| APRIL 1-15 |
April 1, 1999
Belinda Sue Spearson of West Baton Rouge, Louisiana, experienced her fifteen minutes of fame on April
Fools Day of 1999. It was almost a shame that neither she nor the place existed. Britney Spears was a teen
sensation in 1999, but her teen status the subject of an April Fools hoax on the music website Wall of Sound
which reported her to be 28, rather than 17. The site claimed that she was really Belinda Sue Spearson of
West Baton Rouge, and that she was born on Aug. 7, 1970. Britney fans flooded her record label with phone
calls, demanding to know her true identity, prompting a panicked response.
April 2, 1978
Nine months of preparation paid off today in 1976 when Our Lady of the Lake Hospital near the Capitol
closed its doors and moved to its new home on Essen Lane. Most of the hospital’s 950 employees assisted
in the move, along with over one hundred volunteers, city police, National Guard members and twenty-six
ambulances from throughout the Baton Rouge area. Sixty-six patients were moved in all, and when it was
over, hospital director J. B. Heroman descriped the move as “perfect”. The new facility would be called Our
Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center to reflect the expanded services that would offered.
April 3, 1909
Today in 1909, construction began at the site of the Standard Oil Refinery in North Baton Rouge. The
refinery built on land originally granted by George II of England to William Dunbar who invented the screw
press and the square cotton bale. Production at the plant would begin on November 15, 1909, only seven
months after production began. Today, the ExxonMobil refinery is the fourth-largest oil refinery in the United
States and twelfth-largest in the world, with an input capacity of 502,500 barrels per day. The refinery is the
site of the first commercial fluid catalytic cracking plant that began processing at the refinery on May 25,
1942.
April 4, 2007
Coach Eddie Robinson, Sr. passed away this week in 2007. Coach Rob had been born in Jackson,
Louisiana and was a star quarterback at McKinley High School in Baton Rouge. With no coaching
opportunities available following college, Robinson took a job in a Baton Rouge feed mill before learning of
an opening for a coach at Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute, later to become Grambling State
University. In fifty-six years of coaching at Grambling State University, he became the winningest coach in
NCAA Division I history. He retired in 1997 with 408 wins, 165 losses and 15 ties and was inducted into the
College Football Hall of Fame.
April 5, 1862
When the going got tough today in 1862, Governor Thomas Overton Moore and the Louisiana Legislature
got going. In early April 1862, Union Admiral David Farragut sailed his fleet past Confederate forts at the
mouth of the Mississippi River and steamed toward an undefended New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
Governor Moore and the legislators meeting in Baton Rouge grasped that there was no Confederate navy
between themselves and the Yankees and promptly abandoned the city, moving the state capital to
Opelousas. Union forces would occupy Baton Rouge the next month, and the state capital would not return
to Baton Rouge until 1882.
April 6, 1929
Today in 1929, the Louisiana House of Representatives voted to impeach Gov. Huey Long on charges
nineteen charges, including bribery, carrying a concealed weapon, demolishing the previous governor’s
mansion without legislative authorization, attending a drunken party where a stripper was present, and trying
to arrange the murder of state Rep. Jared Sanders, Jr. The impeachment effort touched off fistfights on the
floor of the House. Representatives finally voted to impeach Long on eight of the 19 counts. To block being
removed from office by the State Senate, Long produced the legendary Round Robin, a document signed by
a 15 of the 39 senators who had pledged not to convict him.
April 7, 1954
This week (4/1) in 1954, the contract was approved for construction of the first section of the Baton Rouge
Expressway, a six-lane highway which extended from the end of Plank Road in the East to Ninth Street on the
west and then south to Florida Street. The highway was completed three years later and would eventually
become the non-elevated section of Interstate I-110 between North Street and Plank Road. I-110 would be
extended northward in stages until its completion at the junction of US 61 in 1984. In 1999, the highway
would be designated as the Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway.
April 8, 1943
In support of the nation's war effort in World War II, thirty African-American restaurant owners in Baton
Rouge announced in an advertisement in the Morning Advocate today that "We, the Colored Restaurant
Owners of Baton Rouge, in co-operation with the general war effort and in order to conserve food and
manpower, have agreed on a one-day weekly closing program, as per schedule below, beginning on
Sunday, April 11th, holidays not included.” Participants included the Blue Light Cafe, the Apex Cafe, Annie's,
Fox's Tavern, Mama's Cafe, Maude Bell's Bar-B-Q Inn, the Chicken Shack and the Eat Mo Inn. The
restaurants would restrict operation until the end of the war in 1945.
