Imogene Dunphy LaCour celebrates 90 years
Imogene Dunphy LaCour is marking her 90th birthday this month, and her family and friends are celebrating those well-lived years accordingly.
Imogene is a first-generation Irish-American, with her father, Frank R. Dunphy, having originally immigrated from Ireland to LaPorte, Ind. Frank met and married Saforonia Manning, who was from Foley, Ala., and the two started a family and moved to Crowley.
Imogene was born in Crowley in 1923. The youngest of the Dunphy clan and the only girl, she joined her siblings Allie, Earl and Orville Lee. She graduated from Crowley High School, where she was a cheerleader, in 1941, and has been cheering ever since for her beloved family, faith and community.
Imogene married Martin Petitjean LaCour and they had one daughter, Patricia Lynne. She now has four grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
Nearly the entire family was able to gather in Crowley for Thanksgiving this year, and they decided to express their thankfulness for Imogene’s 90 years of joie de vivre on Thanksgiving day.
As part of the celebration, the family selected the perfect birthday cake for Imogene, who is fiercely proud of her Irish heritage and always keeps a pot of shamrocks at her front steps. The cake, made in the shape of a Celtic cross with 17 shamrocks representing all five generations of her devoted family, also had two small bouquets of sunflowers, her favorite flowers.
Imogene, who has lived through 16 United States presidents, worked at the ration board during World War II. She went on to work in the Acadia Parish Clerk’s Office as a deputy clerk of court for nearly 30 years, using her experiences there as the basis for her popular Crowley Post-Herald column, “Court House Chatter.” Later she worked part-time for Rep. Donald Thibodeaux for four years.
An active volunteer in the community, Imogene has served at Miss Helen’s Soup Kitchen and was a Pink Lady at the American Legion Hospital for 22 years. She has also been very involved in the Crowley Garden Club, having served as vice president and as chaplain, as well as the Three-Ten Club.
Imogene is a faithful parishioner of St. Michael’s Catholic Church and attends Mass daily. She has served as the head of the church’s reception committee, sat on the bereavement and decorating committees and been a member of the Ladies Altar Society and the St. Anne Adoration Society. In past years she has served as a Eucharistic Minister to shut-in parishioners and meets every Tuesday morning with her beloved Rosary group.
As a member of the Crowley Art Association and The Gallery, she was honored at the “Women of Acadiana” gala along with 18 others for their contributions to the arts and the community, as well as their devotion to social and civic service.
Although she was born and raised in Crowley and has always called Crowley “home,” she admits that she will always have a piece of Gulf Shores, Ala., her mother’s home place and her summer refuge, in her heart.
Imogene’s charm, joyful spirit, positive attitude, wonderful wit and deep faith have been a blessing to her family and friends, and they are honored to be celebrating with her as she enters her 91st year.