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rioneer feminist rewarded tor work
The I .ouisiana Senate recently passed a resolution commending Mildred Fossier on her 88th birthday ?for her numerous accomplishments throughout her life.?
Numerous they are. On June 8, the League of Women Voters of New Orleans honored her on her birthday, calling her ?one of their most interesting members.'? The pioneer feminist is considered one of New Orleans?
?grande dames? and was honored again August 1, at a press conference for the Mass Conference for Women to be held later in the month.
Her ancestors came ? from France in 1719 and were one of the first five families in New Orleans. Her grandfather bought a home in Bay St. Ixiuis 125 years ago, on Citizens and Valentine, where the family spent summers because of the yellow fever epidemic. In 1969, Hurricane Camille destroyed the home, which was built in the 1700s. They bought a small house on Felicity Street to use while rebuilding, but she eventually passed the lot on to her niece.
Her father, Dr. Albert Fossier, was a prominent cardiologist in New Orleans with a worldwide reputation. He wrote books on the medical history of New Orleans and his papers were used internationally. He also disproved the theory that the heart could not be
by Ada Reid
Slant on Seniors
handled, which broke the ground for future heart surgery.
He began bringing his family to the Bay when Mildred was 4. She recalls how they sometimes came on ferries to get here. Her Grand Mere and an aunt spoke only French in their household, so it was like a time warp to go from her house to theirs. She is the last bilingual Fossier.
She was bom in New' OrleanTurtSTS and grew up there. After graduating from high school at the Academy of Sacred Heart, she received her bachelor?s degree from Newcomb College. Her first job was with the civil service
?	as a personnel analyst with the 13th Federal Civil Service Region, consisting of Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. It was during World War II, and her job was to recruit people as stenographers, who would go to Washington, D.C. or throughout the world.
She wasn?t having any luck in the Rio Grande Valley. Using that initiative that she became well-known for, she checked to find where the people who had taken steno training had ended up working. She found them at the local five-and-dime store and recruited 50 people. Her boss was impressed and had her do a program on recruiting for the other recruiters. Liter, she was the only woman in the United States to serve as chief of skilled trades and engineering in the region.
Mildred Fossier, a native of New Orleans, spent her summers in Bay St. Louis and now spends every weekend there.
She returned to college and received her master?s in social work from Tulane University at the age of 40. She worked in several social agencies before becoming director of welfare for New Orleans in the turbulent years of integration. She was the first woman to head a department in New Orleans and she began renovating buildings and upgrading programs for the elderly, children and poor and integrating the services. It was a difficult job because many powerful people were opposed to integration.
During this period, she was asked to submit a paper in Paris . for the International Symposium on Poverty. When she became director of parks and parkways for the city in 1972, she began to repair and replant more than 50 of the small parks
citywide, and more than 300 miles of neutral ground in the city. She also treated and protected the city?s 1 million public trees.
The achievement that she is probably most proud of is stopping the dumping of 12 million tons of gypsum each year in the Mississippi River. She assisted a young woman with the fight. That young woman became the undersecretary of water for the DEQ.
()??*'ftf-hef'takTtts hm been acting and writing for stage, television and radio. She wrote and acted in several sitcoms on WDSU-TV and on WWI. radio. She has played many roles at the Ije Petit Theatre on the Vieux Carre, the last being Medea. At 88, she has been active in several oral history projects, including a video for I-SU and Newcomb College, telling her animated stories of growing up with her French-speaking relatives and friends. In fact, her life story is animated.
She continues to come to Bay St. I.ouis every weekend and enjoys her minivacations and the Gulf breeze.
Free-lance writer Ada Reid is a grandmother of 12. She writes about seniors and seniors' events for The Sun Herald. You can write to her at 108 Clower Avenue. Long Beach MS 39560; or e-mail: slntonsr@aol.com.
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