April 9, 1943
In support of the nation's war effort in World War II, thirty African-American restaurant owners in Baton
Rouge announced in an advertisement in the Morning Advocate today that "We, the Colored Restaurant
Owners of Baton Rouge, in co-operation with the general war effort and in order to conserve food and
manpower, have agreed on a one-day weekly closing program, as per schedule below, beginning on
Sunday, April 11th, holidays not included.” Participants included the Blue Light Cafe, the Apex Cafe, Annie's,
Fox's Tavern, Mama's Cafe, Maude Bell's Bar-B-Q Inn, the Chicken Shack and the Eat Mo Inn. The
restaurants would restrict operation until the end of the war in 1945.
April 10, 1912
Today in 1912, French stunt pilot George Metache took off from City Park in New Orleans with a letter
addressed to Governor Jared Sanders in Baton Rouge. He landed his plane on the LSU Parade Ground
which is now A. Z. Young Park on Third Street, jumped in a cab and delivered the letter to a somewhat
surprised Governor Sanders at the Capitol. It was the first city-to-city airmail flight in American history.
Unfortunately, the governor would not be able to send an airmail reply back to New Orleans as Mestache
had crashed his plan landing at the Parade Ground.
April 11, 1985
The Roumain Building at 345 Third Street was added to National Register of Historic Places today in 1985.
The six-story concrete and terra cotta building was designed by the New Orleans architects Favrot and
Livaudais in the Beaux Arts Style. It was built in 1913 by the Texas Building Company of Fort Worth at a
contract price of $105,000. It is considered to be Baton Rouge's first skyscraper and was built by jeweler and
watchmaker J. K. Roumain, who lived in Beauregard Town in a two-story, galleried cypress house, perhaps
designed by Baton Rouge architect Ben Goodman, at 201 St. Charles Street.
April 12, 1989
Today in 1989, “Blaze," a highly-fictionalized film that chronicled former Gov. Earl Long's relationship with
stripper Blaze Starr, began principal photography in Baton Rouge. Paul Newman played Long in the film,
which is set principally in 1959-60, the last two years of Long's life and final, turbulent term as governor.
Director Ron Shelton told the press that one of the films challenges was that, "Paul Newman's better looking
than any 63-year-old man in the world and, in his last year, Earl Long was worse looking that any 63-year-
old man in the world." “Blaze” received modest critical praise and opened in ninth place at the box office on
its opening weekend.
April 13, 1935
LSU won the mythical national championship in basketball today in 1935. In the days before the NCAA
Tournament. Coach Harry Rabenhorst’s SEC Champion Tigers and Coach Doc Carlson’s Pittsburgh
Panthers, considered to be the two best teams in the country, were invited to the battle for the American
Legion Bowl at the Atlantic City Auditorium. LSU won by four, 41-37 before a crowd of five thousand, and the
game was a nail-biter. The Tigers started out very slowly and at one point, trailed 18-4. By the half, they
were still were down by nine, 26-17, and roared back in the second half.
April 14, 1955
Today in 1955, WBRZ Channel 2 went on the air in Baton Rouge as an NBC affiliate. The station began
broadcasting in color one year later, becoming the first Baton Rouge TV station to do so. In September
1976, it swapped network affiliation with WRBT and became an ABC affiliate. Thanks to its ties to Baton
Rouge’s daily newspapers, WBRZ was dominant in its coverage of news for much of its history. The Manship
family who owned both the station and the Baton Rouge Advocate originally wanted to use the call letters to
be WBRA—think about it—but were eventually talked into swapping the A for a Z.
April 15, 1972
"Hungry? Ground Pat'i." If you remember the ad, you might be interested to know that the first Ground Pat'I
in Baton Rouge opened this week (4/13) in 1972. The first location was on Florida at Ardenwood, and
eventually, two others would be added, on Sherwood Forest Blvd. and Jamestown Avenue. The chain had
started in New Orleans in 1971. Ground Pat’I locations remain open in Lafayette, Thibodaux and Houma, but
the Baton Rouge restaurants have gone to heaven to join Giamanco’s, LaFonda, Hopper’s, Chalet Brandty,
Phil’s Oyster Bar, Shakey’s Pizza, the Silver Moon Café and too many other great places.
