Sue Eakin
| Myrtle Sue Lyles Eakin | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 7, 1918 Rapides Parish, Louisiana, USA |
| Died | September 17, 2009 (aged 90) Bunkie, Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana |
| Residence | Bunkie, Louisiana |
| Alma mater | University of Louisiana at Lafayette |
| Occupation | Historian; Professor, Journalist |
| Political party | Nonpartisan[1] |
| Religion | United Methodist[1] |
| Spouse | Paul Mechlin Eakin, Sr. (married 1941-1995, his death) |
| Children |
Russell Lyles Eakin (deceased) |
| Parents | Samuel Pickles and Marie Myrtle Guy Lyles |
Myrtle Sue Lyles Eakin, known as Sue Eakin (December 7, 1918–September 17, 2009),[2] was an American professor, newspaper columnist, and historian from Bunkie in Avoyelles Parish, who researched Louisiana history, particularly the Old South plantation system.
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[edit] Early years
Eakin was born on the Compromise Plantation in the Lyles community at Loyd Bridge near Cheneyville in south Rapides Parish, the eldest child of Samuel Pickles Lyles, Sr., and the former Marie Myrtle Guy[1] She graduated from Lecompte High School in nearby Lecompte.[3]
On January 31, 1941, Sue Lyles married Paul Mechlin Eakin, Sr.,[4] (July 19, 1917–February 6, 1995)[5] of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, later New Jersey. They resided in Bunkie, where he was a financial consultant and she a professional freelance journalist and a columnist for the Alexandria Daily Town Talk, the Opelousas Daily World, in Opelousas, the seat of St. Landry Parish, and the New Orleans Times-Picayune, traditionally the state’s largest newspaper. From 1957 to 1959, Paul and Sue Eakin owned and operated the Bunkie Record newspaper.[4]
At the age of forty-two, she began commuting to Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge to earn two master's degrees, one in journalism and the other in history. She was one of thirteen students in the nation to receive an educational grant from the American Association of University Women.[3]
[edit] Teaching and research
Eakin then began a 25-year teaching career at Louisiana State University at Alexandria, which had been established in 1960 as a junior college, later made a four-year institution. In an interview with The Town Talk, her LSUA colleague, Patsy K. Barber of Lecompte recalled that Eakin as "a master teacher [who] researched, she knew her topic and knew how to place her topic into the larger setting. She could hold you spellbound. The creative ideas just spilled out."[3] Barber and Eakin collaborated on several books about the history of Rapides Parish and Lecompte.[3]
Eakin's best known work is an edited 1968 version of the slave diary by Solomon Northup: Twelve Years a Slave: And Plantation Life in the Antebellum South. Northup was a free black man from Saratoga, New York, who was captured into slavery in 1841 and brought to Louisiana.[6] The book is considered one of the best firsthand accounts of slave life in existence.[3]
Eakin received numerous research grants, awards, and honors, including the 1970 designation as "Outstanding American History Professor" from the Daughters of the American Revolution. In 1987, she was named to the "Distinguished Faculty of the LSU System". The Bunkie Rotary International named her "Citizen of the Year" in 1985. In 1980, she was named "Distinguished Artist of Avoyelles Parish". In 1995, she was grand marshal of the Festival du Courtableau, or Washington Catfish Festival in Washington in St. Landry Parish.[7] In 2001, she was named to the Hall of Fame of the LSU Manship School of Mass Communications in Baton Rouge, named for Douglas Manship, former publisher of Baton Rouge Morning Advocate.[4]
At the age of sixty, Eakin received her Ph.D. in history from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, then known as the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette.[4] She continued writing and research projects after her retirement as a professor emeritus at LSUA.[6]
Eakin was also an archivist for the Louisiana State Archives and Records Service in Baton Rouge. Along with a sister, Manie L. Culbertson, Eakin 1986 published Louisiana, The Land and Its People, the textbook used in junior high classes of Louisiana history.[1]Another of her works is Avoyelles Parish: Crossroads of Louisiana.[6]
[edit] Death
Eakin died at the age of ninety at her home in Bunkie.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d "Sue Eakin (1918-2009)". cenlamar.com. http://cenlamar.com/2009/09/19/sue-eakin-1918-2009/. Retrieved June 27, 2011.
- ^ Obituary of Sue Lyles Eakin, Melancon Funeral Home, Bunkie, Louisiana, accessed September 21, 2009
- ^ a b c d e Richard P. Sharkey, "Noted Louisiana historian Sue Eakin of Bunkie dead at 90", Alexandria Daily Town Talk, accessed September 21, 2009
- ^ a b c d e "Obituary of Sue Lyles Eakin". Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, September 19, 2009. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theadvocate/obituary.aspx?n=sue-lyles-eakins&pid=133129023. Retrieved September 21, 2009.
- ^ "Social Security Death Index". ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com. http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi. Retrieved September 21, 2009.
- ^ a b c "Sue L. Eakin: Barnes & Noble.com". barnesandnoble.com. http://browse.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?ATH=Sue+L.+Eakin. Retrieved September 21, 2009.
- ^ "Catfish Festival". townofwashingtonla.com. http://www.townofwashingtonla.com/catfish.htm. Retrieved September 21, 2009.
- American academics
- American book editors
- American columnists
- American Methodists
- American historians
- American newspaper publishers (people)
- American textbook writers
- American women writers
- Historians of the United States
- Journalists from Louisiana
- Louisiana State University alumni
- People from Alexandria, Louisiana
- People from Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana
- University of Louisiana at Lafayette alumni
- 1918 births
- 2009 deaths
- History of Louisiana
