Harold De Generes, McComb, MS., then 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 ************************************************ Harold De Generes, who represents some old families of Louisiana of French ancestry, is senior of the firm De Generes Brothers, automotive salvage, one of the largest enterprises of its kind in the South. This business is located at Shreveport. Mr. De Generes is a native of McComb, Mississippi, his parents were born in Louisiana. His father, Alfred D. De Generes, was born in Vermilion parish of this state, lived for a number of years in McComb, and is now a resident of Shreveport. His paternal grandmother was born in France, and the family settled in early times in South Louisiana, where many of them are still living. Harold De Generes is an electrician and electrical engineer beginning his apprenticeship and training in that profession after leaving school. His home has been in Shreveport since 1914. From the profession of electricity he was led by degrees into the automobile industry, and in 1919, with his brother, founded the firm of De Generes Brothers, automobile salvage, used cars, used parts, tires and accessories. The firm is noted for the extent of its business in buying and wrecking used cars. The highly perfected plant is located on Jordan Street near Texas Avenue, where with skilled and competent workmen, every facility is afforded for salvaging used cars, restoring car bodies and parts, repairing batteries and all electrical devices. It is a business reaching over a large territory, and includes the sale of every essential part in automobiles. Since beginning business this firm has handled 10,000 automobiles in this way, and a large number of cars are always standing in the yard awaiting the process. Mr. De Generes is a member of the Lions Club and the Chamber of Commerce. He married Miss Mary Julia Lanford, formerly of Mena, Arkansas. They are the parents of one son, Lanford De Generes, born in 1922. This child has helped express the fame of Shreveport abroad, since its picture was selected by the Mullins Food Company of Boston to feature some of the national advertising of that Company in magazines, whose circulation runs into the millions. A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 95, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.