Oradel Nolen Morris

Background

Oradel Nolen Morris was born in 1926, in Austin, Texas, United States.

Education

In 1967, Morris received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Career

More than a decade after earning a bachelor’s degree in French, Oradel Nolen Morris found an opportunity to put her language skills to use in teaching French in South Louisiana and writing bilingual children’s books. For several years she taught French in a program sponsored through the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana.

Her teaching activities allowed her to publish Le monde acadien de Ti-Jean/The Cajun World of Ti-Jean, with teacher handbook and student workbook, and Le Reve de Ti-Jean, with state Department of Education sponsorship. With her close friend, Wylma Dusenbery, owner of La Trouvaille Restaurant, Morris also compiled, edited, and illustrated a cookbook of Cajun recipes that had enjoyed four reprintings by the year 2000.

In 1992 Morris demonstrated her long interest in another French-speaking group in Louisiana, the Houmas Indians, in I Hear the Song of the Houmas/J’entends la chanson des Houmas, which required nearly ten years of research in such primary sources as diaries of French explorers and priests and interaction with the contemporary Houmas tribe. This work forms part of the series "Peoples of Louisiana/Gens de la Louisiane." She has spoken on numerous occasions about the Houmas people and in 1999 published the story Little Angel Dancer, about a Houmas angel who becomes a full-fledged guardian angel.

Achievements

• Oradell Nolan Morris is best known as the author of works on French-speaking group in Louisiana, the Houmas Indians.
  
  Morris was also active in creating a permanent exhibit on the native peoples of Louisiana, for the Terrebonne Historical and Cultural Society’s Southdown Plantation Museum that earned an award for excellence from the Louisiana Preservation Society.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Le Monde Acadien de Ti-Jean. The Cajun World of Ti-Jean

    (The story of Ti-Jean Thibadeaux and his family & friends ...)

    1980
  • I Hear the Song of the Houmas: J'entends la chanson des Houmas 1992
  • Little Angel Dancer 1999

Membership

Morris was a member of the Terrebonne Historical and Cultural Society.

Connections

On June 15, 1946, Oradel married James Morris, a petroleum engineer.

husband:

James Morris

Friend:

Wylma Dusenbery

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Non-Fiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television, and Other Fields In response to the escalating need for up-to-date information on writers, Contemporary Authors New Revision Series brings researchers the most recent data on the worlds most-popular authors.
  2010