This is the St. Ann’s Old Cemetery, which might mean you have to be old to be buried here. Or – and this might be slightly more likely – this cemetery got full and St. Ann got herself a new place.

Numa and Emily Fontenot, who were born in the 1860s, were pioneer settlers of Mamou. They had ten children (and needed a giant family tomb).

And I can tell you that their son Duma had a festive party in 1963 for his 77th birthday. According to the Ville Platte (Louisiana) Gazette, the party featured “homemade cakes, egg nog and other refreshments…(A) french band also provided music for dancing and merry-making.”

Mamou, Louisiana
photographed 10.22.2017