The Real Ragin’ Cajun

 

The Real Ragin’ Cajun

A Tribute to Frankie Messina

08/08/25

 

 

My name is Kirwin Drouet and I was Frankie’s brother-in-law from 1969 to 1986 when I was married to his sister, Camille. Actually, that’s not really true because I considered him my brother-in-law until he passed away this week. I have many memories of Frankie over the years and I’ll share a few with you.

First a question for you—what do you call the son of a 100% Sicilian father and a Dutch/English mother who grew up in Jennings and Lake Arthur? A Ragin’ Cajun, that’s what! Frank got the best of both of those worlds and his life reflected it! While Dot was not a true Cajun, her South Louisiana upbringing made her an honorary one and Jake, Frankie’s dad, added the Sicilian Fire and “Rage” that made him the Ragin’ Cajun that we all knew and loved.

Frankie was the oldest Messina kid in the family and his sister Camille and baby brother Jakie both adored him. He was big and powerful and out of control sometimes in his younger years (there’s that Ragin’ thing again) but his big Sicilian heart and family kept him grounded and loved by most who knew him.

Some of you here today may know that Frankie had some deviousness in him!  My son, Damon, reminded me of “the football story” about Frank on the way from Houston so I thought I’d share it with you to prove my point.  Frank’s father, Jake, was a SWC football official and he officiated many Rice games in Houston.  One such game was the Rice-University of Texas game at Rice stadium and many of our family members attended, including Frankie.  I had gotten our tickets behind the UT bench so we had a great view of the field.  There must have been 60,000 in attendance that day, so the bathroom and concession lines were long.  Frankie disappeared early in the game, so we thought that’s where he went.  When he didn’t show up for about a quarter of the game, we began to worry about his whereabouts.  We thought about checking out the hundreds of folks on the concourse of the stadium but then I spotted him!  There Frankie was, on the field, mingling with the UT players and staff and standing about five feet behind Darrel Royal, the UT head coach!  Now getting past security and on the field was not an impossible task for Frank, being able to stay on the field among the visiting team was another matter.  But it was no problem for the devious Frankie.  All he did was find a stack of towels on the bench, throw one over his shoulder to “ hide” his credentials, and voila, he was a member of the football staff standing behind Coach Royal.  He stayed there most of the game and we all got a big hoot out of his shenanigans!

As most of you in this room, being around Frankie was always an Adventure! One of my most vivid memories of him was one July 4th weekend at the Messina house on Lake Arthur. The Lakeshore Club was having a big July 4th dance and all the Messina clan went to the party! The place was packed with a live band and many drunk or soon to be drunk Cajuns! The Adventure was about to begin… When the band

took a break so did most of the partygoers as well! Frank turned to me and said he needed to go to the bathroom and wanted me to go with him. This was Frankie’s way of asking me to go “take a ride” that some of you know too well. I have no idea where his brother Jakie was, and we could have used him! I followed Frank to the bathroom and as expected, the line was out the door of facility. Finally, when we were both inside the door, there was at least 10 urinals with guys doing their business. Frankie then proceeded to announce to the group that he could “whip anyone in this bathroom”! Several of the crowd told Frankie they would take him up on his challenge as soon as they finished their business. Now I’m standing behind him thinking that I’m going to have to fight my way out of this one for sure! The next thing I know, Frankie and talking his way out of this mess and before we left, he had the entire bathroom on his side ready to fight the rest of the club partygoers! What a gift for gab!

And that gift for gab was used to help create a business that he worked at for the rest of his career until retirement. When Luke Mandola asked Frank to run the Ragin’ Cajun restaurant that he owned in Houston, Frank jumped at the chance. While Luke remained behind the scenes, Frankie became the face and personality of the Ragin’ Cajun. The restaurant was the first restaurant in Houston to serve boiled crawfish and the menu was right out of South Louisiana. When Frank grabbed that microphone to call out your name when the order was ready, he made you feel like you were a long lost relative of friend from high school. That love he had for people made his customers want to come back for more and they did! Eventually, the Ragin’ Cajun restaurant became so popular that they expanded to two more locations besides the original in Houston.