Belinda Sue Spearson of West Baton Rouge, Louisiana, experienced her fifteen minutes of fame on April
Fools Day of 1999. It was almost a shame that neither she nor the place existed. Britney Spears was a teen
sensation in 1999, but her teen status the subject of an April Fools hoax on the music website Wall of Sound
which reported her to be 28, rather than 17. The site claimed that she was really Belinda Sue Spearson of
West Baton Rouge, and that she was born on Aug. 7, 1970. Britney fans flooded her record label with phone
calls, demanding to know her true identity, prompting a panicked response.
April 2, 1978
Nine months of preparation paid off today in 1976 when Our Lady of the Lake Hospital near the Capitol
closed its doors and moved to its new home on Essen Lane. Most of the hospital’s 950 employees assisted
in the move, along with over one hundred volunteers, city police, National Guard members and twenty-six
ambulances from throughout the Baton Rouge area. Sixty-six patients were moved in all, and when it was
over, hospital director J. B. Heroman descriped the move as “perfect”. The new facility would be called Our
Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center to reflect the expanded services that would offered.
April 3, 1909
Today in 1909, construction began at the site of the Standard Oil Refinery in North Baton Rouge. The
refinery built on land originally granted by George II of England to William Dunbar who invented the screw
press and the square cotton bale. Production at the plant would begin on November 15, 1909, only seven
months after production began. Today, the ExxonMobil refinery is the fourth-largest oil refinery in the United
States and twelfth-largest in the world, with an input capacity of 502,500 barrels per day. The refinery is the
site of the first commercial fluid catalytic cracking plant that began processing at the refinery on May 25,
1942.
April 4, 2007
Coach Eddie Robinson, Sr. passed away this week in 2007. Coach Rob had been born in Jackson,
Louisiana and was a star quarterback at McKinley High School in Baton Rouge. With no coaching
opportunities available following college, Robinson took a job in a Baton Rouge feed mill before learning of
an opening for a coach at Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute, later to become Grambling State
University. In fifty-six years of coaching at Grambling State University, he became the winningest coach in
NCAA Division I history. He retired in 1997 with 408 wins, 165 losses and 15 ties and was inducted into the
College Football Hall of Fame.
April 5, 1862
When the going got tough today in 1862, Governor Thomas Overton Moore and the Louisiana Legislature
got going. In early April 1862, Union Admiral David Farragut sailed his fleet past Confederate forts at the
mouth of the Mississippi River and steamed toward an undefended New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
Governor Moore and the legislators meeting in Baton Rouge grasped that there was no Confederate navy
between themselves and the Yankees and promptly abandoned the city, moving the state capital to
Opelousas. Union forces would occupy Baton Rouge the next month, and the state capital would not return
to Baton Rouge until 1882.
April 6, 1929
Today in 1929, the Louisiana House of Representatives voted to impeach Gov. Huey Long on charges
nineteen charges, including bribery, carrying a concealed weapon, demolishing the previous governor’s
mansion without legislative authorization, attending a drunken party where a stripper was present, and trying
to arrange the murder of state Rep. Jared Sanders, Jr. The impeachment effort touched off fistfights on the
floor of the House. Representatives finally voted to impeach Long on eight of the 19 counts. To block being
removed from office by the State Senate, Long produced the legendary Round Robin, a document signed by
a 15 of the 39 senators who had pledged not to convict him.
April 7, 1954
This week (4/1) in 1954, the contract was approved for construction of the first section of the Baton Rouge
Expressway, a six-lane highway which extended from the end of Plank Road in the East to Ninth Street on the
west and then south to Florida Street. The highway was completed three years later and would eventually
become the non-elevated section of Interstate I-110 between North Street and Plank Road. I-110 would be
extended northward in stages until its completion at the junction of US 61 in 1984. In 1999, the highway
would be designated as the Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway.
April 8, 1943
In support of the nation's war effort in World War II, thirty African-American restaurant owners in Baton
Rouge announced in an advertisement in the Morning Advocate today that "We, the Colored Restaurant
Owners of Baton Rouge, in co-operation with the general war effort and in order to conserve food and
manpower, have agreed on a one-day weekly closing program, as per schedule below, beginning on
Sunday, April 11th, holidays not included.” Participants included the Blue Light Cafe, the Apex Cafe, Annie's,
Fox's Tavern, Mama's Cafe, Maude Bell's Bar-B-Q Inn, the Chicken Shack and the Eat Mo Inn. The
restaurants would restrict operation until the end of the war in 1945.
