One Life Lived, Many Lives Changed
On May 4, 2020 the world stopped turning for us when my Mother passed away. The past few months have been some of the most difficult and most enlightening as we begin to understand what life without her looks like. We were so fortunate to have our honorary brother, Dr. Andrew Jolivette, to step in to take care of us and write a beautiful tribute to my Mom. We literally could not have put the words together to explain her incredible life the way he did. Here are his words:
Mrs. Colson, age 75, a native of Natchitoches and resident of Opelousas, passed away on Monday, May 4, 2020 at her residence surrounded by her family.
Janet was a strong, talented, and selfless wife, mother, grandmother, sister, mentor, artist, and researcher. When she set her mind on something you could be sure that it would not only be done but it would be world class. In addition to her family her greatest love was for her culture. In 1997, Janet took on her most exciting role as the Director of the Louisiana Creole Heritage Center at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana where over the course of twenty years she worked to revitalize and bring greater visibility to the language, history, and culture of the Louisiana Creole people. During her many years of service, she organized hundreds of workshops, seminars, and conferences that brought local, state, national, and international scholars and community leaders from various communities together to highlight the contemporary experiences and realities of Louisiana Creoles at a time when they were severely neglected or misrepresented. Her tireless work led to the expansion of literature, genealogical research and public visibility of one of the nation’s oldest and least documented ethnic and cultural groups for the advancement of future generations. She did this work not for herself but for her children, grandchildren, and for the thousands of young people that she helped and mentored to find their ways home to Louisiana. For her national and international leadership on the Creole Census along with other initiatives including several books that she authored such as The Creole Book (2012) and the highly acclaimed Creole Chronicles series she has become known as the Mother of the Creole Cultural Revitalization Movement. Efforts are underway to memorialize and honor Janet Ravare-Colson at the state level by the Louisiana legislature and Governor’s Office. Janet always said, “My daddy thought Louisiana was heaven” and now a big piece of Louisiana is for sure in heaven.
She is survived by her husband of nearly 50 years, John Colson; daughters, Teresa Ann Colson Burns and husband, Cody, and Tracey Marie Colson Antee and husband, Richie; brothers, Milton Ravare and wife, Joan, Steve Ravare and wife, Cabrini, and Ronnie Ravare and wife, Rosie; sisters, Norma Metoyer, Gail Wills and husband, Charles, and Karen Bernestine and husband, Arthur; 6 grandchildren, Hope Sprowl, Colson Fontenot, Madison Burns, Bailey Burns, Landon Fontenot and Reese Burns.
She is preceded in death by her parents, Martin Ravare and Teresa Beridon Ravare; and her sister, Joan Citizen.
My Mom was a force to be reckoned with, she was ahead of her time in so many ways and gave so freely of her knowledge. She taught us to learn and was a great example of that. She taught herself everything. Did you know she was the first person to have the word Creole on the internet. When you searched for the word the only thing that came up was her very first website she created herself, long before it took twenty minutes to create a website. She taught herself that too.
She was born and raised in California, growing up mostly in Compton, the oldest (and bossiest) of 8 Ravare children of Martin and Teresa Ravare. She graduated from Centennial High School and would copy pictures of what she saw in magazines and make her own fashionable clothes. She met my Dad on vacation in Louisiana and they were engaged weeks later and she eventually moved to Louisiana. Sounds like another story you might know?
She lived in Natchitoches and got involved with the St. Augustine Historical Society which eventually led to the creation of the Creole Heritage Center which she ran from the early 90s through her retirement in 2013. She came to a place where she knew no one and created a legacy that will impact generations of people. Why did she do it?
She did it for many different reasons, first because genealogy was important to her and she wanted to know the lineage and ancestry that made up who she was and she wanted to share it. Second, my sister and I didn’t have the best experiences, especially in school, being bullied and she wanted to provide us and others the tools we needed to say who we were. She helped to create a virtual arsenal. Remember there was no Facebook groups to argue in, no events, no education that was consistent at that time. Her courage gave me the courage to speak up and to speak publicly at events, conferences and her platform gave me the opportunity to travel around the country talking all things Creole.
She was also a master crafter, she was crafting before crafting was a verb. She was the designer for countless weddings, she even made my sisters wedding dress but she also created tons of other crafty items and we did craft shows off and on for about ten years. She could create pretty much anything if you gave her a concept and a picture and it was always better than the picture. She added that little bit of extra to many brides wedding days and for some reason those were the projects I loved most to see how beautiful and magical she could make that special day. When I married Richie, she and I made everything, EVERYTHING and it was perfect and beautiful and something we did together.
I have never felt she was recognized appropriately for her work. I am disappointed she wasn’t recognized when it mattered, but she also let the spotlight shine on me and my sister and my Dad, it made her proud and happy. I want to showcase and highlight the things she did that were far beyond what anyone else was doing at the time. She was a creator, a changemaker, a visionary. She was so brave and outspoken when no one wanted to hear what she had to say. She made a difference, a shift in understanding in one generations time. Thanks to Dr. Andrew Jolivette and my State Representative Dustin Miller, her birthday, March 21st, will now be known as Janet Ravare Colson Day, Mother of the Creole Culture and Revitalization Movement. Due to COVID-19 we have not been able to appropriately celebrate her life (in her way, she was very bossy about it ). We plan to do so both in Los Angeles and Natchitoches in May of 2021
