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After the epic poem “Evangeline,” the best-known rhyme about the Cajun country might be Hank Williams’s “Jambalaya,” even if nobody who’s ever lived on any Louisiana bayou ever called anyone else “ma cher amio.”
Some people claim “Jambalaya” may be even better-known than “Evangeline,” and attribute that to the fact that Longfellow never thought about rhyming “good-bye Joe” with “me gotta go,” and that he just never could find a really good rhythm guitar player.
Since Williams released his famous version in 1952, a long list of performers from the Grand Ole Opry to the Liberty Theater have tried their hands at it, making “Jambalaya” one of the best recognized, if least authentic, songs about the Cajun country. The list of copycat artists runs from A to Z (Paul Anka to the Zydeco Flames), and includes such likely and unlikely names as Rex Allen, Brenda Lee, Little Jimmy Dickens, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmy Newman, George Jones, Kitty Wells, Fats Domino, Connie Stevens, Conway Twitty, Roy Orbison, Waylon Jennings, Pat Boone and Gerry and the Pacemakers.
Hank’s version topped the country music charts for 14 weeks, and Louisiana music historian John Broven claims that the Williams recording made “Jambalaya” “the best known Cajun-based country song ever.”
I don’t think any of the other versions reached the top of the pile. Probably the next most noteworthy version was by fellow Grand Ole Opry performer Moon Mullican, who many people believe wrote or, at least, co-wrote the song.
Moon, who was baptized Aubrey Wilson Mullican, in Polk County, Texas, had about as much Cajun blood as the Alabama-born Williams, but that apparently has nothing to do with anything. (Remember that the Louisiana legislature once tried to make a poem about Mississippi our “official” state verse.)
Whatever its authorship, somewhere along the line “Jambalaya” acquired a reputation as a genuine Cajun folk song, which it isn’t. But it does have a tiny bit of authenticity in its Cajun pedigree. The melody is based on “Grand Texas,” made popular by The Hackberry Ramblers, Papa Cairo and Aldus Roger, among others, although the lyrics to the two songs have little in common.
“Grand Texas” is a song about a woman who left the singer to run off with another man to Texas, while in “Jambalaya” the singer and his girl Yvonne plan to stay at home and “have big fun on the bayou.” (Have you ever noticed how many Cajun songs talk about running off to Texas? Why would a good Cajun want to do that?)
Lots of folks assumed that Williams came to write the song because of his association with the “Louisiana Hayride” radio show that began beaming music across the South via the 50,000-watt radio station KWKH in the spring of 1948. But the “Hayride” was produced in Shreveport and was much more oriented to country music than to Cajun.
A member of Moon Mullican’s family thinks the song’s origins come from a small south Louisiana bar owned by a woman named Yvonne on a bayou where Hank, as was his wont, had more than one wonderful time, some of which he could actually remember the next day.
That story has a ring of truth to it, particularly since Moon Mullican’s nickname supposedly was given to him for his predilection for whiskey of all flavors, but especially for moonshine.
A collection of Jim Bradshaw’s columns, Cajuns and Other Characters, is now available from Pelican Publishing. You can contact him at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.

Over the years, Vermilion Parish has overcome several devastating hurricanes, the BP oil spill and is currently navigating through the COVID Pandemic. With each situation, the Vermilion Parish Tourist Commission has had to figure out how to market the parish to attract visitors and let them know that they can travel to the parish and experience “the Most Cajun Place on Earth.”
“With hurricanes, you know that once the storm has passed you can assess the damage, see when businesses will be back open and start getting the word out that it’s safe to travel here,” stated Alison Miller, Vermilion Parish Tourism Director. “When the BP Oil Spill happened, it was totally different. The national media made it seem that all of south Louisiana was covered in oil, that no one should travel to our state and that our seafood was not safe to eat. Joining with other coastal Louisiana tourism bureaus, our marketing efforts were to tell the nation that south Louisiana was still open for visitors and our seafood was safe to eat.”
In March 2020, the Tourist Commission faced a completely different challenge. “Most people in the tourism industry were at a loss because we had not experienced anything like COVID before. We were not sure how long things were going to stay shut down, how long the pandemic was going to last, when would it be safe to travel or how should we proceed with our marketing.”
With less people traveling to our parish, the less revenue the Parish received and like many businesses in the parish, tourism revenue was down nearly 40 percent. The Tourist Commission closed its doors for two months, something that had not been done before.
With most festivals and events cancelled and many attractions not open, the Tourist Commission focused their marketing in a slightly different way. “We created a new advertising campaign and redesigned our website. We pulled several ads that were scheduled to run in the summer and relied on social media to keep people informed of what was open for business and what events were rescheduled or cancelled. We also took advantage of discounted advertising in New Orleans and Baton Rouge publications to get the day-trippers to travel here.” Although actual visitation was down, website users, phone calls, emails and other requests for information was in-line with 2019 figures.”
Now that the State has entered Phase 3, the Tourist Commission has seen a slight increase in visitors coming into the Center for information.
“As businesses are starting reopen at a larger capacity and more people are becoming vaccinated, we are optimistic that tourism will finish 2021 strong.”
Miller is excited to see that most of the Parish’s festivals have announced their return for the Fall of 2021. “With the fall festivals returning and people wanting to attend these events, it should bring in much needed revenue for our parish.”

