Denis Ricou, Caddo Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller Date: 1999-2000 ********************************************************** ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** ********** Denis Ricou. For sixty years the name Ricou has been synonymous with the highest commercial integrity and honor in Shreveport. The Ricous, father and son, have been in the grocery business for over half a Century, and the Ricou Grocery Store has been a household word in the city. More recently the name has become associated with the most modern business building in the downtown retail district. At the corner of Marshall and Milan streets stood the Ricou family residence for many years. In that home Denis Ricou was born. Moved by sentimental attachments for the locality as a tribute to his honest father, and by public spirited business reasons, Mr. Ricou, in 1923, in joint ownership with H. B. Brewster, used the grounds as site for the Ricou-Brewster Building, a six-story structure, 120 by 150 feet. built at a cost of over half a million dollars, and one of the finest business buildings in the South. It has modern features and facilities that represent the last word in commercial structures of the kind. In addition to providing quarters for a number of mercantile establishments it contains a large number of office suites. Justin Ricou, father of Denis Ricou, was born at the ancestral place of his family in that portion of France known as the Hautes Alps. Coming to Shreveport in the '60s, he engaged in a general grocery business, and his son, Denis Ricou, is the direct successor of that old establishment. It is a business built upon character and always conducted upon the highest business principles, and has steadily grown and expanded. Justin Ricou married Catherine Larimer, also a native of France. Denis Ricou, his son, was born in Shreveport in 1873, and from 1884 to 1889 attended a Jesuit school in Caddo, also St. Viateur College at Kankakee, Illinois, and completed his education in the University of Marseilles, France. Since his return from abroad he has been identified with the business founded by his father, and the management of Various property interests. Denis Ricou married Miss Emily Trisconi, member of an old and prominent family of New Orleans. They have a son, Clarence A., and a daughter, Rosalie. Clarence A. Ricou, representing the third generation of the family in Shreveport, was for over two years with the American army during the World war. He was in the front line fighting continuously from July to November, 1918. He received his education in Phillip Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and in the Louisiana State University. He enlisted in the service July 12, 1917, and served as a Corporal in the Tank Corps, participating in the battle of St. Mihiel from September 12 to September 15, 1918; also in the Argonne-Meuse 0ffensive, from September 26 to November 13. He was honorably discharged from the service November 30, 1918, and returned to his home. A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 143, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.