"Child, this black skirt picks up everything but men and money"! If you attended Berwick Elementary School between the years of 1947-1962, you probably recall those words often spoken by "Miz" Leonie Landry, beloved spinster third grade teacher who nested in the upper left-hand corner of the "old building" on campus.

Miss Landry's teaching career began in December of 1936 when she was drafted by a school board member for a job in St. Martin Parish--eighteen miles down Four-Mile Bayou. Transportation was by boat to and from an abandoned house which had been designated as The Schoolhouse. A desk and a blackboard were hauled by truck, then transferred by boat to the school. The next year a "beautiful new school" was built --just one mile down the bayou. She always said that those years enabled her to put up with almost anything that followed!

Leonie spent most of her career at Berwick Elementary School where many of her methods and techniques were unique and way ahead of her time. She believed in "each one teach one". She knew that sometimes a fellow third grader could reach where she could not.

I was a stutterer, a quiet and shy little girl who was terrified to open my mouth for fear of being ridiculed. Miss Landry saw this and drew me out, threatening to kill anyone who laughed at me.(She did this threatening, by the way, when I was on some "important" errand outside the classroom.)

Speaking of threats, we took them seriously! She was a big woman, 5 feet, 11 inches, and weighed 200 pounds. To a third grader, that was a big woman. She had a big voice that could strike fear in your heart. But that same voice and those long arms could wrap you in a bear hug that would take your breath away. She loved us. We were her children.