Joseph Alley "Al" Jarreau, Jr.

Joseph Alley “Al” Jarreau, Jr. passed to his resting place in heaven on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020.

Al is preceded in death by his lovely wife of 64 years, Ann, his son, Kenneth Wayne “Kenny”, and his daughter, Lisa Ann; his parents, Joseph Alley Jarreau, Sr. and Mabel Deshotel Jarreau; and his brother, Brent Jarreau. He is survived by two daughters; Cynthia Denise Ward (Hollis) of Baton Rouge and Jo Ann Jarreau of Paonia, Colorado; his sister, Shirley Mae Dunbar (Hart) of Baton Rouge; his brother, Raymond Jarreau (Gwen) of Baton Rouge; his granddaughter, Valerie; and his great-grandchildren, Alison, Joseph, and Joshua.

Al was born in New Orleans, LA, on March 13, 1929. He grew up on Magazine Street until his father and mother, “Alley” and Mabel, moved their family to Baton Rouge, where his father had been offered a good job as a furniture maker. Later, his father (an entrepreneur of his time) saved up, bought and managed Whiz Auto Supply and a hardware store. At an early age, “Al” learned how to work hard, help with the sales and assist the auto mechanics. He went to school at the finest all-boy private academy in Baton Rouge, Catholic High School, where he graduated in 1947. He studied hard, learned how to play the trombone and was in the Catholic High Marching Band. He grew up hanging out with his friends and his younger brother, Ray, throughout high school, working on hotrod cars and Indian motorcycles and bonding as siblings and young men with a mutual passion.

In 1951, during the Korean War, Al enlisted in the Air Force with his cousin. He was trained in Nevada to become a skilled aircraft mechanic for the famous B-26 bomber. It was while visiting his family back in Baton Rouge, on a military leave, that he was introduced to his lovely, future wife of 64 years, Minerva Ann Vaccaro. His sister, Shirley Mae, worked with Ann at the Bell Telephone Company on Florida Boulevard in Baton Rouge, as switchboard operators. She invited Ann over for dinner with the family one night, and when Al happened to walk through the dining room on his way out, Shirley Mae introduced them in passing. Al didn’t forget her, and later he asked his sister about her. Shirley Mae arranged and chaperoned their first date at Toot and Tell It (a local Baton Rouge soda-fountain hang out). They communicated by letters for the rest of his service period, and upon Al’s returning back home to Baton Rouge, they began dating more seriously.

Al was working with his father in the auto parts business and hardware store for a while after returning home, but he had a passion for farming, living in the country and being a cowboy, so he attended LSU Agricultural and Mechanical College in Alexandria, LA, and followed his dream. After a year of courtship with Ann, Al knew that this was the one; however, Ann was quick to tell Al that she could not accept his engagement proposal until he asked her father for permission for Ann’s hand in marriage. Hers was a traditional, first-generation Italian family who were known to protect their daughter’s reputation even after they left their parents’ home. Sam Vaccaro, Ann’s father, after meeting Al, knew he was a nice young man (and a “Good Catch”) and agreed for her to marry an “Americana”, in his words. They were married on July 12, 1953 in Independence, LA. Al and Ann lived on Seven Oaks Avenue, inside the Goodwood Subdivision, and had four children, Cynthia, Kenny, Jo Ann, and Lisa Ann.

Al’s first dream job in agriculture came through in 1965, when he was asked to work for the Louisiana State University Research Plantation (Idlewild) in Clinton, LA. He gladly accepted the position and they moved to Clinton. There, he began developing hybrid peaches with the LSU Agriculture Department. He loved his job and was promoted to Farm Research Supervisor. He was offered positions and lived at several other LSU research farms in Louisiana, including Ben Hur Research Station. His longest-lasting stint was with LSU’s Burden Museum and Gardens near Baton Rouge. It was there that he met the iconic philanthropist, artist, landscape architect, and historian, Ollie Steele Burden and his sister, Ione Burden. They developed an amazing, fond appreciation for each other’s talent and personality.

Al took great pride in assisting Steele Burden with discovering historic homes and relics at plantations all through Louisiana, and together they organized the creation of the Burden Rural Life Museum. Mr. Burden would visualize a new part of the Rural Life Museum, and then Al would organize the crews and construction to carry it out. The beautiful lake near the Windrush Gardens was dug out by Al and his crews. One of his favorite activities was in preparing historic buildings for moving them to the Museum. He would hand-number each board so that the building could be taken apart piece-by-piece, moved, and re-assembled. Al delighted in carrying out Steele Burden’s vision, and especially in having the ability to creatively make some design changes, to enhance the end results.

After retiring from LSU, Al and Ann decided to finally get a farm of their own. They purchased 23 acres of beautiful rolling hills near Centreville, MS. He applied all he learned from his career at LSU in developing hybrid peaches and applied it to his own farm. He developed an orchard with 200 producing peach trees, including a unique, white peach variety developed for diabetics by Dr. Hawthorne of the LSU AgCenter. Al and Ann were living out their retirement dream! They grew a remarkable garden of daylilies, and opened the farm for pick-your-own peaches in the summer. Locals, restaurants, grocery stores, and guests from local bed-and-breakfasts, plantations, and hotels came from near and far to spend a day in the orchard picking peaches and tasting varieties that were unique and delicious! Sometimes people would spend the whole day with Al and Ann, who would tell them their life story, reminiscing and laughing with them as they picked juicy peaches and looked at Ann’s amazing daylily collection.

Al had such a humble, helpful, and charitable demeanor about him that he glowed. His children recall one time when on their way to church, when he stopped to help a woman with her broken-down car on the side of the road. When he stopped to help the woman, his children asked him, “Dad why are you stopping? We are going to be late for church!” Al replied, “God understands, we are at church right now, doing His work.”