During this time running this successful business, Frankie always loved his family and was so proud of them. His son, Shawn Dale is a successful builder and reminds me so much of his Dad. His daughter Angela was born premature, and many thought she wouldn’t survive but she had her Daddy’s heart and overcame the odds to become a beautiful woman and mother who got to work with Frank at the restaurant. His daughters, Julia and Becca, were born so close that they almost seemed like twins to me. The were his youngest girls and probably have spent more time with their Dad during his long medical issues. Frank loved when they came to see him.

Finally, Frank was married a few times and always seemed to pick wives who took care of him! None took better care of him than Vanessa. She has been his rock for the last several years and had to deal with his stroke and other medical issues that plagued his later years. Thank you Vanessa for taking care of my brother-in-law till the end.

 

 

 

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Greig Placette video tribute

My Eulogy for Jake Messina 3/23/19

CATCHING UP

A MEMORY OF JAKE MESSINA

3/22/19

Hello.  I’m Kirwin Drouet, Jake’s former brother-in-law from 1969 till 1986 while I was married to Camille.  Actually, that’s not right--I was his brother-in-law until he took his last breath nine days ago.  Once you’re in the Messina family, you can’t get out!  And I love it!  Camille’s family and mine continue to enjoy major holidays together to this day and I always saw Jakie and Frankie at family events like baptisms, weddings and funerals.  It’s an Italian thing!

I want to give you my perspective on Jakie’s life from my personal experiences with him and also from stories I heard from his family in those early years.  Jakie was a small child growing up and it was hard to get the level of attention he wanted with a big brother that was five years older and an older sister that was the closest to him by 18 months but a GIRL!  He probably didn’t know where he fit in!  His big brother was a big guy who picked on him some and was popular in school and his sister was a GIRL!  Anyway, Jakie survived his position in the family hierarchy but he was determined to be noticed and CATCH UP! 

By high school when I met him, Jakie was not setting the world on fire with his scholastic abilities but he was getting bigger but not big enough to avoid being picked on by Frankie.  It’s a brother thing.  While still undersized, Jakie was a good athlete and he put that talent to good use by being a pole vaulter.  He was very competitive in this field event and medaled in the district.  He was being noticed and determined to CATCH UP with his siblings and make his mark in the world.

By this time, I was married to Camille and would see both Jakie and Frankie every holiday and during vacations at Lake Arthur, the family retreat in Louisiana.  This lake house was built by Jakie’s grandfather, G.I. Golden, who lived in Jennings, Louisiana.  G. I. was a Dutchman and very successful businessman and farmer in Jennings.  I met G.I. a couple of times and noticed that he was a self-made man with a natural instinct for making money.  Jakie’s grandfather became a millionaire in the 1930’s during the Depression by being a scrap metal dealer and selling the metal to the Japanese in their war efforts in China and Korea before WWII.  Street smart guy who knew how to buy low and sell high and was not afraid of taking risks.  Sound familiar?  Yep, this is the guy that Jakie was most like in his family.  He wasn’t the athlete that his father was or memorized grammar like his English teacher mom.  No, Jakie had that G.I. Golden gene that enabled him to later on begin businesses, trade in various stocks and commodities and be financially successful.  In short, he was able to CATCH UP!

And speaking of CATCHING UP, I’ll never forget the time in the early seventies when we were enjoying a Fourth of July week at the lake.  Camille and I were there with our son, Damon, and Frankie and Jakie was there too.  Again, almost like clockwork, Frankie and Jakie began going at each other over some meaningless issue after several adult beverages.  Usually these skirmishes ended harmlessly, and they moved on to other activities.  But this time was different.  Jakie was no longer the undersized kid with a much bigger older brother.  No, Jakie had buffed up and had refined his fighting skills as a bouncer at the Black Cat!  This time the skirmish became a full out battle with real blows being thrown.  While an impartial judge might have declared the fight a draw, suffice it to say that Frankie never picked on Jakie again after that.  In fact, in later years, Jakie would turn the tables and playfully pick on Frankie in a loving kind of way that the family loved.  Jakie definitely CAUGHT UP in the fighting department that day!