April 9, 1943
In support of the nation's war effort in World War II, thirty African-American restaurant owners in Baton
Rouge announced in an advertisement in the Morning Advocate today that "We, the Colored Restaurant
Owners of Baton Rouge, in co-operation with the general war effort and in order to conserve food and
manpower, have agreed on a one-day weekly closing program, as per schedule below, beginning on
Sunday, April 11th, holidays not included.” Participants included the Blue Light Cafe, the Apex Cafe, Annie's,
Fox's Tavern, Mama's Cafe, Maude Bell's Bar-B-Q Inn, the Chicken Shack and the Eat Mo Inn. The
restaurants would restrict operation until the end of the war in 1945.
April 10, 1912
Today in 1912, French stunt pilot George Metache took off from City Park in New Orleans with a letter
addressed to Governor Jared Sanders in Baton Rouge. He landed his plane on the LSU Parade Ground
which is now A. Z. Young Park on Third Street, jumped in a cab and delivered the letter to a somewhat
surprised Governor Sanders at the Capitol. It was the first city-to-city airmail flight in American history.
Unfortunately, the governor would not be able to send an airmail reply back to New Orleans as Mestache
had crashed his plan landing at the Parade Ground.
April 11, 1985
The Roumain Building at 345 Third Street was added to National Register of Historic Places today in 1985.
The six-story concrete and terra cotta building was designed by the New Orleans architects Favrot and
Livaudais in the Beaux Arts Style. It was built in 1913 by the Texas Building Company of Fort Worth at a
contract price of $105,000. It is considered to be Baton Rouge's first skyscraper and was built by jeweler and
watchmaker J. K. Roumain, who lived in Beauregard Town in a two-story, galleried cypress house, perhaps
designed by Baton Rouge architect Ben Goodman, at 201 St. Charles Street.
April 12, 1989
Today in 1989, “Blaze," a highly-fictionalized film that chronicled former Gov. Earl Long's relationship with
stripper Blaze Starr, began principal photography in Baton Rouge. Paul Newman played Long in the film,
which is set principally in 1959-60, the last two years of Long's life and final, turbulent term as governor.
Director Ron Shelton told the press that one of the films challenges was that, "Paul Newman's better looking
than any 63-year-old man in the world and, in his last year, Earl Long was worse looking that any 63-year-
old man in the world." “Blaze” received modest critical praise and opened in ninth place at the box office on
its opening weekend.
April 13, 1935
LSU won the mythical national championship in basketball today in 1935. In the days before the NCAA
Tournament. Coach Harry Rabenhorst’s SEC Champion Tigers and Coach Doc Carlson’s Pittsburgh
Panthers, considered to be the two best teams in the country, were invited to the battle for the American
Legion Bowl at the Atlantic City Auditorium. LSU won by four, 41-37 before a crowd of five thousand, and the
game was a nail-biter. The Tigers started out very slowly and at one point, trailed 18-4. By the half, they
were still were down by nine, 26-17, and roared back in the second half.
April 14, 1955
Today in 1955, WBRZ Channel 2 went on the air in Baton Rouge as an NBC affiliate. The station began
broadcasting in color one year later, becoming the first Baton Rouge TV station to do so. In September
1976, it swapped network affiliation with WRBT and became an ABC affiliate. Thanks to its ties to Baton
Rouge’s daily newspapers, WBRZ was dominant in its coverage of news for much of its history. The Manship
family who owned both the station and the Baton Rouge Advocate originally wanted to use the call letters to
be WBRA—think about it—but were eventually talked into swapping the A for a Z.
April 15, 1972
"Hungry? Ground Pat'i." If you remember the ad, you might be interested to know that the first Ground Pat'I
in Baton Rouge opened this week (4/13) in 1972. The first location was on Florida at Ardenwood, and
eventually, two others would be added, on Sherwood Forest Blvd. and Jamestown Avenue. The chain had
started in New Orleans in 1971. Ground Pat’I locations remain open in Lafayette, Thibodaux and Houma, but
the Baton Rouge restaurants have gone to heaven to join Giamanco’s, LaFonda, Hopper’s, Chalet Brandty,
Phil’s Oyster Bar, Shakey’s Pizza, the Silver Moon Café and too many other great places.
