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DELCAMBRE — Lottie Jane LeBlanc, age 83, passed away on Monday, May 9, 2022 with her family and friends by her side. She was born on October 23, 1938 and was a lifelong resident of the Town of Delcambre.
Lottie worked as a school teacher for thirty-five years before retiring in 1997. She taught at Catholic High, Mount Carmel, and spent her remaining years teaching in Delcambre. Lottie was witty, selfless, and never met a stranger. Her love for life, travel, family, and friends is what we all will remember most about her. You could often find Lottie in previous years cooking for family and a host of friends almost daily, but lately, everyone met up with her during her multiple daily visits to Shawn’s in Delcambre. There, she visited with friends and former students, picked on the workers, and sometimes helped stock shelves. Lottie was a proud member of St. Anne’s Society.
Lottie is survived by her niece, Cathy Broussard and a host of great nieces, nephews, and godchildren that she loved and spoiled as her own children. She is also survived by lots of cousins, neighbors, and friends that are too many to name but hold a special place in her heart.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Elina and Peignaur LeBlanc; and her sisters, Beverly LeBlanc and Merline “Buddy” LeBlanc; her brother-in-law Joe LeBlanc; and her nephew Irvin LeBlanc, Jr.
A gathering of family and friends will be held at Evangeline Funeral Home in Delcambre on Wednesday, May 11th at 4:00 pm until 8:00 pm. A rosary will be prayed at 7:00 pm and will be led by the friends that she gathered with daily at church to pray the rosary. The funeral home will reopen Wednesday at 8:00 am until 2:45 pm.
A Mass of Christian burial, officiated by Father Buddy Breaux, will occur Thursday, May 12, 2022 at 3:00 pm at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church. Lottie’s wish to be cremated after the mass will be honored and she will be placed with her sister, Buddy, and parents in their family tomb at a later date.
Serving as pallbearers are P.J. Broussard, Mike Broussard, Durke LeBlanc, Mike Romero, Seth Romero, and Donnie Landry. In spirit, Tommy Blair will serve as an honorary pallbearer.
To view the on-line obituary and sign the guest register, please visit www.evangelinefuneralhome.com.
Evangeline Funeral Home of Delcambre is in charge of arrangements.

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is steering a $14 million, three-year research initiative to develop oyster broodstock capable of survival in low-salinity environments.
Leveraging Opportunities and Strategic Partnerships to Advance Tolerant Oysters for Restoration, or LO-SPAT, is designed to help sustain populations of the shellfish and support the seafood industry. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is funding the project.
Dr. Beth Stauffer, an associate professor in UL Lafayette’s Department of Biology, is LO-SPAT’s principal investigator. Stauffer, a phytoplankton ecologist, and other UL Lafayette researchers are collaborating with scientists from the LSU AgCenter and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Horn Point Laboratory. Spat-Tech, a Mississippi-based oyster aquaculture company, is the private sector partner.
“The objective is to examine low-salinity tolerant populations of oysters. We’re researching how low salinity – and other environmental stressors – factor in, and identifying heritable traits that make some oysters hardier than others,” Stauffer said.
The LO-SPAT team is pooling its expertise in coastal and restoration ecology, environmental monitoring, organismal and molecular biology, economics, and aquaculture and oyster husbandry. Researchers are collectively examining the entire oyster life cycle, from larvae and broodstock to juveniles that can be deployed in nurseries and, ultimately, at restored reef sites.
Creating sustainable breeding operations starts with collecting wild oysters, then introducing them to stressors; the next step is using modern molecular tools to determine which oysters prove capable of growing in unfavorable conditions. “Those oysters are then bred over multiple generations through a process known as selective breeding, which allows producers to build a better oyster using their natural genetic diversity,” Stauffer explained.
It’s important work. Louisiana is one of the nation’s major oyster-producing states. Declining production, however, has created ecological and economic consequences. Increases in rainfall and flooding in Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast in recent years have introduced high amounts of freshwater into oyster habitats and reefs. That’s problematic, since the shellfish need at least some salt to live and more to grow and reproduce.
Jack Montoucet, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said the LO-SPAT initiative provides “a comprehensive approach to addressing a state, regional and national problem, and we’re excited play a role in that.”
“Developing an oyster that can tolerate low salinity for an extended period of time – which we don’t have now – is important to maintaining the industry as we know it. And with all of the research capabilities that exist today, we should be able to do that.”
Oysters are essential to coastal ecosystem health. They filter massive volumes of water and build reefs that provide habitat for fish and other marine life. The shellfish are also vital to the economy and provide thousands of jobs. The Gulf of Mexico produces 46% of the oysters in the United States, and the regional oyster industry has an annual value of $66 million.
It’s why pursuing initiatives – such as LO-SPAT – that will ensure a vibrant oyster industry has become a priority in Louisiana. Promoting sustainable ecosystems and providing habitats for commercial industries is a primary goal of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority’s Coastal Master Plan.
Findings generated as a result of the LO-SPAT initiative are integral to that effort. So, too, are UL Lafayette research laboratories, including at its 50-acre Ecology Center. The center has a 15,000-square-foot building that houses spaces for a broodstock facility and laboratory.
Construction and operations of broodstock facilities at the Ecology Center is being overseen by a team of staff members. In addition to innovations in oyster broodstock, researchers will conduct field sampling using sensors deployed in estuaries to characterize the environments oysters are experiencing and acoustic monitoring to quantify oyster reef health.
Other key LO-SPAT researchers include Dr. Megan La Peyre, a research biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey Louisiana Fish and Wildlife Cooperative Research Unit at the LSU AgCenter; Dr. Louis Plough, an associate professor and geneticist at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Horn Point Laboratory; Dr. Durga Poudel, a geosciences professor in UL Lafayette's Ray P. Authement College of Sciences; Dr. Natalia Sidorovskaia, a professor who heads UL Lafayette’s Department of Physics; and Dr. Geoffrey Stewart, an associate professor in UL Lafayette’s B.I. Moody III College of Business Administration.

