By: DARREL LEJEUNE
LSN Editor
As the nation approaches the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (November 22, 1963), I have discovered for the first time that the Kennedy story has some unusual connections to the Basile area.
The first connection is Kennedy’s personal mineral rights to local land. The second is tied to the JFK assassination, itself. This week, we look at the land tie.
Senator Kennedy came to Crowley, in October 1959, as a special guest at the Rice Festival, and that was as close as the future president is believed to have come to Basile.
However, Kennedy had a tie to the immediate Basile area dating back to October 1951, when he and nine other investors obtained mineral rights to land owned by the local Young family, namely, Thomas and Elricke Young. Most of this land remains with their descendants today.
From 1951 until December 1960, Kennedy owned partial mineral rights for some 480 acres east of the Basile town limits in Evangeline Parish.
This did not come to the public’s attention until the December 29, 1960 edition of the Ville Platte Gazette published a story and photo headlined “Parish minerals deeded Friday by president-elect.”
A portion of the story from the Gazette from 1960 with the accompanying photo (shown on page 1) follows.
The Gazette reporter said, “When future historians mull over the lives of United States presidents, they will note that in addition to John F. Kennedy being the youngest man to ever hold that office, he was also the first U.S. president to own property (rights) in Evangeline Parish.”
The newspaper story continued as follows:
“Clerk of Court Walter Lee and his staff Friday received papers from Paul E. Murphy of New York, who holds Kennedy’s power of attorney, transferring certain mineral rights from the president-elect to Janet Des Rosiers of New York.
“The transaction closely resembled one executed a few days previously in Jeff Davis parish in which Kennedy transferred mineral rights there to Des Rosiers. The transferring documents do not say that Kennedy is president-elect, but gives his address as 122 Bowdoin Ave. (Boston, Mass.) - the address the president-elect has in Who’s Who in America.
“This Janet Des Rosiers, according to newspaper accounts, is the hostess-secretary on Kennedy’s personal plane. Just how she happens to fit in the picture is not clear, but the mineral rights Kennedy released in Evangeline Parish went to her for the sum of $10 and other valuable considerations.”
“More specifically, Kennedy transferred to her an undivided 1.64 of 8-8 oil, gas, and other minerals including sulphur on 480 acres described as the NW 1/4 Sec. 35, all of E 1/2 Sec. 35, TS6S R2W. This property is located near Basile, and the mineral rights were obtained from Thomas Young in October 1951 by 10 men, Kennedy amongst these, for $9,000.”
According to the story, Kennedy and his associates also maintained the oil and mineral rights on some 80 additional acres along Highway 190, obtained from Elricke Young in October 1951 at a price of $3,000. Kennedy nor any of his mineral right co-owners did not forfeit rights on this property, which according to a courthouse official at the time was not producing.
The story also noted that in Louisiana, royalty deeds are only good for 10 years unless production is established in that time.
Next Thursday’s edition of The Basile Weekly and the Ville Platte Gazette will feature an even more interesting story that explains Basile connections to a very believable JFK assassination conspiracy story.
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