And speaking of CATCHING UP, how about the fact that in 1977 he married the most beautiful girl in the Golden Triangle—Renee!  I’d say he surely CAUGHT UP with all his peers on that day!

Visits to Port Arthur during the Christmas holidays were especially exciting during the seventies and eighties.  Camille and I were raising three children in Houston, but we always went to Port Arthur for Christmas.  Christmas eve was always celebrated at my parents’ home and Christmas morning we waited for Santa at the Messina’s home.  This was the time that invariably got interesting.  Frankie and Jakie had welcomed me into the family unconditionally and loved to do things with their only brother-in-law!  After much drinking er celebrating during the day, the night would bring the traditional “Let’s take a Ride” demand er request.  I knew what that meant—the Messina boys and I were about to go an Adventure!  Now both Jakie and Frankie were both known to be a little crazy at times and I was the straight guy who like things “normal” and in their place.  This made these Rides all the more entertaining to Jakie and Frankie to see me squirm in some of these situations.  I’ll share two of them with you.

The first was the time that Jakie had purchased a Jeep.  Sounds normal enough so when he asked me to “Take a Ride” with him in his new Jeep, I did not hesitate.  I should have known better.  After a relatively normal ride through Port Arthur, Jakie proceeded to a highway with overpasses for several miles.  He immediately pulled off the highway, but I wasn’t sure what for.  Was there trouble with the Jeep?  Did a red light come on?  Oh no.  Jakie was just preparing to show me what that Jeep could do!  There was no exit where he pulled off the road.  But it was the perfect spot to show me how the Jeep could travel almost vertically up the side of the overpass!  This was pre-seat belts, so I was holding on for dear life!  The louder I told him to stop, the steeper he’d climb.  I think he had done this before without me so as to be sure he wouldn’t lose his only brother-in-law, but I can’t swear to it.  Anyway, we survived to tell other tales!

The second story about a Ride that I took with Jakie was on a Christmas night in Port Arthur.  Some of Jakie’s high school buddies had come over to the Messina’s home around 11pm in a pickup truck wanting to go for a Ride!  Some of you guys in the audience may have been with us that night.  I, of course, agreed to go but I really didn’t know we were going rabbit hunting that night!  I’m certain that I didn’t know we were going to do this rabbit hunting in the fields on Pleasure Island!  You have never hunted until you ride in the back of a pickup using your headlights to spot the rabbits with the drunk shooter waiving the shotgun at all of us in the back of the truck.  I figured that if I made it out of this one alive, I’d probably live to a ripe old age!  The rest of the story is that we proceeded to get a flat out there and we had no tire tool to get the tire off.  Here we were, five or six white guys across the tracks on Pleasure Island, stranded around 2 in the morning.  And wouldn’t you know it, we see a set of headlights coming towards Port Arthur from Holly Beach and it was two black guys who stopped and loaned us their tire tool!  I said to myself when I got home “never again” but I always seemed to forget the bad parts and agreed to go on those Rides the next time Jakie or Frankie asked me.

All in all, Jakie certainly CAUGHT UP in all the departments that counted.  He had a lovely wife and two children that he adored.  He was a successful businessman, an entrepreneur cut out of the same cloth as his grandfather, G.I. Golden.  He was the life of the party and a little bit crazy trying to CATCH UP with his need to be recognized.  You either loved or hated Jakie—there was no in between with him.  All I know is that he loved me, and I loved him back till he left this earth.  He took all of us that knew him on one hell of a Ride!

