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EVANGELINE PARISH – Shortly before 5:00 p.m. on September 22, 2020, Louisiana State Police Troop I was notified of a two-vehicle crash on LA Highway 13 near Heritage Road in Evangeline Parish. The crash claimed the life of 21-year-old Deonte Walker of Eunice.
The preliminary investigation revealed a 2009 Hyundai Sonata, driven by Walker, was traveling north on LA 13. At the same time, a 2014 Freightliner 18-wheeler was traveling south on LA 13. For reasons still under investigation, Walker crossed the center line and struck the Freightliner head-on in the southbound lane of travel.
Troopers determined Walker was unrestrained, along with a front seat passenger. Walker and the passenger were both transported to a local hospital where Walker ultimately succumbed to his injuries. His passenger was treated for moderate injuries. The driver of the Freightliner was properly restrained and was uninjured. He submitted a breath sample which indicated no alcohol in his system and he displayed no signs of impairment. A toxicology sample was taken from Walker and results are pending. This crash remains under investigation.
Louisiana State Troopers would like to take this opportunity to remind motorists to always make good decisions while operating motor vehicles. Never drive while impaired, fatigued, or distracted. Always ensure every occupant is properly restrained and follow all traffic laws. Taking simple precautions such as these can often mean the difference between life and death.
Troop I has investigated 40 fatal crashes resulting in 44 deaths in 2020.

BATON ROUGE — Louisiana families have one more week to apply for financial benefits from free and reduced-price school meals missed when schools closed in 2019-20 due to the pandemic. Eligible families who did not apply for the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program in May and June can take advantage of the second application window that will remain open until September 29 at 5 p.m. This second application window for 2019-20 benefits opened September 8.
Families of children who normally receive free or reduced-price meals are eligible for the program. This includes all children who attend a Community Eligibility Provision school where all students receive free and reduced-price meals regardless of income. This second application period of the 2019-20 P-EBT is only for families of the estimated 264,111 students who did not apply to receive P-EBT benefits during the initial window in the spring. When the original application window closed June 15, the families of nearly 470,800 eligible children had signed up to receive benefits.
These one-time benefits, which total $285 per child, equate the cost of meals for the 50 days schools were closed in the spring because of the pandemic, from the onset of statewide school facility closures in March through the end of the 2019-20 academic year. Parents who applied for free meals in May, after the P-EBT program was announced, will receive $91.20 per eligible child, which covers the cost of meals for 16 school days in May.
Families must apply if they wish to receive the benefits. The application is available in a P-EBT portal on the Louisiana Department of Education website. The deadline to apply is September 29 at 5 p.m. The online application is simple, requiring only a name, address, date of birth, school district and school. Social security numbers, while helpful, are not required. The information submitted by the family, however, must exactly match the information on file with the school system in order for the application to successfully submit.
Once families complete an application in the portal, the computer system will notify them of their successful submission. Upon verification, the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services will then request a P-EBT debit card for the household to be loaded with a one-time benefit. Applicants can expect their cards within 30 days of their application. Benefits will be available for 365 days.
P-EBT is different from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is issued on a Louisiana Purchase EBT card to approved low-income households. However, the P-EBT card can be used to purchase the same eligible food for the household as can be purchased with a SNAP card. All SNAP families with qualifying students are also eligible to receive P-EBT benefits if they apply, and P-EBT also is available to non-SNAP families if they meet the P-EBT guidelines.
P-EBT is not related to loss from Hurricane Laura. Eligibility is solely based on student participation in the free or reduced-price meal program.
Louisiana was approved by the federal government to offer the P-EBT program on May 15, and the original online application launched on May 18. At that time, 611,430 children were deemed eligible. After the program began and additional families applied for free and reduced-price meals, the number of eligible children increased to 729,507.
Various factors could have influenced the number of families who were eligible but who did not submit an application. Unlike other states offering the federal program, for example, Louisiana could not automatically provide benefits to eligible families because of the state's restrictive data privacy laws for students, so every eligible family was required to submit an application. In addition, Louisiana has a large number of Community Eligibility Provision schools at which every child, regardless of their family's income, receives free and reduced-price meals at school.
The P-EBT program was authorized by Congress in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act of 2020. In obtaining federal approval for P-EBT, Louisiana joined more than 22 other states participating in the program.
For more information, consult a list of Frequently Asked Questions or contact the LAHelpU Customer Service Center at LaHELPU.DCFS@la.gov or 1-888-524-3578. Families can also access a flyer that has been translated into Spanish, Arabic and Vietnamese. Families who need food assistance can also call 211 to inquire about food pantries and other available resources in their communities.
LDOE and DCFS are partnering with numerous non-profit organizations to connect these benefits with eligible families who did not apply for the program during the original application period. Those organizations are Feeding Louisiana, Food Research & Action Center, Louisiana Association of United Ways, Louisiana Budget Project, Louisiana Partnership for Children & Families, Share Our Strength/No Kid Hungry America and Share Our Strength/No Kid Hungry Louisiana.

