Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, November 25, 1997

Black woman from Haiti was 'angel' during epidemic

by Jim Bradshaw

On the marker is written, "During the yellow fever epidemic here in 1839, she nursed the sick, administered to the dying, closed the eyes of the dead, and wept over their graves. Loved and honored by townspeople for the remainder of her life, she died in January 1852.

"The day of her burial every business in New Iberia closed its doors, and every man, woman and child in town followed her to her last resting place in St. Peter's Cemetery. She was an angel of mercy in a time of pestilence. Her name shall not be allowed to drop into oblivion."

Historian William Henry Perrin enlarges a bit upon the information on that marker: "She did an angel's part, and no doubt she now wears a crown, bright with many jewels," he wrote. "From that year (1839) to the time of her death, she was never forgotten or allowed to want by the sufferers of that dreadful period. Her picture adorned the parlors of a number of her white friends, and annually, on the 1st of January, many substantial tokens of the love and friendship they cherished for her found their way to her humble cabin.

"The day of her death ... was one of general mourning in New Iberia," Perrin continues. "By common request her body lay in state in the home of her former owner. The funeral rites wore of the most solemn and imposing character."

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