Crowley’s new history book and the woman behind it

It’s unclear whether Ann Mire adopted Crowley or Crowley adopted Ann Mire, but either way it has been a beautiful relationship.

About Mire

Since first moving here, Mire has been one of the most active and enthusiastic members of the community, and the fact that she is now the author of a book on Crowley’s history is just one more example of that public spirit.

Although Mire has lived here for almost 40 years, she was actually born and raised in Thibodaux in Lafourche Parish, as were, she is quick to point out, both Philip Jules Chappuis (Crowley attorney and mayor) and Henry Clay Ross (black educator), two of Crowley’s earliest leaders.

Her mother, Mary Lou, who is a retired social worker, still lives in Thibodaux. Her father, Guy, served in World War II and worked for Texaco before he passed away in 1997.

For whatever reason, perhaps owing to her strong, independent personality, Mire seems like an “only,” but she actually has two brothers and  two sisters. The older of her brothers, Glen, is a physician in Lafayette, and the younger, Peter, works for the United States Postal Service in Kenner.

Mire’s late sister, Elinor,  lived in Austin, Texas, and taught school before she died in 2010.

Her remaining sister, Ramona Headifen, lives in Australia, and Mire gets visibly excited when she talks of her visits there.

In short, Mire comes from an awfully diverse family, and that could explain why she is interested in just about everything. Literally. 

It is hard to believe that Mire is 63, but it’s true. After graduating from E.D. White Catholic High School in Thibodaux, she attended Nicholls State University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in history. From there she went on to earn a Master of Library Science degree from Louisiana State University in 1974.

Her first job out of college was a temporary position working with government documents at Georgia Southwestern College in Americus, Georgia. When the job ended, she moved back to Louisiana and accepted the position of assistant librarian at the Acadia Parish Library, a position she has held since 1976, when Crowley’s library was located in the courthouse.

Mire has been an active participant in the Crowley community since then. A former Rotarian, she is currently a member of the Crowley Lions Club and serves as secretary of the organization. She is president of Pointe de l’Eglise: Acadia Genealogical & Historical Society. 

With her love of children and sports, she volunteered her time coaching T-ball and soccer at the Crowley Recreation Department for many years. She coached soccer at St. Michael School for the two years that the program was in existence there and also was instrumental in starting the soccer program at Notre Dame High School in 1997.

Over the course of her time at the library, Mire’s duties have changed with the times. Currently she is the reference and acquisitions librarian, and over the course of the last decade, she has been responsible for preserving some of the items in the archives.

According to Mire, she went directly from the “Dick and Jane”-style early readers to biographies, which have been her reading material of choice ever since. She is fascinated by the roles people play in history, both how they are shaped by the events around them and how they react in the midst of those events.

It is within the last decade that Mire developed a deep interest in Crowley’s history. Besides spearheading the conversion of Mary Alice Fontenot’s oral history cassettes onto CDs, she is responsible for scanning the old photographs in the Paul Freeland Archives for digital preservation.

Additionally, the newspapers of Acadia Parish have been microfilmed and are currently being digitized for use from the library’s website.

She has also striven to keep Crowley’s history alive by writing a monthly historical feature, “Looking Back at Crowley’s History,” for this paper.

Moreover, this is not the first book Mire has written. In 2011, she compiled a book entitled “Rice Festival: 75 Years, 1937 - 2011.”

Mire is getting close to retirement, a phase of life to which she is greatly looking forward. But, fortunately for Crowley, she does not plan on leaving the city. She sees herself doing more volunteer work, playing as much golf as possible and being even more involved in church activities.

About the book

Mire’s involvement with “Images of America: Crowley” came at the request of Crowley Chamber of Commerce President Amy Thibodeaux. And, according to Mire, “It just seemed like the right time to get it done.” 

Simply entitled “Crowley,” the 128-page book is part of Arcadia Publishing Company’s “Images of America” series. Several other towns in the area, including Lafayette and Rayne, have had books published by the company.

Over 200 photographs are included in the book. The variety of images ranges from such scenes as W.W. Duson with a work crew in Levy Park to Sol Wright standing in a rice field; from the Favre Opera House to the flooded streets of 1940; and from the Duson Building to the residence of its contractor, James Petty.

Many of the photographs, perhaps about 80 percent of them, have never been published before, so readers will be greeted with a lot of “new” images.

The starting point for gathering the photographs included in the book was the Freeland Archives housed within the Acadia Parish Crowley Library.

Mire notes, however, that a number of other sources were helpful in supplying the photos, and the team of Amy Thibodeaux, Florette Bergeron and Lee Lawrence aided her in determining which best depicted Crowley’s history.

Mire hopes that the book will help readers get to know the people who came here to settle the town and the sense of adventure they brought with them, hoping to accomplish something huge.

A lot of time went into the organization of the book, with Mire hoping to ensure that readers would find it easy to navigate.

As it stands, the book is divided into nine chapters:

• “Pioneers and Street Scenes”

• “Church and Government Buildings”

• “Schools”

• “Rice Industry”

• “Businesses”

• “Residences”

• “People”

• “Sports” and

• “Miscellaneous.”

The book also contains an extraordinary amount  of historical information given its size. As compact as it is, Mire has nevertheless packed the captions with a wide variety of data regarding the people, places and events pictured therein. There is, in fact, probably more historical information in “Crowley” than in most other books in the series.

It should be noted that all of the time and effort Mire put into the book was donated. She will make no money from the book, having assigned the royalties to Pointe de l’Eglise: Acadia Genealogical & Historical Society.

Mire feels that the Lord has blessed her by leading her to live and work in Acadia Parish. She hopes that the people of Crowley will consider this book a blessing.