Bio: Autrey Joseph, Michel and Lawrence Maroun, Caddo Parish La Source: From Chronicles of Shreveport and Caddo Parish, Maude Hearn O'Pry, 1928, Submitted by: Kay Thompson Brown ********************************************************** ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** ************ AUTREY JOSEPH, MICHEL AND LAWRENCE MAROUN THE Maroun boys are among the brightest and most talented of Shreveport. Lawrence, the youngest is ten years of age and attends Line Avenue school. He is a member of the Y. M. C. A. and is also in the Y. M. C. A. Band. During the World War, the mother of these boys was very active in doing her part and so Lawrence was the youngest Liberty Bond holder in Shreveport. . All the Maroun boys are musical, and Lawrence plays the drum. Michel Antoine is 11 years of age and attends the High School. He started in the Kindergarten as did the other two boys. Their mother is a great believer in the Kindergarten as a foundation for an education. He next attended Line Avenue School, went to Gulf Coast Military Academy. He plays the violin, sings, recites, dances and is a well rounded boy. His voice is so much in demand that he is called the "Little Song Bird of Shreveport." From the time he was three he was among the Mardi Gras winners for the most artistic costumes. He was one hundred per cent in spelling while in the Line Avenue School; he has won many honors at home and in Gulfport. This year he is heading his class of 63, is first sergeant of the "Red Bugs," and is second year freshman in the Gulf Coast Military Academy. At the close of Dr. Katherine French's lecture at the Woman's Department Club in 1925 Michel presented the beautiful silk American flag that his mother gave to the club. Mrs. Douglas Lee, president of the club received the gift. * * * Autrey Joseph is the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Maroun~who was Alice Arguel. Alice Arguel was born in Paris, France, in 1895, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Arguel. The family came to America with a fortune. Their intention, when leaving Europe to visit South America and North America and then return to Europe, but while they were in New Orleans lost their three sons in one month's time from yellow fever; so they decided to remain in the United States. They became naturalized citizens and established a real Parisian and Oriental Shop on Royal Street which was the only one of its kind in New Orleans and few like it in the United States. Alice attended the Ursulines for four years and then the High School in New Orleans, leaving school in her senior year to become the bride of Joseph Maroun. Mrs. Maroun is very ambitious for her boys and spurs them on in their undertakings. She is patriotic and generous Autrey began attending the Gulf Coast Military Academy when he was nine years of age and won the scholarship medal at the end of the first term there. He also did well in his music, playing the saxophone and the piano. He has played the piano since he was five. He won the medal for proficiency in scholastic work three successive years. In September, 1925, he entered the senior school and held the highest grade in a class of 225 cadets. He was on the football squad and played in most of the games for two years. He was a commissioned officer in charge of a platoon in the fall of 1927. If these young boys continue to live up to the records they have already made, Shreveport will he proud of them as citizens and builders of the future.