August 25

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Truman Capote
September 20, 1924 -- August 25, 1984

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Truman Capote was born in New Orleans on September 30, 1924. Named Truman Streckfus Persons, he was the son of Archulus Persons, a nonpracticing lawyer and of the former Lillie Mae Faulk of Monroeville, Alabama. Years later he adopted the name of his stepfather, Joe Capote, a Cuban-born New York businessman. According to the New York Times, he and his parents were living "in a New Orleans hotel when she sent Truman to live with relatives in Monroeville when he was barely able to walk, and for the first nine years of his life he lived mostly in Alabama under the supervision of female cousins and aunts" but "Most summers the boy returned to New Orleans for a month or so, and accompanied his father on trips up and down the Mississippi aboard the Streckfus owned riverboat on which Mr. Persons worked as a purser. Truman learned to tap dance, he said, and was proud of the fact that he once danced for the passengers accompanied by Louis Armstrong, whose band was playing on the steamboat". As an adult, Capote lived briefly in a Royal Street apartment where he did some writing before producing his first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948). He visited New Orleans sporadically over the last two decades of his life to lecture or to be interviewed in his "hometown." Capote claimed to have established a new literary form with the publication of In Cold Blood (1965). He died in Los Angeles on August 25, 1984. Photo from Emy Augustus.

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Tropical Depression Twelve of the 2005 hurricane season formed a category 1 hurricane over the Bahamas at 5:00 p.m. EDT (2100 UTC) on August 23, 2005, partially from the remains of Tropical Depression Ten, which had dissipated due to the effects of a nearby upper tropospheric trough. While the normal standards for numbering tropical depressions in the Atlantic indicate that the old name/number is retained when a depression dissipates and regenerates, satellite data indicated that a second tropical wave combined with Tropical Depression Twelve north of Puerto Rico to form a new, much more advanced system, which was then designated as Tropical Depression Twelve. Simultaneously, the trough in the upper troposphere weakened, causing wind shear in the area to relax, thereby allowing the new tropical depression to develop. In a later re-analysis, it was determined that the low-level circulation Ten had completely detached and dissipated, with only the remnant mid-level circulation moving on and merging with the aforementioned second tropical wave. As a result, the criteria for keeping the same name and identity were not met. On Wednesday, August 24, 2005, Twelve strengthened into Tropical Storm Katrina. On Thursday August 25, 2005 Katrina strengthened to a C1 storm. Winds are 85 mph (137 km/h) and Pressure was 989 mbar. On the evening of August 25, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane near the Miami-Dade–Broward county line in southern Florida and weakened into a tropical storm as a result. The next morning, after passing over the state, Tropical Storm Katrina moved into the Gulf of Mexico, reintensified back to hurricane strength, and due to the warm waters of the Loop Current, began und(Wiki)

Hurricane Andrew--August 25-26, 1992. Before making landfall Hurricane Andrew spawned an F3 tornado in Laplace which was on the ground for about 10 minutes leaving ten people dead and 32 injured. Sixty families were instantly homeless and 163 structures were damaged or destroyed. Andrew made landfall in Louisiana about 23 miles west-southwest of Morgan City with maximum sustained winds at 115 miles per hour which produced storm tides of at least 8 feet causing flooding along the coast from Vermilion Bay to Lake Borgne. The Tangipahoa River crested at 3.8 feet above flood stage. In Jefferson Parish where the levees were undamaged maximum winds ranged from 60 to 65 miles per hour. The Orleans and Jefferson Parish levees were undamaged. Damage in Louisiana was estimated at approximately $1.56 billion -- approximately $1 billion for private property, losses of sugar and soybean crops estimated at $289 million, and damage to the fishing industry of about $266 million.

Born in New Orleans on March 25, 1902, Albert Burbank was taught clarinet by Lorenzo Tio, one of that city's most famous clarinet players. He stayed in the New Orleans area throughout the 1920s, playing wherever his services were needed. During the thirties, he worked with Kid Milton's band but was drafted into the US Navy during World War II. Upon demobilization, he worked internationally with the bands of Paul Barbarin and Kid Ory, later returning to New Orleans where he played with several of the well-known jazz and brass bands in. He was regularly seen at Preservation Hall and toured Australia with a band made up of Preservation Hall musicians. In 1975, he suffered a stroke but continued playing until his death on August 15, 1976. (Wiki)

Mayor Moon Landrieu appointed 21-year veteran Clarence B. Giarrusso as Superintendent of Police to succeed his brother, Joseph, who had retired, on August 25, 1970.

Willy DeVille (August 25, 1950 – August 6, 2009) was an Americansinger and songwriter. During his thirty-five-year career, first with his band Mink DeVille (1974–1986) and later on his own, Deville created original songs rooted in traditional American musical styles. He worked with collaborators from across the spectrum of contemporary music, including Jack Nitzsche, Doc Pomus, Dr. John, Mark Knopfler, Allen Toussaint, and Eddie Bo. Latin rhythms, blues riffs, doo-wop, Cajun music, strains of French cabaret, and echoes of early-1960s uptown soul can be heard in DeVille's work.

