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Note: !Eugene entered the CCC Camp as a young man and remained there for ab
Note: out two or
three years. There he learned to cook, a skill that he used all of his life.
Following his stint of service with CCC, where he was stationed at Meadville,
MS, he moved to New Orleans, LA, and worked his way up in restaurant cooking to
become a chef at several of the finest restaurants in New Orleans. His first
job was at ButterKrisp on ST. Charles Street, near the area where many of our
relatives lived. Uncle Kelley Gates, Uncle Dewey Gates, Aunt Ona Gates Wells,
Aunt Geneva Gates White, Uncle Jimmy Gates, all had moved to New Orleans.
Eugene boarded with Aunt Ona and Uncle Chester Wells when he first moved there.
Later when he married in 1934, he took his bride, Inez Overby, to New
Orleans and they lived there all his married life. Some of the restaurants
where he worked included first ButterKrisp, then the New Orleans Athletic Club,
then in his own restaurant just off Canal Street, the Court of Two Sisters,
among others, and finally at the restaurant associated with Maison Blanche in
the Gentilly area where he retired.
!He purchased his home in the Gentily area and lived there until his death
of a massive heart attack. He was in the process of getting adjusted to
insulin for diabetes and was a smoker. These two factors, in my judgment,
caused the heart attack.
He had one daughter, Gloria Jean Revier, who lives in Slidell, LA, with
his husband, Gary. He has two grandchildren only: Gina and Tiki. He is buried
with Inez at Poplar Springs Baptist Church, Mendenhall, MS.
!Eugene was always very popular with his friends. He was a great talker
and had a very winsome personality. My mother claims he was "Ugly in the
cradle; pretty in the saddle," meaning that he was an unattractive baby, that
grew to be quite handsome as a young man. (See my family history for pictures
of Eugene as a young man, as a chef, and as a later adult.)
!Birth and death dates appear on his headstone in the Poplar Spring Cemetery at
Mendenhall, MS .
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