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October 4
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G. Wray Gill Dies Attorney
George Wray Gill Sr. (known as G. Wray Gill), died on October 4, 1972. He handled many high-profile
cases in New Orleans -- his most controversial client was Carlos Marcello (Calogero Minacore) who was reputed to be the
organized crime boss of Louisiana and surrounding states; he represented Marcello on many occasions between 1951 and 1972.
In December 1961, Gill began representing former pilot, David Ferrie, in his attempt to be reinstated
with Eastern Air Lines after his suspension, related to morals charges. Gill employed Ferrie as an investigator and handyman
from March 1962-December 1963. Throughout 1963, Gill represented Ferrie before the Pilots System Board of Adjustment in
Ferrie's grievances against the airline. Ferrie was briefly detained in November 1963 over charges made by Jack S. Martin,
another Gill associate, that Ferrie had been involved in some way with Lee Harvey Oswald. Three years later, Ferrie became
the prime suspect in New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison's investigation of the John F. Kennedy assassination, shortly
before he was found dead in his apartment. Gill continued a relationship with Marcello, who
testified on the lawyer's behalf in a civil case in March 1969. Gill represented Marcello in a case involving illegal
re-entry in the U.S. after deportation, and surrendered him for a two-year term in 1970 on charges of assaulting a federal
agent. Born in Crowley, Gill graduated from Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans in June
1927. He became a prominent attorney as part of the firm Gill, Bernstein, Schreiber and Gill in Room 1707 of the Pere Marquette
Building at 150 Baronne Street. Gill was himself the target of criminal charges several times. He resided at 996 Robert
E. Lee Boulevard.  
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In 2008, William Jefferson sought re-election to the United States House of Representatives. Seven
Democrats challenged him for the seat in the Democratic primary. In the October 4, 2008 Democratic primary,
opposition to Jefferson was split among six contenders. Some of the challengers made strong showings in their base neighborhoods
but failed to garner much support in other parts of the district. Jefferson ran second, third, or even fourth in many precincts,
but his 25% total was enough to give him a plurality and to send him into the runoff primary, where he faced Helena Moreno,
a former TV newscaster, on November 4. Aided by overwhelming support from African-American voters on the same date as the
presidential candidacy of Barack H. Obama drew them to the polls in unprecedented numbers,
Jefferson won the Democratic nomination in the congressional party primary, which barred the district's 41,000 Republicans
and many of its 84,000 other voters not registered as Democrats. Jefferson won the November 4 Democratic runoff. The general
election round occurred on December 6, 2008. Jefferson faced Republican candidate Anh "Joseph" Cao, Green
Party candidate Malik Rahim, and Libertarian Party candidate Gregory Kahn. An earlier candidate, independent Jerry
Jacobs, withdrew. Jefferson was defeated in the general election on December 6, 2008 in a major upset by Republican
nominee Cao, who had endorsements from several prominent Democrats including Moreno and City Councilwomen
Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson and Stacy Head. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin endorsed Jefferson.
Cao won by three percentage points. Jefferson thus became only the third Democratic incumbent since the end of Reconstruction
to lose to a Republican at the federal level in Louisiana. As of Tuesday, October 4, 2005 approximately
1.5 million people had evacuated from the damaged areas in Louisiana post-Hurricane Katrina. Roughly 1 million
had applied for hurricane-related federal aid, 30,000 were in out-of-state shelters, 46,400 were in state shelters and 972
people had been counted as perishing as a result of the storm. The later official death toll was upgraded to 1,836 with more
than 2,500 still missing. State-by-State death tolls: Louisiana 1,577, Mississippi 238, Florida 14, Alabama 2, Georgia 2,
Tennessee 1, Kentucky 1. In 2005, the National Rifle Association, the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), and others successfully
sued New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and others to stop gun seizures in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. On October 4, 2006,
U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law the Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act. Mitchell Joseph "Mitch" Landrieu was elected Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana defeating
Rebublicans Clyde Holloway and Melinda Schwegmann with 53% of the vote on October
