Harlan Kirgan
Much of how Eunice identifies itself today can be traced to the administration of Mayor Curtis Joubert.
Joubert served as mayor from 1981 to 1995. Joubert died Oct. 30. He was 89.
Ardoin’s Funeral Home in Eunice is in charge of arrangements. Visitation will be held from 4 to 10 p.m. Friday.
Funeral services are planned at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church.
Lynn LeJeune, who served as mayor from 2002 to 2006, said she was with the Eunice Chamber of Commerce for nine years while Joubert was mayor.
“He was really before his time with our tourism efforts here in Eunice. Nobody looks at a little small community of 12,400 and thinks that is a hub for tourism,” she said.
But Joubert did just that.
“He promoted tourism and had such a great impact and still today I think that we are living with some of those ideas that he presented,” she said.
“He definitely was a leader in the community and politically he was very wise,” she said.
Joubert coined the phrase “Prairie Cajun Capital.”
Celeste Gomez, of Eunice, served, until recently, as executive director of the St. Landry Parish Tourism Commission.
“He actually got me started in the tourism industry. I had just retired from teaching at St. Edmund School, and Mr. Curtis approached me to work with him in tourism,” she said.
Gomez remembers Joubert as instrumental in getting a new visitors center off Interstate 49 in Opelousas.
Other tourism efforts Joubert gave his leadership efforts to included Franco Fest in 1999 and the Scenic Byways program.
Joubert forged ties with Caraquet, New Brunswick, Canada, and LaRoche-en-Ardenne, Belgium.
“He loved promoting the area and promoting his hometown of Eunice,” she said.
LeJeune said Joubert understood that local people and other people were hungry to preserve and learn about the Cajun culture.
Pat Frey, Eunice Mardi Gras capitaine, said Joubert was “the Cajun ambassador when it all came about.”
While Joubert was mayor the Eunice Mardi Gras emerged as the premiere event in the area. State, national and international news media found their way to the Liberty Theater, the Mardi Gras and the culture.
“He promoted Eunice very well,” Frey said.
In Joubert’s later year, Frey remembers him waving to the Mardi Gras run as it passed by.
“He stuck to it until couldn’t do it anymore,” he said.
Current Mayor Scott Fontenot was 13 years old when Joubert left office, but even then he remembers the neighborhood kids knew who the mayor was and where he lived.
“As I got older I started to see the things that he did in the community and you’d recognize his name on a lot things that were done. He made a major impact on the city. He really culturally helped to bring us to the world.” Fontenot said.
Joubert was instrumental in bringing the Liberty Theater to the forefront as a platform for Cajun culture. His efforts also resulted in the Jean Lafitte Prairie Cajun Cultural Center being located in Eunice.
Fontenot is now involved in an effort to revive the Liberty Theater as the community and cultural showcase.
“I just hope he got a glimpse of it,” he said.
“His heart was still tied to the Liberty.”
Fontenot added, “I wish he could see the fruits of what is going to happen.”