Lake Amanda Groundbreaking Ceremony 081018

Media Advisory 

LAKE AMANDA WATER CONTROL & IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT NO. 1  SECURES FINANCING, SET TO START RECONSTRUCTION OF DAM   

WHAT:   The Lake Amanda Water Control & Improvement District No. 1 (“LAWCID or District”) will host an official groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the funding and start of reconstruction on the Lake Amanda dam that was lost during the Memorial Day flood in May 2016. 

WHEN:   Friday, August 10, 2018 at 11:00am  

WHERE:  Westside of Lake Amanda dam located just east of Colmesneil, Texas.   

(Participants will meet at Amanda Haralson’s home on the south side of the lake (call for directions) and walk a short distance to the west side of the dam for the ceremony.) 

INVITED ATTENDEES:  LAWCID Board members:  Kirwin Drouet (president), Heyward Fetner (vice president and past president of LAPOA), Don Sousley (treasurer), Cindy Shapley (secretary) and Lynn Wiggins (investment officer) 

LAWCID attorney:  John Stover 

Clay fill contributor:  Amanda Haralson 

LAWCID owner’s representative:  Brigham Bigby 

TWDB director:  Kathleen Jackson 

U.S. Representative for 36th District: Brian Babin 

State Senator for District 3:  Robert Nichols 

State Representative for District 19:  James White 

Tyler Co. Judge:  Jacques Blanchette 

Tyler Co. Commissioner Precinct 3: Mike Marshall 

BACKGROUND:  Lake Amanda Water Control and Improvement District No. 1 (“LAWCID or District”) was formed in 2016 by the Tyler County Commissioners Court upon petition by the approximate 165 families that own property around Lake Amanda.  The LAWCID was formed in response to the catastrophic loss of the Lake Amanda dam during the Memorial Day flood in May of 2016.  The LAWCID’s formation was ratified and its board of directors elected in the November 2016 general election and the District’s voters approved a bond issue of $1 million to repair the dam.  The District’s property owners funded the engineering to repair and build a new spillway at the dam and such engineering designs were approved by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in June 2017.  Based on these designs, the LAWCID  advertised for public bids to repair the Lake Amanda dam and HC Oilfield Service LLC of Chester, Texas was determined to be the lowest bidder of the three bids submitted in 2017.  In August 2017, the District began discussions with the Texas Water Development Board (“TWDB”) about funding the dam repairs using loan proceeds from their D Fund account.  In May 2018, the District voters overwhelmingly approved an increase in the bonds needed to rebuild the dam from $1 million to $1.5 million.  A formal loan application was made to the TWDB by the LAWCID for this increased amount and on June 11, 2018 the TWDB board of directors approved a thirty-year loan to the District in the amount of $1.5 million.  The LAWCID received the proceeds from this loan on August 3rd, 2018. 

Media Contact:  Kirwin Drouet, LAWCID president, 713-816-1101 

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Punch List 072218

A Thank You Note for Mom

My eulogy for Mom was based on a thank you note I wrote her in 2010 for an ACTS Retreat she was attending.  The letter is as follows:

A Thank You Note for Mom

Dear Mom (Thelma Drouet for those who don’t know who I am):

I want to take part in your ACTS Retreat by sending you this Thank You note.  While I don’t have the pretty stationary and card program that you use for your sweet cards, I think you will know that this comes from the heart.

I want to keep this short so I thought I’d just list some of the things that I wanted to thank you for.  The list grew into this:

1. Love
2. Caring
3. Faith/Church
4. Expectations/Education
5. Sacrifice
6. Food
7. Family/History/Cajuns
8. Dancing
9. Personality
10. Friends

First, thank you for your Love that you have given me and shared with all you come into contact with.  Your actions in 2-10 above reflect the Love you have for everyone you care for, especially your family.  It is easy to take for granted a Mother’s Love when you have MawDee for a mom but I do realize that not all humans are so lucky or blessed.  I only have to look at Pop’s situation to realize that all of us do not have the kind of mother’s Love that I have been blessed with.  Many souls in this world go to bed every night wishing that they had a mother that loved them.  I never had that to worry about in my life.  Thank you for such perfect motherly Love.