4, 2003. During the approach of 1995's Hurricane Opal , approximately 10,000 people evacuated from the
lower portions, of Plaquemines, St. Bernard, Lafourche, and Jefferson Parishes. Although
no direct injuries occurred from the hurricane, an indirect injury is attributed to the hurricane related accident; a Jefferson
Parish policeman was injured while attempting to lower the large flag at the intersection of Veterans Highway and Causeway
Boulevard on October 4, 1995. The officer, who was holding onto a rope attached a flag, was tossed high
into the air, and suffered severe injuries when he fell back to the ground. Charles Elson "Buddy" Roemer, III, born on October 4, 1943, was the 52nd
Governor of Louisiana (from 1988 to 1992), and previously served as a member of the United States House of Representatives
from 1981 to 1988. Paul S. Devrouax (October 4, 1942 in New Orleans — March 22, 2010) was
an African-American architect in Washington, D.C.. He founded the architectural design firm
of Devrouax+Purnell, and helped design the Verizon Center, Nationals Park, the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, and
the D.C. headquarters of Freddie Mac and Pepco. He co-designed the African-American Civil War Memorial,
and provided design adjustments to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. Howard Allen Frances O'Brien (Anne Rice) is in the center
of this photograph depicting children using the Children's Department
in the Main Library at Lee Circle in 1953. Born on October 4, 1941 in New
Orleans, Anne Rice (born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien was the second of four daughters of Irish Catholic parents, Howard
O'Brien and Katherine "Kay" Allen O'Brien. Her father, a Naval veteran of World War II and lifelong resident
of New Orleans, worked as a Personnel Executive for the U.S. Postal Service and authored
one novel, The Impulsive Imp, which was published posthumously. Her older sister, Alice Borchardt, later became a noted author
of fantasy and horror fiction. Rice spent most of her childhood and teenage years in New Orleans, the city that forms
the backdrop against which many of her works are set. Her early years were marked by coping with the family's poverty and
her mother's alcoholism. She and her family lived in the rented home of her maternal grandmother, Alice Allen (known as
"Mamma Allen") at 2301 St. Charles Avenue in the Irish Channel, which Rice says was widely considered a "Catholic
Ghetto". Allen, who began working as a domestic shortly after separating from her alcoholic husband, was an important
early influence in Rice's life, keeping the family and household together as Rice's mother sank deeper into alcoholism.
Allen died in 1949, but the O'Briens remained in her home until 1956, when they moved to 2524 St. Charles Avenue, a former
rectory, convent, and school owned by the parish, to be closer to both the church and support for Katherine's addiction.
As a young child, Rice studied at St. Alphonsus School, which was previously attended by her father. About her unusual
given name, Rice said: Rice became "Anne" on her first day of school, when a nun asked
her what her name was. She told the nun "Anne," which she considered a pretty name. Her mother, who was with her,
let it go without correcting her, knowing how self-conscious her daughter was of her real name. From that day on, everyone
she knew addressed her as "Anne", and her name was legally changed in 1947. Rice was confirmed in the Catholic
Church when she was twelve years old and took the full name Howard Allen Frances Alphonsus Liguori O'Brien, adding the names
of a saint and of an aunt, who was a nun. "I was honored to have my aunt's name," she said, "but it was my
burden and joy as a child to have strange names." When Rice was fifteen years old, her mother died as a result
of her alcoholism. Soon afterward, she and her sisters were placed by their father in St. Joseph's Academy. Rice described
St. Joseph's as "something out of Jane Eyre ... a dilapidated, awful, medieval type of place. I really hated it and wanted
to leave. I felt betrayed by my father." In the autumn of 1907, both black and white longshore workers launched an extended general strike
against their shipping company employers. As in 1902-03, screwmen were the focus of the initial conflict, which one
scholar identifies as resentment on the part of shippers and steamship agents that the screwmen (and other dockworkers) had
nearly seized complete control over their terms of work and won the 160-per-day bale limit. When the 1903 contract expired
on September 1, 1907, employers employed a ‘parity’ argument, demanding that New Orleans screwmen stow as much
cotton as their counterparts in Galveston, Texas – a rate which employers initially claimed to be 200 bales per day
but quickly escalated to what scholars peg at 240, or even 300 bales per day. On October 4, 1907 all of
