Several years ago, a group member posted a picture on the Friends of Mooringsport, Louisiana Facebook page, showing the 1928 Dawes School class. This was a one-room school once located on the Dawes Road near the current AEP/SWEPCO power plant north of Mooringsport. Among the group was the teacher, simply identified as "Miss Lemoine." Investigation identified her as Lelia Hester Lemoine (1904-1974), who taught at several Caddo Parish schools over a 42 year career..
Hester (which she went by) was a graduate of 1924 Shreveport (now C. E. Byrd) High summer session. In 1926, she was listed among students from Caddo Parish attending Louisiana State Normal School (now Northwestern State University).
1926 LSN Potpourri, Page 95
Hester Lemoyne (sic) assigned in 1927 to the "Steele Bridge" school, referencing its proximity to the nearby drawbridge over Caddo Lake. Also note Mooringsport teachers of that time.
Shreveport Times 03-Sep-1927, Page 3
Below she is pictured with her class in 1928. The one-room school was located between Mooringsport and Oil City on Dawes Road, at a site near the present-day AEP/SWEPCO power plant.
Source: Carolyn Watts-Haley (daughter of Carol Holland)
By 1930, she was teaching at Oil City.
Shreveport Times 31-Aug-1930, Page 10
Newspaper articles from 1935, 1949 (teaching fifth grade), and 1953 link her to Parkview Elementary in Shreveport.
Her picture appeared in the newspaper in 1958, when she and other local women were noted to be planning for World Prayer Day.
By then at Queensborough Elementary; Hester, who never married, retired in 1969 after having taught in Caddo Parish Schools for 42 Years.
Interment: Forest Park Cemetery; Shreveport, LA (per obituary)
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