office, Louisiana State Police and the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office. Lafayette Mayor-President Monique Boulet also attended the service. In her obituary, Odom was remembered as “a light to everyone around her and, just as beautifully, saw the light in others — encouraging it,
nurturing it, and helping it shine brighter.” Odom planned to attend Sewanee: The University of the South, where she intended to study English and creative writing. She served as captain of Ascension’s girls’ soccer team, edited the student newspaper and taught at her dance studio. She also earned first place in last
ä See FAREWELL, page 6A
Louisiana residents are being asked to consider a constitutional amendment that would allow local governments to stop levying inventory tax on businesses. Amendment No. 4 on the May 16 ballot would allow parishes to reduce or remove the business inventory tax, a move that could eliminate nearly $30 million in tax revenue for Lafayette Parish governing bodies. If voters reject the amendment, local governments would continue collecting inventory taxes under the current system. Businesses are taxed on inventory assessed at 15% of fair market value, with local millage rates applied to that assessment.
ä See AMENDMENT, page 8A
‘DON’T EVER FORGET THAT I LOVE YOU’ Readers across the state share letters from their mothers
BY JAN RISHER Staff writer
In the summer of 1923, a 6-yearold in St. Martin Parish dipped a metal-nibbed pen into an inkwell and wrote to her godmother that the figs were almost ripe and she missed her so much she could cry. She was learning English but still thought in French, so she wrote that she was “lonesome of you.” Her letter survived 102 years.
WEATHER HIGH 84 LOW 70 PAGE 6B
In advance of Mother’s Day, the newspaper asked Louisianans to share old letters to and from mothers and grandmothers. The full range of letters was humbling and deeply human. A New Orleans grandmother wrote to her granddaughter Cynthia Andries in Baton Rouge in 1952, after the girl failed her sophomore English class at St. Joseph Academy. She worked through three pages of household news before landing on what she needed to say. “Don’t ever forget that I love you, Honey Chile.” Cynthia Andries, now Cynthia Litz, has kept that letter 74 years. In 1953, from New Orleans, Bar-
bara Vallina Reilley wrote an announcement letter in the voice of her 12-day-old daughter. A grandmother from North Dakota nudged her granddaughter in Seattle about keeping her room clean. A mother in Switzerland sent a letter to her daughter in Louisiana. Every time she wrote, she closed her letters the same way: Deine Dich immer liebende Mutter. Your always loving you mother. And a daughter named Beth Bueche sent the letter her mother wrote in 1963 to her own mother in Haynesville after she secretly married a man her family didn’t approve of. She asked her mother not to turn her away. The couple
was married for 54 years. “Even in the 1960s, historians started trying to understand women’s roles and the roles mothers and daughters tried to o establish with each other based d on collections of back and forth h of letters between them,” said d Gaines Foster, retired professo or emeritus of history at LSU. He worries that letters lik ke these are disappearing and wo onders what effect the loss will hav ve on future generations’ understan nding of history. “Those are the essence,” he sa aid. “I’ll be worried about what hapap pens with social history in the future.”
Business ......................1E Deaths .........................3B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................2B Living............................1D Opinion ........................4B Commentary ................5B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
ä Read the full story. PAGE 1D
101ST yEAR, NO. 314