Spreading the Gospel of Books by Florence M. Jumonville

Author:Florence M. Jumonville [Jumonville, Florence M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, State & Local, South (AL; AR; FL; GA; KY; LA; MS; NC; SC; TN; VA; WV), Language Arts & Disciplines, Library & Information Science, General, Political Science, American Government, Local
ISBN: 9780807172599
Google: 7Qm1DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: 2019-11-06T03:26:19+00:00

“Louisiana Loses a Friend”

Prior to the 1942 session of the Legislature, the budget for the next biennium proposed a 30 percent cut in the Louisiana Library Commission’s allocation, based on reasoning that no new libraries would be started in wartime. Culver argued that “greater demands for books and libraries appear in times of stress and strain than in prosperous peacetime,” and the budget director assured her that if the demand for libraries continued at or above the previous level, an effort would be made to find additional funds. Without a commitment, however, the financial outlook seemed bleak.29

Modisette had been feeling unwell, and his physician in Jennings ordered him to New Orleans for a more extensive examination on June 3. Culver met him there on June 4 to confer about the commission’s predicament. She “found him in great misery and very low spirited. Mrs. M. told me his condition is serious.” Medical tests brought a devastating verdict: leukemia. Although only the family was to know, Mrs. Modisette confided the truth to Culver, who felt “sure the diagnosis is wrong.” Clearly, however, he was “very, very ill and uncomfortable.” When she saw him again the following weekend, he had been told what ailed him and prophetically “was afraid he would never leave the hospital.” The Modisette children gathered at his bedside. Culver spent as much time as she could in New Orleans, and whenever her longtime friend felt well enough to see her, she sat with him while his family left the hospital for meals.30

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