Dear Editor,

The Vermilion Charter Foundation Inc. will submit a charter school application to the VPSB on April 5th. President Bridget Winters, Vice-President Murphy Guilbeau with the other 6 board trustees and community supporters strongly believe our parish needs another K-8 campus in the North Vermilion community. One reason for this need is to address the current overcrowding at Cecil Picard Elementary and North Vermilion Middle and another is to address the projected growth in the northern part of the parish. According to Mike Heffner’s VPSB report published in late 2020, there will be an additional 600 more students attending schools in this area by 2025.
To proactively address this growth, Vermilion Charter Foundation Inc. seeks to partner with the VPSB to provide another quality educational choice for Vermilion Parish families. We will provide the parish a new school in a state-of-the art building using only the MFP dollars slated for each student. The taxpayers of Vermilion Parish will not be asked to pay more taxes. Thus, our foundation chose an experienced educational service provider, Charter Schools USA Louisiana to operate the school. CSUSA assisted Youngsville with their projected overcrowding due to expansive movement of families to southern Lafayette Parish.
The school’s name will be Vermilion Charter Academy (VCA) and will be located in the Maurice area. This school will be a public school with no tuition or fees associated with enrollment. VCA will be innovative and STEAM oriented. All decisions about curriculum, staffing and budgets are based on the specific students enrolled in the school. VCA will have an increased level of autonomy but is held accountable to an increasing set of accountability expectations.
Parent and community input will be sought to determine many of the courses and co-curricula offerings at the school. The core content area instruction will be from a Tier 1 curriculum aligned with state standards. Assessments will be aligned with the curriculum and student academic goals set and supported for student success. We will educate all students and the needs of individual students will be addressed with interventions and innovative teaching methods. A one-size-fits-all educational model will never be acceptable. Services for students with exceptionalities and SPED identifications will be offered to students as individual student needs arise. Additional services for students may include before and after school care and after school tutoring offered at no cost to parents.
Our teachers will be paid a salary competitive with the local districts and may earn bonuses based on student performance and other factors.
Please visit our Facebook page for updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1026038904844975
We are looking forward to partnering with the VPSB and our Vermilion Parish families, friends and community members.
For All Children,

Bridget Campbell Winters
VCF Board President

A Mass of Christian burial will be conducted for Rita Barbara Chapman, age 85, at 10:30 on Saturday, April 24 at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in Delcambre, LA. Visitation will begin at the Church at 9:00 with a rosary at 9:45.
Barbara was born in New Orleans, LA and entered the US Navy in 1954 as a female officer at the age of 21. Barbara attended Sacred Heart Academy prep school in Grand Coteau and graduated from college at the age of 18 with a degree in mathematics and education. She met her husband, Joe Chapman in the Navy and they were both honorably discharged in 1958, the year of their marriage. Barbara would go on to get her masters degree in Education from USL and she taught high school mathematics in Delcambre for over 30 years. Barbara and Joe spent most of their adult life in Delcambre where they were both school teachers. She was a woman of great intellect and many students have credited her with giving them the math prep they needed to make it through college. She was a loving mother and grandmother and will be deeply missed by all.
Barbara is survived by her sister Ruth Ford of Abilene, TX , brother, CL Viator of New Iberia, her sons Bryant Chapman and his wife Marcelle of Houston Texas and Stuart Chapman and his wife Penny of Thibodeaux, 5 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband Joe Chapman and parents, Claude Viator and Noelie Gaja Viator.