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Dooky Chase Interviews

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What is the Dooky Chase Project?

 

Shirley Thomas is a former employee of Dooky Chase restaurant.  As a native of Opelousas, Louisianna, Dooky Chase was her first encounter ever with a restaurant.

Lydia Spidoni started working at Dooky Chase's Restaurant on her thirty fifth birthday.  She grew up on St. Ann Street, just a few blocks down from the restaurant.  She remembers a time when both the neighborhood and restaurant were a giant extended family.

Emile Evans was born in New Orleans and lived in the 7th Ward.  He began working at Dooky Chase during his junior year at Joseph S. Clark high school.  Hired by the original Edgar "Dooky" Chase, Emile worked at the restaurant for 18 years.

Dr. Raphael Cassimere, Jr., the first black professor at UNO, remembers attending school around the corner from Dooky Chase and eating there as a member of the city's civil rights activist community.

Rhea Butler Lucien was born on October 3rd, 1921 in New Orleans, and grew up in the 7th Ward.  Starting in 1939 Ms. Butler Lucien attended college at Dillard University to become a nurse, a profession in which she came to know Edgar "Dooky" Chase.

Carmen Morial is a native New Orleanian, born in 1915.  She grew up in the Seventh Ward in the sugar hill neighborhood.  She was a schoolteacher at Valena C. Jones School.  Ms. Morial was a frequent customer at Dooky Chase's restaurant.