Good Things in Store from Holmes in 1939

Weekend specials from the bakery on August 25, 1939 included Nutto Layer Cakes for 53 cents (silver cake iced with marshmallow and toasted nut meats), Fruit Pies at 40 cents, Old Fashioned Gold Pound Cakes at 63 cents, Two-layer Fudge cakes at 60 cents, and the expensive Angel Food and Pecan Pound Cakes at 75 cents each. The bakery was located on the first floor of the Canal Street store. Phone RA 7711. "Birthday and Anniversary Cakes are Our Specialties.

The ad above, also run on August 25, 1939 for the Deli Delicatessen features ten pound (pre-cooked weight) hams sold for $3.49, glazed with pineapple and topped with cloves. Fried whole chickens and Baked stuffed chickens with gravy could be had for a mere 99 cents. "Hormel's New Meat of 101 Uses -- Spam -- could be had for 31 cents a can or 10 for $3.00.

Frey's Market -- 1939: Frey's Market on South Rampart offered some great bargains on August 25, 1939 -- rock bottom prices on hens, ducks, geese, and Leghorn chickens. RC Cola -- 6/25 cents. Hams at 15 1/2 cents per pound as well as the seldom eaten now-a-days fresh brains (10 cents) and calf tongue (15 cents).

August 25-27th, 1926: A hurricane struck near Houma. The steamship Cody, while lying 220 miles east southeast of Galveston reported 75 mph winds while the Argon saw northeast winds of 100 mph neat 27N 90.5W. The pressure bottomed out at 28.31" in Houma with estimated winds of 100 m.p.h. at Grand Isle. Morgan City had 60 mph winds howl through town. Over five inches of rain fell. New Orleans gusted to 52 mph as the pressure sank to 29.37". Burrwood's winds peaked at 50 mph while the pressure fell to 29.55". At Houma, the sugarhouse was wrecked at Southdown plantation. The Episcopal church was "smashed". Ninety percent of the sugar cane was gone after the storm. Serious damage occurred between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Lutcher, Caryville, Burnside, and Gismer saw streets full of wreckage which became almost impassable. Many trees were uprooted and barns were removed from their foundations. Thibodaux and Napoleanville experienced winds of 120 mph. Houses fell as telephones splintered in the wind. The town of Thibodaux lost three churches, a warehouse, and ten stores. At Glenwood and Madewood, more than thirteen inches of rain fell in less than 12 hours. The pecan orchard in Shriever was gone. Early rice and cotton were beat down at Crowley. Baton Rouge plunged into darkness as $20,000 in damage occurred to its electric company. More than seventy passengers from the Southern Pacific trains were marooned on a railway ferry barge in the Mississippi when two tugboats towing it grounded. A boat sank at Donaldsonville. The New Canal lighthouse was again damaged, causing it to be raised three feet after the storm. The third Timbalier Bay lighthouse was slightly tipped to the northwest. A ten foot storm surge was reported at Timbalier Bay; tides as high as 15 feet over-washed the southern coast of Terrebonne Parish, north of Isle Derniere. Twenty five people died and 4 million dollars in building damage occurred as it moved northwest towards Shreveport. (NOAA)

Samuel Holloway Bowers, born in New Orleans on August 25, 1924, was a leading white activist in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement. In response, he cofounded a reactionary organization, the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Bowers committed two notorious murders of civil rights activists in southern Mississippi: the 1964 triple murder of Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney near Philadelphia, Mississippi for which he served six years in federal prison, and the 1966 murder of Vernon Dahmer in Hattiesburg, for which he was sentenced to life in prison 32 years after the crime. He also was accused of bombings of Jewish targets in the cities of Jackson and Meridian in 1967 and 1968 (according to the man who was convicted of some of the bombings, Thomas A. Tarrants III). Bowers died in prison on November 5, 2006 at the age of 82. (Wiki)

Born in New Orleans on August 25, 1921, Alvin Joseph Jurisich was a right-handed pitcher who appeared in 104 games in Major League Baseball between 1944–1947 for the St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies. Jurisich appeared in one contest as a relief pitcher in the "All-St. Louis" 1944 World Series, won by his Cardinals in six games over the St. Louis Browns. He entered Game 3 in the bottom of the seventh inning with the Cardinals trailing, 4–2. He gave up two hits, doubles to Don Gutteridge and George McQuinn, and was charged with two earned runs in two-thirds of an inning. The Browns would win the game, 6–2. Jurisich was mainly a relief pitcher in the Majors, but he did make 42 starts in his 104 appearances and notched 13 complete games. He gave up 344 hits in 388⅓ innings pitched, and issued 189 bases on balls. Standing 6 feet 2 inches tall ant 193 pounds, he had 177 strikeouts and five saves. Jurisich passed away on November 3, 1981.

Buying on Credit in 1914

When this ad ran on August 25, 1914 enrollment in Maison Blanche's Housekeepers' Club was open until September 26 ("We reserve the right to limit the number of club members"). Members were promised "extremely low prices during our annual Housekeepers' sale. The club was an early form of store credit or "partial payment" -- small monthly installment with no interest. MB was sure to note that the Housekeepers' Club was "entirely distinct from the Furniture Club". Mr. Bol (the Bank of Louisiana credit card) would come much later in New Orleans shopping history.