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Juanita Luc Ward
Juanita Augusta Luc was bom on November 7, 1910 in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. She was the daughter of Forest Luke (son of Michel Luc and Josephine Guzman) and Edwina Ladner (daughter of Alcide ladner and Cecile Seube). She was the second bom child in the family, her oldest sister, Ethyl Agnes dying at the age of three. The other siblings were: Elsie Cecile (married to Bill Jones), Forest Joseph (killed in 1944 in World War II), Leroy Thomas (married to Lucille Morel), Foster Michael (unmarried), Edith Angeline (married to Lawrence Cox), and Ileana Mae (unmarried). Juanita was baptized on November 12, 1910 at Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church.
Juanita married Harry Calvin Ward (son of William Converse Ward of Boston, MA and Rose Michaelis of Hoboken, NJ) on October the 23, 1939 in Bay St. Louis. Harry grew up in New Jersey and moved to New Orleans and eventually to Bay St. Louis, where the couple met and married. Juanita and Harry Ward had two children: Harry Calvin Ward, Jr. (married to Barbara Gwen Fox of Limestone, Tennessee) and Harriet Marie Ward (married to David Clifton of Crosby, Texas). Juanita and Harry owned and operated "Ward's cafe" on Ulman Avenue in Bay St. Louis, closing when the new bridge across the bay was built, thus moving highway 90 from Ulman Ave. to its present location. At that time the couple moved to New Orleans for several years before returning to Bay St. Louis, where they lived in the center of town at 125 of State Street. Mr. Ward continued to work in New Orleans, commuting back and forth each day until his retirement. He died on September 5, 1971 and is buried at Cedar Rest Cemetery.
Juanita had a creative nature and found many areas of interest. She had a great involvement in genealogy and local history and was a long-time member of the Hancock County Historical Society. She spent many years working on her family history. A July 5, 1978 article in The Coast Chronicle newspaper stated that she ".. .is a descendent of six generations of Bay St.
Louis people. Her great-grandfather was Jean Luc Guerry. The old people said this was too much of a mouthful and shortened his name to John Luc. It then became Anglized to the present spelling: Luke [in some lines]. Another great grandfather, Juan Guzman, migrated to Slidell from Seville, Spain, via the Canary Islands. She has pictures of all six generations of family ? members."
Other creative outlets for Juanita included flower arranging. The 1978 article of The Coast Chronicle went on to say, "Juanita used to belong to the Bay-Waveland Garden Club in which she won many ribbons and trophies." Additionally, Juanita was a self-taught artist who enjoyed drawing, painting, and photography. She also retained the life-long interest in cooking that began with her years in the restaurant business.
Juanita died on February 12, 1979 in Bay St. Louis at the Hancock County Memorial Hospital. She donated her body to science and a memorial marker was placed on the family gravesite in Cedar Rest Cemetery. She had four grandchildren: Karen Clifton Northcutt, Deborah Clifton Reid, Harry Dayton Ward, and Claudette Ward Fernandez; and four great grandchildren: Natalie and Kacey Northcutt, Rachel and Griffin Reid.
For further information on this family, please refer to The Descendants of Guillaume Guerry, A Study of the Guerry/Luc Guerry/Luc/Luke Family, Circa 1790 to the Present compiled by Harry Ward. This study was prepared for the family reunion in 1989, marking the family's 168th year in Bay St. Louis. A copy has been placed in the Hancock County Historical Society in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.