Humble Beginnings
Born September 7th, 1937 in Rayne, Louisiana to a labor construction worker Walter Lewis Landry and domestic worker Edna Brown. Lou attended grade school in Rayne until the family moved to Beaumont, Texas where she attended Hebert High School. Lou learned the value of hard work early in her life. To help the family, Lou would often return to Louisiana during the cotton harvest working many long, hard days.
She was a pioneer, exploring life’s constantly changing adventures.
A Wife’s Love
Lou Gertha Landry was married three times to Collins Keyes, Earl Davis, and finally to her true love Crosby Lee Bonner, a nuclear ship fitter at Mare Island Shipyard. The courtship lasted several years and Lou and Crosby were joined in union on August 24th, 1968 at Reno in the company of their children. Both Crosby and Lou are well known in the neighbor and have shared their religious passions at South Bay Community Church of Warms Spring. For nearly 30 years, Lou was a member of the Hospital and Institutional Workers Union, Local 250 and worked in the food management industry at Alameda, Oakland, and Washington hospitals. Not one to back down from a challenge, Lou was reinstated to her job with full seniority plus lost wages at Oakland Hospital after an employment dispute. In December 1970, Lou and Crosby moved the family to Fremont, California.
Children’s Legacy
In June 1954 Lou gave birth to her child a son born in Beaumont. The following year, Lou gave birth to a daughter who was taken by God a few months later. In April of 1961, Lou gave birth to a second daughter in Oakland. Lou provided a nurturing, caring, and loving home, in which she watched her family grow to include three grandsons, a granddaughter, two great-grandsons, and a great-granddaughter.
A Champion
As the oldest of eight siblings Lou lead by example. She was a pioneer, exploring life’s constantly changing adventures. Lou was extremely devoted to her children, mother and father, and siblings. Lou was a spiritual person who believes in strong family ties and often traveled back to Beaumont to give assistance to a family member in need. Lou was always there when she was needed, providing guidance plus moral support.
A Residual Effect
Lou was a well-known person in the community and church where she worshiped. She shared so many loving and exciting moments with church members as they traveled about to see plays and visit local establishments. Lou also brought joy to the lives of many in her community. She opened her heart and doors to neighbors who would greet her daily and maintained a close relationship with a best friend on lived around the corner.
Acknowledgments
We wish to thank you for your many kind deeds and consoling words during the passing of our loved one. If we have overlooked anyone, we extend our sincere gratitude…
God Bless You!
~The Family~
A Calm Reflection
I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says: “There, she is gone!” “Gone where?” Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear the load of living freight to her destined port. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side say: “There, she is gone!” There are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: “Here she comes!” – Henry Van Dyke