Mary’s Manor

Story by Janet Marcel Photos by Lawrence Chatagnier A gift to God’s family

Officials of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux recently announced that the children of the late Al and Mary Danos – Marcel, René Danos David, Alyce and André - representing the Mary & Al Danos Family Foundation, have donated their parents’ home to the diocese.

The house, which is located at 15533 East Main Street off of Highway 308 in Cut Off, sits on approximately three acres of land and is 5,670 square feet with five bedrooms, five bathrooms, tennis courts and a swimming pool, reports Jimmie Danos, diocesan director of the Office of Building and Construction.

Construction began in 1976 and the Danos family moved in to the house in 1977 when Marcel was six and René was four. René says her parents had a strict budget of $300,000 for the house and they stuck to that budget. Clifton Cheramie was the main contractor and Duel Martin Sr., the children’s maternal grandfather helped build the home, but Al Danos drove the first and the last piling under the house. While attending a Vandebilt Catholic High School baseball game last spring, René says she overheard someone who had just come from a diocesan meeting saying that there was some discussion about needing a place to

house some of its retired priests in the future. René says she thought to herself she might just have a solution to that problem.

René initially contacted the Catholic Foundation of South Louisiana about the feasibility of her idea, then she met with Bishop Shelton J. Fabre to further discuss the details. The Danos children feel that donating the house to the diocese is in keeping with the wishes of their parents in that their parents’ will stated the proceeds from the sale of the house were to go to the Mary & Al Danos Family Foundation.

After putting the house on the market but not finding the right buyer, René explains that she asked their attorney if donating it was an option. The house is located on a stretch of land belonging to the Danos family, which actually shares a driveway with her uncle’s home, so they felt that donating to the diocese would be a good fit.

The name Mary’s Manor, after Mrs. Al (Mary M.) Danos, was given to the home by the family.

René says her family is committed to helping with the upkeep of the home for the next several years through their foundation. “We discussed a yearly grant to help a

with maintenance of the home. We know having an older home comes with its daily challenges, and wear and tear. Also, we want to make sure long time employee, Mr. Joe Leblanc, who has worked for my parents for over 25 years and knows the ends and outs of the home, could help the diocese run the house.”

Over $9,000 was raised through #iGiveCatholic 2019 to buy furnishings for the house. Also, René adds that Andrea Bollinger-Giardina’s daughters Erica Guidry and Misty Boudreaux recently sold their mother’s condo in New Orleans and have generously donated all of the furniture to Mary’s Manor. Bollinger-Giardina, who died in July 2019, was good friends with Mary Danos.

According to Jon J. Toups, chief operating & financial officer for the diocese, the house will be utilized for a much needed dual purpose – as a diocesan south Lafourche presence and meeting facility, as well as a facility to accommodate our diocesan priests. “We want to be able to offer a state of the art retirement housing facility for any of our priests who want that. In the future, we hope to offer a form of a more well-rounded and comprehensive elderly care, retirement living and benefits offering, the likes of St. Joseph Manor in Thibodaux and Notre Dame in New Orleans. In the meantime, we will actually be opening up the facility for our current priests to go down and enjoy the property for lodging, swimming, tennis and even fishing for a restful and relaxing place to enjoy their day off or vacation time,” says Toups.

René says some of her fondest memories of living in the house were their family gatherings. “Christmas was always at our house. And in the summertime, we were always outside playing and swimming with friends and family.” However, René says her all-time favorite memory was actually a few years back when she and her husband were having their own house remodeled. “The construction was getting to me, so my son Eli and I moved back in with my dad for five months. It brought back so many memories of my childhood. Daddy and I would talk about me having flashbacks of growing up there and just reliving some of those moments of being in that place of love, security and happiness.”

Marcel Danos says some of his favorite memories growing up were “the good times spent with our family, family gatherings around Christmas dinners, tennis matches with family and friends, playing in the pool, playing football in yard with siblings, cousins, and our quarterback Uncle Hank; and also, working as a teenager in the yard and on the farm, raising and showing cattle for 4-H, and riding horses on the farm.”

Alyce says, “I spent my entire life in the home, even as an adult, where my parents helped me raise my daughter, Ana; it was the only home we ever knew. My whole heart and soul resided there, up until the very end.” Feeding apple slices to the horses every afternoon with her Tutu (grandfather Al) in his golf cart and helping Grandmary in her garden are some of Ana Alyce Wilson’s fondest memories of growing up in the house.

“When deciding what to do with the home, I believe God put me in the right place at the right time to hear one of the needs of our diocese,” says René. “I often think about how God’s plan was perhaps to donate the house all along. Our parents always opened their home to the priests at Sacred Heart Church parish in Cut Off. They were part of our family. I can still see Msgr. (Francis) Legendre on the back of my brother’s bike holding on for dear life. Father Tommy (Bouterie) showing up at the back door in a Halloween costume, Father Dean (Danos) and Sister Claire (Rodrigue, C.I.C.,) stopping by for a visit, Father Benie (Sabino Rebosuro) coming by to play tennis, then hopping a ride in the golf cart with my children, and Father Greg (Fratt) riding horses with my son, Luke; and doing a swan dive into the pool. So you see, this decision was so natural and easy because our parents made the priests of our diocese family. So to me, the home is still with family … God’s family.”

René says she knows her parents are very pleased with their decision to donate the house to the Diocese of HoumaThibodaux. BC The Danos siblings, Marcel, Alyce, Andre and René, are pictured with Bishop Shelton J. Fabre at Mary’s Manor.