Mr. Lyle Saxon ( 1891-1946 ) A monument of some sort should be erected in his honor in the Vieux Carré. Apart from Lafcadio Hearn, Saxon penned some of the most evocative and beautiful prose about Fabulous New Orleans. He watched,in December 1919, with tears streaming down his face, as the French Opera collapsed in flames and wrote the next day for the Picayune, The heart of the French Quarter stopped beating last night. He, almost single-handedly, directed the salvation and re-gentrification of the Vieux Carré beginning in the 1920s. Every Mardi Gras he rented a suite of rooms in the old St. Charles Hotel, stocked it with food and libations. The door was left open and anyone could enter and feast - as long as they were in costume and mask. He succumbed to cancer in Mercy Hospital in 1946 and is buried in Baton Rouge, home of his grandmother. I have visited the tomb many times.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Apr 2014 00:47:08 +0000
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