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The North Vermilion Patriots have dedicated the 2022 season to a special senior that they plan to take to Sulphur with them today.
That senior is Ramsie Kate Bumgardner, who was considered one of the Patriots’ biggest fans. She was leading the cheer last year at the state baseball tournament in Sulphur and she also had plans to be there again this weekend.
Unfortunately, her life was cut short on Jan. 23, 2022 when she was killed in a two-car accident on La. 167, north of Abbeville.
The Patriots (38-2) play today at 2 p.m. against North Desoto (33-5) in the Class 4A semifinals. The game is at McMurry Park in Sulphur on Field 41.
Before the baseball season began, team seniors Cooper David, John Touchet, Lane Patin, Blake Lastrapes and Dylan Naquin met and decided to dedicate this season to Ramsie.
Ramsie’s initials, RKB, were sewn onto the back of their baseball cap. Many players also wear a rubber bracelet with the saying, “Live like Ramsie.”
“Each time we put on our cap, we are reminded of Ramsie,” David said. “We play for her. She was always cheering us on during the season and at the playoffs last year. We know we have to play hard.”
Before each game, the players warm-up in a red T-shirt. On the front of the shirt is a decal of a baseball with the initials “RKB” in the middle of a set of angel wings and a halo on top of the baseball. On the back of the shirt is Ramsie’s favorite saying “fear/less” written in script.
They have included her as one of their own by hanging a photo banner of Ramsie with the other five NV seniors. The banner, a picture of her at homecoming, hung with the seniors behind a set of bleachers all season.
All six banners are expected to be in Sulphur come game time today.
Senior John Touchet made it a point to make sure her banner hangs along side of the five seniors.
“She was our biggest fan,” said Touchet. “I plan to take the banner with us so she can enjoy Sulphur.”
One of Ramsie’s favorite sayings was “live fear/less.”
On her senior baseball banner, it has the phrase, “Live Like Ramsie – Fear/less.”
The Patriots seem to be playing baseball as Ramsie would want — fear/less. The squad won 38 games and only lost two. The Patriots are two games away from winning a second straight Class 4A state title.
Despite the success, they have not forgotten their classmate.
“The team has bonded more this season,” said senior Lane Patin. “We have a stronger connection. We are playing for Ramsie.”

December 12, 1925 ~ May 7, 2022

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11:00 AM on Thursday, May 12, 2022 at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church honoring the life of Louis Avery Dartez. Following the ceremony, he will be laid to rest in the church cemetery which adjoins St. Alphonsus Catholic Church in Maurice, Louisiana.
Louis Avery Dartez passed away peacefully on May 7th at the age of 96. He was born on December 12, 1925, to Marie LeBlanc Dartez and Joseph Avery Dartez and was the seventh of their ten children.  He was preceded in death by his wife of 64 years, Barbara Ann Jackson Dartez, who was the love of his life and his constant companion.  Throughout their marriage they amazingly only spent one night apart.  Louis is survived by 25 loving nieces and nephews, and an even greater number of grand nieces and nephews.  He was affectionately referred to as "Uncle Lou” and was widely regarded as everyone’s favorite uncle.
Louis was born in Maurice, Louisiana, and graduated from Abbeville High School.  Louis had a fascination with airplanes and flying, beginning from a day in the early 1930s when he was seven years old and a bootlegger landed a small airplane in a nearby field.  He served his country during World War II in the Air Force.  He shared this passion with Barbara and they both became licensed aircraft pilots.  They enjoyed traveling the southern United States in their own Cessna aircraft.
Louis and Barbara had a shared sense of adventure and toured Europe for three months in 1956.  Upon returning from Europe, Louis enrolled in courses at the University of Houston.  In 1959 Louis and Barbara established the Dart Company, a graphic arts service company.  The Dart Company provided graphic arts to many of the major oil companies in the Houston area.  Louis and Barbara worked side-by-side at their company for 32 years until their retirement in the 1990s.
Louis was a kind and gentle man and he was also a great listener.  A regular at the Dartez family reunions, Louis had an uncanny ability to extract all the best insider stories from his nieces and nephews. This was much to the chagrin of Louis’ siblings, their parents, who were left to wonder what family secrets had been divulged.
Louis and Barbara shared an interest in genealogy.  They spent considerable time during their retirement traveling and researching archives throughout the United States and France to painstakingly record and document over 14 generations of the Dartez family.  A culmination of their extensive research was shared with their family in a newsletter published periodically during the mid-1990s titled “Dartes’ Lineage.”
In 1997 Louis published his recollections of growing up during the Depression in a memoir titled, “The Formative Years, Growing Up in Vermillion Parish.”  This wonderful recounting of his life is rich in family history, anecdotal stories and priceless memories that are forever recorded and is an everlasting gift to his large and extended family.
The family would like to extend a special thanks to Diane Ansley.  Louis was able to remain in his home thanks to the excellent care provided by Diane the last five years.
Relatives and friends of the family are invited to attend a visitation on Thursday, May 12th at 9:00 AM at Vincent Funeral Home, 209 S. Saint Charles St., Abbeville, Louisiana.
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.

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.