The Vermilion Parish School Board is moving closer to becoming a nine-member board.
On Wednesday, seven school board members attended a special workshop to look over the new district lines for the school board members.
The final vote to approve the new boundaries for a nine member board will be voted on at the May 19 school board meeting.
School Superintendent Tommy Byler emphasized the new district lines are for only school board member representation and not new school zone lines.
“This is for the school board members only,” said Byler. “What the school board members are doing tonight has nothing to do with rezoning attendance lines.”
There is the regular school board election in November. The school board has to get the new boundary lines approved in order for the ninth school board race to be put on the ballot for the November election.
New school board boundary lines had to be redrawn because of the recent 2010 census.
The school board hired Mike Hefner, a demographer, to redraw the school board lines for a nine-member board.
Hefner informed the school board that each district has to have a population of 6,366 people, give or take five percent.
The new school board district will be in the North Vermilion area. The new board member will represent the Meaux Elementary and Indian Bayou area.
The other North Vermilion board member will have North Vermilion High, North Vermilion Middle, and Cecil Picard Elementary in their district.
School Board member Laura LeBeouf, and board members Dale Stelly and David Dupuis have concerns with the preliminary lines drawn. Dupuis’ district will continue to be the rural area west of Kaplan and all of Gueydan.
Stelly’s district, the Forked Island area, is south of Kaplan toward the Vermilion Bay, and part of the town of Kaplan.
LeBeouf, with a nine-member district, will continue to represent most of Kaplan and north of Kaplan.
Abbeville and Erath will continue to have two school board members, with the boundary lines staying pretty much the same.

November 29, 1930 ~ May 8, 2022

ABBEVILLE — A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 1:00 PM on Wednesday, May 11, 2022 at St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Catholic Church honoring the life of Pearl Landry Primeaux, 91, who died Sunday, May 8, 2022 at her residence. She will be laid to rest at St. Paul Cemetery with Fr. François Sainte-Marie officiating the services. Pallbearers will be Rusty Primeaux, Logan Primeaux, Cory Neveaux, Blake Neveaux, Shawn Primeaux and Joshua Primeaux. Honorary pallbearers will be Brandon Richard, Ryder Primeaux, Wyatt Primeaux and Derrick Primeaux.
Pearl was a devout Catholic, a longtime parishioner of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Catholic Church. She was a very devoted wife, mother to her 8 children, and grandmother. She took great pride in keeping an orderly home for her family.
She is survived by children, Karen Callis and her husband Mikeal, Tim Primeaux and his wife Vicky, Tony Primeaux and his wife Peggy, Lonnie Primeaux, Tina P. Guidry and her husband Harris, Jude Primeaux and his wife Norma and Connie Simon and her husband Jed; fourteen grandchildren; and 18 great grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Lines "Skinny" Primeaux; one son, Ricky Martin Primeaux; two sisters, Nita L. Quarles and Thelma L. Lormand; and brother, Raywood J. Landry.
The family requests that visiting hours be observed at Vincent Funeral Home - Abbeville, 209 S. St. Charles St., on Wednesday, May 11, 2022 from 9:00 AM until 12:45 PM when the procession will depart for the church. A rosary being prayed at 12:00 PM.
The family would like to thank the entire staff Bridgeway Healthcare and Hospice, Deacon Russell, and her social worker for the loving care and compassion that their mother received during her time spent on hospice. A special blessing goes out to April H. Dean and Norma and Jude Primeaux.
Condolences may be sent to the family at www.vincentfuneralhome.net.
All funeral arrangements are being conducted by Vincent Funeral Home of Abbeville, (337) 893-4661.