| Marietta Marie LeBreton | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 26, 1936 New Orleans Orleans Parish Louisiana, USA |
| Died | March 5, 2009 (aged 72) Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana |
| Residence | Natchitoches, Louisiana |
| Alma mater | Louisiana State University |
| Occupation | Historian Professor at Northwestern State University, |
| Years active | 1963-2009 |
| Spouse | Never married |
| Notes
(1) The historian LeBreton spent her entire teaching and research career at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana.
(2) In 1985, LeBreton published the centennial history of NSU, 1884-1984. |
|
Marietta Marie LeBreton (March 26, 1936–March 5, 2009) was an historian of Louisiana affiliated for forty-five years with Northwestern State University in Natchitoches.
LeBreton received her Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, and Ph.D. in history from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. She joined the NSU faculty at the age of twenty-seven in 1963 as an instructor of social science. She was promoted to assistant professor of history in 1965, associate professor in 1970, and full professor in 1973. From 1980-1983, she was the chairman of the Department of History, thereafter returned to the previous name of Department of Social Sciences. She was still teaching in the spring of 2009 when she was stricken with a brief but fatal illness. She died three weeks short of her 73rd birthday in a Shreveport hospital.[1]
LeBreton authored Northwestern State University: A History 1884-1984,[2] which was published in 1985 by the NSU Press for the university centennial.[3]
NSU President Randall J. Webb noted that LeBreton’s longevity was one of the most enduring in NSU history. She was a faculty member for more than a third of the existence of the institution.[3]
LeBreton, a native of New Orleans, authored "The Acadians" chapter of Stephan Thernstrom’s Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups. She also wrote a geographic and historical article about Dorcheat Bayou in southwestern Arkansas and Webster Parish, Louisiana, in the book Rivers and Bayous of Louisiana. She wrote "The Burr Conspiracy", a chapter of the Readings in Louisiana History, of which she was also the associate editor.[3]
In 1974, LeBreton wrote a position paper on Article III of the Louisiana Constitution of 1812 entitled “Edwin W. Edwards, "The Role of the Governor in Louisiana Politics: An Historical Analysis", which was then published in the periodical Louisiana History.[1]
Services were held on March 11, 2009, at Holy Cross Catholic Church [4] in Natchitoches, with the Reverend Jason Gootee officiating, and on March 12 at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home Chapel in New Orleans, where she was thereafter interred. She was survived by two brothers, including Arthur LeBreton, and nine nieces and nephews.[4]
A planned scholarship in LeBreton's name is forthcoming.[1]