the shipping lines locked out the screwmen, black and white alike. Pursuant to a call from the Dock and Cotton Council,
9,000 dockworkers, black and white, struck the New Orleans port that evening in a show of solidarity with the screwmen. Freight
handlers from the Southern Pacific line also struck, ending any work on the port. Individual black and white waterfront unions
reinforced the Council’s message, asking their members to stay away from the ports, insisting that they would hold
firm across racial lines, and noting that if the employers played one racial group against the other, they would all face
starvation wages. An 1867 storm was discovered east of Brownsville on Octber 2, 1867. On that day, a regatta was held on Lake Pontchartrain,
but was disrupted by squalls from the storm. Rain began during the evening of October 4, 1867
in New Orleans. At the Mouth of the Mississippi, the storm was far worse. Pressure fell to 28.80". The
river churned into a "seething foam". Telegraph lines were downed. At approximately 5:50 p.m.,
Father Francis X. Seelos passed away of yellow fever in the Irish Channel at St. Mary's Assumption Church Rectory. Later that
evening, after his body was prepared, he was laid out in St. Mary's Church. People stayed
throughout the night out of veneration and also because of the torrential rain and wind brought by the hurricane. Three
houses at Pilottown were leveled. The cyclone moved within 70 miles of the Louisiana shore. Heavy rains and winds continued
until the 6th. Rice crops in Plaquemines parish experienced great damage. (Thanks to Jude J. Noote Sr. for
information about Father Seelos' death. On October 4, 1864, The New Orleans Tribune, the first 1st African-American
daily newspaper was founded by Dr. L.C. Roudanez. Operating from 122 Exchange Alley, it was edited by white Belgian
writer Jean-Charles Houzeau. Its banner read "Official organ f the Republican Party of Louisiana" and its
motto was "To every citizen his rights, universal suffrage, equality before the law! To every laborer, his due;
an equitable salary, eight hours a legal days work". The paper also endorsed the desegrigation of the city's streetcars
and Louisiana schools. On July 7, 1868 it was purchased by Paul Trevigne and J.C. Laizer. In 1934, Harnett T.
Kane worked as a reporter. The current New Orleans Tribune is a newspaper serving the African-American community of
New Orleans, founded in 1985 using the same name. It is published by McKenna Publishing Co., which also publishes The
Blackbook, a community directory of African-American businesses, and Welcome, a guide for Black tourists to New Orleans. During the Atlantic hurricane 1860 easterly winds created a storm surge on Lake Pontchartrain and
inundated eastern and northern areas of New Orleans. The dynamics of the flood were considered "unprecedented",
having come within 3/4 of a mile of the Mississippi River. Flood waters rose until early on October 4, 1860
when they slowly began to recede. The Jackson Railroad on the western and northwestern shore of the lake was flooded up to
a depth of 5 feet and 11 miles of track were washed out. Families residing near the tracks were forced to leave
their homes and seek shelter upon the onset of rising waters. Renato (René) Beluche, born in New Orleans on December 15, 1780, was a privateer who enlisted
in the American forces defending New Orleans against the British invasion of 1814-1815; he commanded one of the 24-pounders
(seacoast cannons -- the heaviest used at the time by the U.S. Army) in Battery No. 3 at Chalmette. He also commanded
the privateer ship Spy under United States letter of marque during War of 1812. As master of several merchant vessels
out of New Orleans, he used the alias Pierre Brugman, Beluche died on October 4, 1860. Source:
http://lahistory.org/site19.php Félix de Courmont, a French Creole immigrant
from the West Indies who arrived in Louisiana ca. 1841, founded Le Taenarion: Journal du Progrès, a French-language
tri-weekly newspaper first published on October 4, 1846. After producing 16 issues of satirical verse on local politics and cultural events it was discontinued in November. From
July 15, 1846 to January 1, 1847 he published 12
issues of Le Taenarion, Satires Périodiques magazine.
New Orleans' bankers and female prostitutes were his primary subjects of discourse. Source: http://lahistory.org/site20.php Renato (René) Beluche, born in New Orleans on December 15, 1780, was a privateer who enlisted
in the American forces defending New Orleans against the British invasion of 1814-1815; he commanded one of the 24-pounders
(seacoast cannons -- the heaviest used at the time by the U.S. Army) in Battery No. 3 at Chalmette. He also commanded
the privateer ship Spy under United States letter of marque during War of 1812. As master of several merchant vessels
out of New Orleans, he used the alias Pierre Brugman, Beluche died on October 4, 1860. Source:
http://lahistory.org/site19.php
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