The movement to proclaim Father Joseph Verbis Lafleur a saint has taken an important step with the opening of his Cause for Canonization by the Vatican.
The heroic World War II chaplain, who was born in Ville Platte, is now the third person from south Louisiana to be entered into the official process of investigation for sainthood. Bishop Douglas Deshotel began the process for Charlene Richard, the young girl from Acadia Parish, and Auguste “Nonco” Pelafigue of Arnaudville in January, but the announcement for Father Lafleur was delayed by red tape.
The Cause for Canonization is a process filled with red tape that includes testimony documenting how people were affected by Father Lafleur during his lifetime and after his death. It can take years and concludes with a recommendation to the Pope on whether he should declare someone worthy of our veneration. A growing number of people in south Louisiana believe that question doesn’t even have to be asked in this case.
Father Lafleur was an Army Air Corps chaplain who died saving the lives of fellow GIs who were Japanese prisoners of war.
He was born in 1912, the fourth child of Valentine and Agatha Dupré Lafleur, and entered the seminary in 1927. He was ordained in the spring of 1938, joined the air corps in 1941, and was sent to the Philippines that July. He was at Clark Field near Manila on December 8, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when Japanese planes carpeted the air base with bombs and raked it with gunfire.
Until that day, his superior officers worried about Father Lafleur. He wasn’t a very big man. He had something of a baby face—photos of him wearing rimless eyeglasses are reminiscent of Radar O’Reilly of the “M*A*S*H” television series — and still had traces of his Cajun accent. The officers thought he might have trouble earning the respect of the other men in his unit.
There was no need to worry. As waves of planes pounded the field, he calmly went about his business, doing what he could to comfort the hundreds of men who were wounded or dying.
He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in May 1942 for his “courageous ministrations” during that attack. According to the citation, he “refused to seek shelter despite the intensive attacks of dive bombers and the strafing of the field.”
As enemy troops steadily advanced, he declined evacuation from Manila, even though he knew the base was about to be overrun. He stayed behind to minister to his comrades, was taken prisoner with them, and spent two and a half years in Japanese captivity. One-third of his fellow prisoners died from disease, malnutrition, and mistreatment. Father Lafleur bartered everything he had, including his glasses, for bits of food and medicine to give to those who remained.
As the U. S. began to reclaim Pacific islands that had been taken by the Japanese, he and other prisoners were crammed into a small freighter to be taken to Japan. The ship was supposed to fly a white flag indicating that it was carrying 750 POWs. It didn’t do that, and was torpedoed by a U.S. submarine on September 7, 1944.
As the ship caught fire and began to sink, Father Lafleur held a rope ladder steady while other men scrambled to safety. That was how he was last seen, helping others to get out of the burning hold as the ship was going under.
Richard Lafleur, a nephew, and his wife Carol have over the past twenty years provided information to church leaders about Father Lafleur’s life and death and urged them to consider his canonization. Father James Brady, then pastor at St. Landry church in Opelousas, and Father Mark Ledoux, now pastor at St. Peter’s in Carencro, took up the cause several years ago.
The Lafleurs said a Vatican official was to going to come from Rome for the formal opening of the canonization process, but COVID-19 restrictions prevented that. Bishop Deshotel made the official announcement.
That probably would have been just fine with Father Lafleur. I suspect he is looking down on all of this with utter amazement that someone from the Vatican would want to come to Louisiana to talk about how he did what he considered his duty as a priest and as a soldier.
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.

ABBEVILLE — Madeleine (Mal) Pope Broussard, a long-time resident of Abbeville, La went to be with her Lord on Sunday, September 13, 2020. She was born on February 27, 1931 in Brooklyn, New York. She was 89 years young. The immediate family will hold a Life Celebration honoring our dearly departed Mother when COVID 19 restrictions are no longer in place. Everyone’s thoughts and prayers have been deeply appreciated by the Broussard family. We feel truly blessed.
She is survived by her loving husband of 67 years, Eddie John Broussard; four wonderful children, Jeanine Broussard Matte, Stephen Wayne Broussard and his wife Mitzi, Brian Paul Broussard and his wife Kimberly, Michelle Broussard Hanes and her husband Steven; seven grandchildren; and five great grandchildren. She is also survived by two sisters, Ann Minogue and Mary Bernardi, and two brothers, Henry Pope and Edward Pope. She is also survived by sister-in laws, nieces and nephews. A very loving, supportive and special friend to our mother was Laura Hebert, who we consider extended family. They all brought such great joy, love and happiness to Madeleine. She was preceded in death by her parents Ernest and Louise Pope; one brother, Johnny; and three sisters, Jeanine, Lillie and Andre.
She served the Vermilion Parish School Board for many years. Her first position was as the Secretary to the Superintendent. Later, she served as the first Central Purchasing Agent for the School Board. She retired from this position after a long, dedicated career. Mom was always involved in and esteemed the benefits of education.
Madeleine loved God, her family, and truly enjoyed getting together with family and friends to celebrate life. She was an excellent cook and baker who passed on her phenomenal recipes. These delicious and treasured recipes will be carried on in her loving memory.
She had a wonderful smile that would light up the room and sense of humor that brought such joy to those left behind. Her words of love are forever etched in our hearts. Some of them were, “I love you just a wee bit” (with her arms stretched as much as she could), “You see my Big Eye?” (you knew you were in trouble when you heard that) and “I will shout it out from the mountain top”. Her all-time favorite adage to us all was “Remember you are loved”. For the priceless gift of her effusive love, our family is forever grateful!
We have seen God’s Promises fulfilled in each aspect of Mom’s life. We are so thankful and blessed to have had her in our lives. Her legacy to us is one of strength, perseverance and the knowledge that family is everything!