Ville Platte native and World War II naval veteran Mayner Fontenot was selected to be parade marshal for this year’s running of the Grand Parade of Cotton.
Fontenot explained this honor came out of the blue. “Mable Foreman and Pat Derouselle came by and asked me to be parade marshal,” he said. “She had talked to my oldest son about it, and he had agreed to let them handle it. So, here I am as parade marshal.”
He continued, “Says like my friend, Edgar Ortego, I’m going to take the bull by the horns, and I’m going to see that we have a parade.”
Fontenot’s memories of the Cotton Festival go all the way back to the first one held. “What we had was a July the 4th Cotton Festival,” he said. “Each business constructed its own float which made it very interesting because we never knew what the next guy would come up with.”
One year while working for Rixby Manuel, Fontenot was tasked with constructing a float for the dealership. What he had come up with was making the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Fontenot went to the local furniture store and bought some scraps of linoleum which he used to make to make the tomb. He then enlisted the help of employees of the body shop in making the rest of the float. He said, “It took some kind of planning. We tried to make it as exact as we could.”
“During the parade,” he continued, “we had a soldier standing at attention. I don’t know where they got a carbine, but they had him standing at attention with a carbine. He had a khaki uniform on and his military cap.”
Fontenot continued, “We had a gold rope that we looped completely around the tomb, so it looked real authentic.”
The float was so authentic, according to Fontenot, that it drew the praise from J.D. “Prof” LaFleur as it passed infront of his home on Main Street.
Fontenot, since then, went on to work for Cabot Corporation where he retired after working more than 30 years.
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TONY MARKS Editor