Chris Rosa
The news slowly began to spread by 9 Thursday morning in Erath. The news spread that the most famous person in Erath and one of the most famous musicians in Acadiana, had died.
D.L. (Doris Leon) Menard passed away Thursday surrounded by family after a short battle with cancer. He was 85 years old.
As of Friday afternoon, funeral arrangements were pending for “The Cajun Hank Williams.”
His 1962 hit record, “La Porte d’en Arrière” (The Back Door) sold more than 500,000 copies and made Menard a celebrity worldwide. He has played in more than 40 countries and in all 50 states thanks to that song. In 2014, the song landed at No. 72 on Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time. Writer Richard Gehr called it “Cajun music’s most frequently covered song not titled ‘Jolie Blonde’.”
He also sang for the Queen of England.
“Anywhere you went, especially in a French country, and you said, “D.L. Menard’, they knew who he was,” said Erath attorney Robert Vincent, who purchased a D.L. Menard chair in 1992, a day before Menard’s wood working shop burned.
Erath Mayor John Earl LeBlanc, said, “It is a sad loss for Erath. “He was the perfect person to represent Erath all over the World.”
Kaplan musician Richard LeBouef posted this on the Internet about his good friend, Menard.
“As the sun rises, it must also set. With that said, we bid a gracious and loving farewell to one of the masters and true ambassadors of Cajun music. His personality was addicting, you could not erase the smile off of anyone’s face that ever met him, even for the first time. He was a natural born charmer and wordsmith. Never did a person, or a song dislike him. His lyrics tell of happiness and heartache, he was an instrument of his craft, a leader, never a follower. Thank you D.L. for letting me share a small space in your world, it will never be the same. Merci Mon Amis.”
Louisiana songwriter and singer Jo-El Sonnier wrote, “D.L. Menard was a wonderful Cajun musician and a really unique guy who was loved by every musician he ever met. He will always be remembered for his great songs and his lively personality.”
The Erath Fourth of July honored Menard on July 3 of this year. He and his family got on stage and played at least eight songs together. It may have been one of the only and the last time the Menard family played with D.L.
It was fitting that his final time he played in front of a crowd was in front of an Erath crowd.
“It turned out to be a special evening,” said Vincent about Menard’s final performance. “I wanted to do a special tribute to him. I wanted him to know how much he was loved and respected here in Erath.”
Lee Bernard, who is 95 years old, was someone caught off guard when he heard Menard passed away that morning.
“He died? I am sad to hear that,” said Bernard about hearing his good friend died. “I have been knowing him for a long time.”
Bernard, who played drums in a band, said he spoke to him briefly for the Fourth of July Celebration. Bernard said he remembers Menard writing the song, “The Back Door” as Menard worked at a service station in the middle of Erath. He would service a car, then write in a small note pad a few lines It took him less than 30 minutes to write, “The Back Door.” It was also the second song he wrote.
The song, sung in French, is about a Cajun man who came home from a night of partying. Menard, who was married, was 30 in 1962 when he wrote The Back Door.
Menard is in the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame and the Cajun Music Hall of Fame, and in 1994 was named a national heritage fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Among Menard’s more recent recordings are “Cajun Memories” (1995), “Le Trio Cadien” (1992, with Eddie LeJeune and Ken Smith), “Under a Green Oak Tree” (recorded in 1976 with Marc Savoy and Dewey Balfa and released in 1989), “No Matter Where You At, There You Are” (1988), “Cajun Saturday Night” (1985), and “D.L. Menard and the Louisiana Aces” (recorded in 1974 and released in 1988).
He grew up on a farm, speaking Cajun French but learning the country music he heard on the radio — there weren’t any Cajun music shows — and loving Hank Williams.
When he was 16 years old, he bought his first guitar after his family moved into Erath.
Thanks to his uncle, who had a band, Menard attended a rehearsal. The teenager fell for the guitar and got the band’s guitarist to teach him.
Before his death, in an interview with a newspaper from New York on July 1, Menard was not sure what to think of his big song: “I told my wife I was sorry I wrote that song, because I had to sing it five, six times. My wife sat me down and made it straight to me that I had a hit. I didn’t know. I had no idea,” Menard said.
Now, he said, it’s his favorite song: “That song brought me to 38 countries.”
It also made him the Cajun Music Ambassador and Erath’s biggest celebrity.