Second, your Caring for others is a great example to me and Kathy and all of your grandchildren and great grandchildren.  All who know you feel your deep Caring and know that they can count on you to be there in their times of need and trouble.  Thank you for Caring and passing that great gift on you future generations.

Third, your unbreakable Faith and love of the Catholic Church is something I truly admire about you and thank you for.  Your love of Maw Maw’s Faith shows through in all of the respect and love you have for the Church.   Your Faith is the gold standard as for as I’m concerned and I thank you for living in that Faith for all the world to see and setting an example for all of us.

Fourth, your high Expectations of your family and me are greatly appreciated.  You expected nothing but the best from me and expected me to do the right thing.  I have strived to do just that—whether it meant doing my best in school and making good grades to staying out of trouble and leading a life that you would be proud of me for.  Thank you for such Expectations—it has made me a better man and father.

Fifth, thank you for all of your Sacrifices on behalf of the family and me.  It did not go unnoticed that you worked a second job to make enough money to send me to Rice.  Your continued willingness to work when others of your generation stayed at home in order to afford the Lake home was a great Sacrifice.  And finally, your great devotion and Sacrifice for Pop during his long illness in his later years did not go unseen.  Thank you for your Sacrifices.

Sixth, how about that Food!  We all know that all who know you love your Food—not only because it is delicious but also because it represents the warmth and love you have for those who eat it.  My love of cooking comes from you and I thank you on behalf of all those who you have welcomed into your home and made a meal for them on the fly.  No wonder they keep coming back!

Seventh, thank you for your love of your Family History, especially the Cajun heritage.  From the food to the language to the Cajun love for life; you epitomize that Joie de vivre.  Merci Beaucoup!

Eighth, I love your love of Dancing and I thank you for passing on that Dancing gene to Kathy and me.  When you danced with Pop, I remember the great line about Ginger Rogers and Fred Astair—he was a great dancer but Ginger did all the same moves going backwards and in high heels!  I never had to worry about you following me when we Danced—as you always said, ‘you just lead and I’ll follow in whatever you do’.  Thank you for your love of Dancing and sharing it with Kathy and me!

Ninth, I thank you for your Personality and people skills.  Everyone knows Thelma or Maw Dee when she comes into the room.  You never meet a stranger and make everyone, even the lowest clerk, feel that they are the CEO of store.  Thank you for being that way and sharing your Personality with all of us.

Tenth and finally, I thank you for all your Friends going back to your old high school days and including your new Friends from your new church in Buna.  Because of the items mentioned above, your black book is filled to the brim of Friends old and new.  Thank you for sharing them with all of us.

