Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2005-2006 - (Page 50)

HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION Don Fenner’s journals reveal his activities in detail. Here, from the left, are journal pages from November 1992, financia accounts for October 1993 noting income from the recycling of aluminum cans and gifts, and January-February 1993 noting attendance at mass at St. Louis Cathedral. ns w Orlea toric Ne The His Collecti on Fenner was a great follower of current events. Every day, after attending Mass at the cathedral, he would pick up the various newspapers from the benches on Jackson Square and clip and paste selected articles into his journals. He had a fascination with Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as the British royal family, and was a fan of the Prince Valiant cartoon strip. Also pasted in the journals are random food product labels — everything from tuna fish and peanut butter crackers to lemon pie. There is generally no explanation for this, but perhaps it enabled him to savor the memory of consumption by providing a constant visual reminder. Fenner kept a close accounting of the money that he received from the Southern Scrap Material Co. for aluminum cans, and pasted receipts and other paperwork regarding this occupation in the journals. He also kept track of the names of people who would give him money, and how much they gave. This may have been just a way of keeping track of sources for future gifts, but it could also have been done out of desire to reimburse those people when his fortunes changed. Faye Lasseigne would see Don daily, and became concerned one day when she did not encounter him. She looked for him at all the obvious places — the jail, Charity Hospital, and even the morgue. She inquired about him at the Southern Scrap Material Co. where he brought his cans, and drove all over the city looking for him. Months later she learned from another homeless person that Don had been sent from Charity Hospital to the Plaquemine Manor Nursing Home in Plaquemine. Faye and John visited him there that Christmas, and gave the nursing home all the information that they had regarding his living 50 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Winter 2005-06

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2005-2006

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2005 Contents Letters Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Louisiana State Museum After Katrina: “It’s time somebody woke us us up.” Missing New Orleans On Perilous Ground The Buildings of Louisiana (Architectural History by Karen Kingsley) Historic New Orleans Collection Louisiana Association of Museums Back to New Orleans Diary of a Displaced Person Jazz Notes (Music History by Bruce Raeburn) Cradle of the Stars The Terrible and the Brave Bookstand (Book Review by Thomas Uskali) Sound Advice (Music Review by Ben Sandmel) Forum (Commentary by James Lee Burke)

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2005-2006

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