FERNAND and EMILY CAVALIER 75 Wedding Anniversary Submitted by Louis Lavedan Source: Houma Courier, Houma, Terrebonne Parish, LA ====================================== ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** ====================================== April 22. 2006 1:02AM ========== A photo is available for this file. Please go to http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Eusgenweb/la/terrebonne/photos/newsarticles/cavalieranniv.jpeg ========== Marital bliss Local couple celebrating 75 years By KATINA A. GAUDET Staff Writer Fernand and Emily Cavalier marked their 75th wedding anniversary Thursday and will continue the festivities Sunday with a family gathering. (Abby Tabor/staff photographer) Zoom Advertisement SCHRIEVER - On the walls of Fernand and Emily Cavalier's living room are dozens of family photos depicting earlier and more recent years, from wedding and graduation photos to military photos. The visual reminders of their lives together are not much different from that of other families, but the Cavaliers themselves have reached a milestone that not many do. This week, Fernand, 95, and Emily, 89, are celebrating their 75th year of marriage. The two married young, after Fernand moved to the Li'l Grand Bayou community near Paincourtville in Assumption Parish, now just a small French settlement comprised mostly of camps, and met a neighbor, his future wife. The couple would marry when Fernand was 20; Emily, 14. It was a different time back then, says daughter Rosemary Besson, explaining both the early marriage and her parents' longevity together. There wasn't as much divorce then as there is now, not that the Cavaliers would have needed it. They enjoyed their life together, living primarily in the country next to family and friends, in small towns in Assumption Parish, where Fernand would find whatever work he could, no matter how difficult. "Had to work hard, but I wouldn't mind," said Fernand of his caring for his wife and their 10 children. He laughs when he says he retired at age 62. After a life of hard work, that included work on a sugar plantations in Assumption Parish, where he rose to the rank of overseer at one farm without a day of formal schooling, he stayed active into his later years. He might not have been working for others when he retired at 62 years old, but he continued to work. "I was working for myself," said Cavalier, doing carpentry work. He even built a home for his son in Terrebonne Parish - mostly on his own, at the tender age of 73. "I worked until I was 80," he said. Emily Cavalier raised the couple's children, two of whom died at an early age. In all, there were four girls and six boys. "He never complained, never said it was too hard," said Besson of her father. Her mother didn't hold down a job, but she did a good job managing her large family, something she enjoyed, Besson said. "Mama loved every minute of it. She was born to be a mother." Life might have been hard, but it was also fun, with Cavalier picking up a fiddle when he was 8 years old and loving it. He loved playing country music, and when the money and time permitted, he and Emily would take their family to different venues to see some of their favorite country-recording artists. A picture of Country singer Charley Pride sits mixed with family photos in the couple's living room, as does a photo of Fernand Cavalier donning a suit and a fiddle. "As poor as we were, we managed to get to the Municipal Auditorium," Besson said. Emily Cavalier isn't in the best of health these days, but she and Fernand are still managing a life together. They have been living at their home in Schriever for about nine years now, a house built by family members and friends for the couple. "It was a true labor of love, you can say," Besson said. The couple would move away from their small towns after others began moving away. The family had hoped to take the couple to the Pierre Part church where they were married 75 years ago on their anniversary date. Although their anniversary was Thursday, the family is planning a celebration Sunday for Fernand and Emily. It'll be nothing over-the-top, just a small cake and a bit of jambalaya, maybe, along with some family and friends. But it'll be something to observe the couple's seven-and-a-half decades together. "We're going to have a nice little get-together," Besson said. Of his and Emily's life, Fernand says, simply, they did the best that they could together.