orphanage memories 1

A group shot of the orphans who lived in the Protestant Orphanage at 1219 Main St., seen in the background, hangs on Beverly Lively's living room wall. Her mother, Laura Clara Roof, stands third from the right in the back row. Her grandmother, Laura Dunn Roof stands on the end at the far right in the back. Her aunts, Edna, Alma and Helen, nicknamed Snookie, also are in the photo.Β 

 PROVIDED PHOTO BY BEVERLY LIVELEY

The story of Beverly Lively's family plays out through the photographs covering the living room wall in her Baton Rouge home.

At the top is a photo of Lively during her days as a nurse for gynecologist Henry Miller. Just below that is a small portrait photo of her brother. He was a businessman, owner of three lounges in Baton Rouge.

And in the center is a shot of Elvis Presley, whom Lively met after his 1956 Louisiana Hayride Tour performance in Baton Rouge High School's auditorium. She looked into those blue eyes, he autographed the souvenir for which she paid 25 cents, then punctuated the moment with a kiss on her cheek.

Then the scan of Lively's wall comes to a grinding halt on a group shot of little girls with uniform pageboy haircuts posing in front of a bricked building that once was known as the Protestant Orphanage in Baton Rouge when it stood on Main Street downtown.

orphanage memories 2

Beverly Lively's grandmother, Annie Laura Dunn Roof, seen here in later years, took a job as the cook for the Protestant Orphanage in Baton Rouge in the early 1900s. Roof was living in Hammond and working to support her four daughters after her husband abandoned the family. She moved her daughters to the orphanage and later was named the orphanage's matron.Β 

Though so many stories vie for attention in this room, this is the story most important to Lively, and at age 90, she doesn't want it to be forgotten.

She took the opportunityΒ Β 

Her grandmother, Annie Laura Dunn Roof, was hired as the orphanage's cook and later named matron. Lively's mother, Laura Clara Roof, and three aunts were raised in the house, though they weren't technically orphans.Β 

"This is my mother," Lively said, pointing to a girl on the back row. "And this is my Aunt Edna. She was the oldest, and she was feisty. My mother was the second oldest. And then here is my Aunt Alma and my Aunt Helen."

Standing on the end in the back is Lively's grandmother. She was barely scraping by in Hammond, taking any domestic job she could find to support her four daughters.

orphanage memories 3

Beverly Lively's mother and three aunts grew up in the Protestant Orphanage on Main Street in downtown Baton Rouge, while her grandmother lived abnd worked as cook and matron there.

"My grandfather abandoned her, and she was doing what she could to support her family," Lively said. "She was an excellent cook, and she heard from someone that the orphanage was looking for a cook. So, she went to the orphanage and asked them to try her cooking, and if they liked it, they could hire her. They loved it."

Under these conditionsΒ 

She immediately was offered the job, butΒ Annie Laura Dunn Roof had a few conditionsΒ β€” four, to be exact. As the chef, she would have to move into the orphanage, so she asked if she could bring her four daughters. They agreed.

This was before World War II, even long before the Great Depression. Though Lively can't remember the exact year her mother's family made the move from Hammond to Baton Rouge, she emphasizes that it was necessary.

protestant orphanage 6

The red brick house, built as the Protestant Orphanage in 1927, as it appears today at 1328 North St. in Baton Rouge. Though Lively's mother, grandmother and Aunt Edna never lived in the house, her aunts, Alma and Helen, nicknamed Snookie, lived there until they were old enough to leave.Β 

"Times were rough, and they were so poor," she said.

So began the Roof family's long association with the Protestant Orphanage. The institution had been around since 1854, housing only parentless girls.

Its first home was the "Bird Building" on the 500 block of Main Street in downtown Baton Rouge. The orphans moved further down Main Street in 1870 after their original home was rented out to the Louisiana School for the Blind.

David Laatsch, a genealogy librarian for the East Baton Rouge Parish Library, pinpointed its exact address as 1219 Main St. after a deep dive into the 1905 City Directory.

"I found it at the same location in the 1895 directory," he wrote in an email.

protestant orphanage 4

This is a copy of an old print that was probably taken about the time the girls in the orphanage moved from the old home on Main Street to the new home on North Street. Beverly Lively's aunts, Alma and Helen, nicknamed Snookie, moved from the orphanage's Main Street location to the house on North Street at this time.Β 

The orphanage remained on Main Street until moving into its third and final home in the red bricked building at 1328 North St. in 1927.

"The old orphanage was simply one lot to the west of the current location, and faced Main instead of North," Laatsch continued.

The orphanage was governed by a board of directors, which secured the $42,000 funding for the new building's construction and operated the organization as a private institution.

New home on North Street

In the end, the North Street home had the distinction the other two buildings didn'tΒ β€” it was designed and built especially for the orphans. The building accommodated 25 girls and its staff, consisting of a superintendent, two matrons, a cook and laundress.

"My mother never lived in the new orphanage," said Lively. "She and my Aunt Edna had aged out of the orphanage by that time. My grandmother had left and was working for Kean's Dry Cleaners. My mother worked with her, and Aunt Edna worked for Wolf's Bakery when it was downtown."

protestant orphanage 1

One of the bedrooms as it appeared when the two-story, red brick house at 1328 North St. was the Protestant Orphanage. Volunteers from the community redid the room for the oldest girls in the Protestant Orphanage with bright paint and new draperies and spreads in 1963.

Aunt Edna eventually joined the Women's Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, who flew under the direction of the United States Army Air Forces, which would later become the U.S. Air Force.Β 

Aunt Alma and Aunt Helen were the only two family members who moved into the new orphanage on North Street, living there until they were old enough to leave.

But when they were all living in the Main Street orphanage, an incident occurred that changedΒ Annie Laura Dunn Roof's status from chef to matron.

"I don't know what was said or what happened, but Edna got mad and threw an orange at the matron during dinner," Lively said. "The matron had a stick and began beating Edna with it, and my mother heard the commotion. My grandmother came out of the kitchen and jerked the stick out of the matron's hand and said, 'At the risk of losing my job, I will not allow you to beat my child like that.' She threw the stick away."

Grandmother named matron

In the end, the matron was fired, and Lively's grandmother was promoted to the position.

orphanage memories 4

A map from the 1905 edition of the Baton Rouge City Directory pinpoints the Protestant Orphanage's location at 1219 Main St. in downtown Baton Rouge.Β 

From there, the stories are sporadic. Lively remembers her mother sharing recollections of walking to school and church from the Main Street location. Her mother was a point guard for the girls' basketball team at a school that once stood on Nicholson Drive, while her Aunt Edna attended a school on Convention Street.

Lively doesn't remember the schools' names, but research shows that the Convention Street school possibly was St. Francis High School, which was torn down in 1961 to make way for U.S. 110.

"That school isn't there anymore, and my grandmother always hoped that she would live long enough to be able to take a ride on the expressway," Lively said. "She died before it was complete."

Lively's Aunt Alma moved to Long Island, New York. Her Aunt Helen married Alma's husband's brother. Lively's mother married Charles Whites Lively. The couple would become parents to Lively, her brother Kenny and sister Shirley. Beverly Lively and her sister are the only survivors of their immediate family.

Her mother never returned to the orphanage's Main Street or visited the North Street location, though Beverly Lively would often take her on Sunday drives down Main Street.

"The building on Main Street had been torn down by then," she said. "And she had no interest in going into the building on North Street."

But her mother and aunts are forever part of the orphanage's history on the living room wall.

Email Robin Miller at romiller@theadvocate.com.