Your loving son,

Kirwin

Keely Drouet Langkowski's Eulogy for MawDee

MawDee

Everyone knows who Cher is, who Madonna is, who Prince, Bono, or Pink are … and everyone knew MawDee.  Like those famous people I mentioned, MawDee only needed one name to be identified.  She was MawDee – just like this unique name that she was called by all her grandchildren, MawDee was one-of-a-kind.  She had a trendy grandma name before it became trendy, SHE was the original.
As I have been thinking through all the many memories I have had with my MawDee over the past 40+ years, one of the more prominent memories I have is about the story of her name.  How many of you know how she got the name MawDee?  Well, I remember being a young girl and when I would talk about MawDee to my friends or tell them she was coming over, they had never heard of that name.  It certainly wasn’t unusual to me, that was just her name and I never knew her by anything different. I remember asking my mom about her name and why were there no other kids with a grandmother who went by the same name and to my surprise, my mom told me that MawDee didn’t start off with that name, she was first called MawMaw.  What???  MawDee wasn’t a MawMaw in my mind – the name didn’t fit.  The story goes that Damon, my older brother, was the first grandchild for MawDee & Pop but not the first grandchild on my mom’s side.  My mother’s mother went by MawMaw and MawDee did too … at first.  Mom explained to me the story of when she told Damon that MawMaw was coming to see him and he got all excited and then the MawMaw he was expecting didn’t show up and he was confused and disappointed.  Mom calls up MawDee and says – we need to do something about your name.  My mom had always called MawDee “Momma Drouet” so she suggested a clever combination of Maw + Dee for Drouet and just like that, we had our MawDee. 
MawDee was a force, she was extroverted to the nth degree and when she entered a room, you knew it.  I have many memories of going with her to the grocery store and by the time we left the store, the stock boy, the checkout lady, and the guy bagging our groceries knew our life story --- this is not an exaggeration.  Just back in August, when Lars and I brought our kids to visit her, she paraded us around and let everyone know who we were and she was beaming about it.  And while that may have been a bit embarrassing at times when I was younger, I knew it was her way of showing us how much she adored us and loved us.  That, I knew, was never a question – my MawDee loved me with everything she had.
When she moved into Atria, we went to visit her about a month after.  In less than 30 days, MawDee was one of the most popular residents there and everyone knew her name.  And, how could you not?  She LOVED people, people fed her soul, and she genuinely wanted to engage with others, she wanted to get to know them, and she wanted them to know she cared.
She was the quintessential grandmother – when we went to her house, she ran the equivalent of a diner.  She fixed 20+ meals a day and provided every dessert imaginable.  Her menu was not divided up by breakfast, lunch, or dinner – if you wanted Cherry Pie for breakfast, guess
what – you got it!  And every night, you had your choice of 10 different kinds of Blue Bell ice cream.
We had a jam packed itinerary too – days full of swimming in the lake, fishing, and going to Lake Tejas.  We would play card games, dominos, and Chinese checkers galore.  And of course, every day in the late afternoon, we’d hear a knock at the door and one of her many friends would be coming by for coffee and pie – every day.  And these visits weren’t planned – this was before people had cell phones and email – this was because MawDee knew so many people and she opened her home to every single one of them.  This is what made her happy – being around her friends and her family.
I was fortunate to have had such a strong grandmother in my life – she was a good role model for me as a young girl that a woman could be who she was and not be apologetic about it.  MawDee was confident, rarely was she embarrassed (unless it was something Pop did), and you know what – she LIKED herself, and I liked her too.  Over the years, the family would tease her over her loud voice, her gazillion friends, or her 50+ food selection at every holiday.  But she let it roll right off her back, she would roll her eyes and laugh, make a funny face and give me that wink --- letting me know she didn’t care one iota, she was going to do her, and she wasn’t going to change herself to please others.
MawDee was larger than life, and she genuinely loved the life she felt so blessed to have.  Her big personality radiated from every part of her body.  I will miss her voice, her laugh, her beautiful handwriting, and her generous spirit.
I love you MawDee, there will only be one of you in this world and I am lucky to have been your granddaughter.  You passed on the same day as Billy Graham and when I heard this news, I immediately pictured you striking up a conversation with Billy outside those pearly gates as you both waited for your turn. I also know that even though he was Billy Graham, you went right on in there first and knew God would want to talk to you just as much as he would have wanted to talk to Billy.  Because after all, you are MawDee – a one-of-a kind, the original – you knew it, God knew it, and so did we.

Mom's Obituary

Mom's Obituary

St. James School 8th Grade Yearbook--The Tower

Sometimes the greatest finds are entirely by accident--or are they?  At my TJ high school reunion this summer, one of my classmates, James Sweat, told me that "some kind of journal" was found in his mom's rent house recently when it was being cleaned out for the next renter.  He recognized my name in the document and thought I might have an interest in it.  To my very pleasant surprise, I found out it is my eighth grade year end newsletter issued before we graduated on to Bishop Byrne High School (I sneaked off to TJ to finish my HS career)!  Apparently I was the co-editor of the newsletter and it contains innumerable tidbits from our last year at St. James School!  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did going down memory lane.  Thanks especially to James and his mom for saving this for me!