Zachary Post Jan 21 by Zachary Post

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The Post is the place for Zachary news.

Zachary Pilgrimage Blessed By Pope By James Ronald Skains

On December 11, 2013 local resident Robert “Bob” Anderson received the experience of a lifetime for a person of the Catholic faith, a brief audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican in Rome. “I was with a group of about 15 people that Father Bayhi took to Rome last month,” Robert “Bob” Anderson told the Zachary POST. “We knew that we would get to see the Pope during his weekly audience with people in St. Peter’s Square, but never in my wildest dreams did I expect for the Pope to put his hands on my head and bless me.” Father Bayhi is the pastor of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Zachary and Our Lady of the Assumption in Clinton. His travel group, of which Anderson is a Zachary resident Bob Anderson receives a blessing from Pope Francis.

member, spent December 2 through December 12, 2013 in Rome and Sicily touring the many historical Catholic churches in that area. Bayhi usually takes one or two groups each year to Rome and the Vatican. As the trip progressed, it seemed that Anderson’s chances of even seeing the Pope from afar were diminishing rapidly. “I’ve had back and knee problems in recent years. The cobblestone streets in Rome and Sicily really made it difficult for me to get around. By the time we were back in Rome on the December 10, I could hardly walk. Rick Smith obtained a wheel chair for me to ride in and he was pushing me the day we got to see the Pope.” “Father Bayhi knew a man who was a retired security officer at See PAPAL BLESSING page 2

Know Your Councilman

During this Election Year, The Zachary Post will be interviewing each of our sitting City Councilmen so that the community can get a better sense of the people they elected to represent them. These interviews are non-partisan and do not foreshadow whether they will run for reelection. In addition, The Zachary Post offers each candidate in this years elections an opportunity to introduce him or herself to the voting public at no cost. The submission of a statement is entirely voluntary and each candidate may submit one time. As such, the printing of these statements does not represent an endorsement of the candidates by the Zachary Post.

Tommy Womack’s Life Shaped by Challenges, Faith and Family

By James Ronald Skains

“On April 8, 1980, our house in Zachary burned,” Tommy Womack, current Zachary City Councilman told the Zachary POST. “That turned our world upside down in more ways than we could have guessed.” “My dad, James Andrew Womack was Assistant Chief of Police at the time of the fire. He heard the call come in on the police radio and was the first officer on the scene. He immediately began dragging stuff out of the house including our big piano. Daddy was a big man. He pushed the piano on those little wheels about 15 feet out into a muddy wet yard. When the fire-fighting

crews got to our house, they tried to cut a hole in the roof to vent the fire but some of the rafters were already burned and one fighter almost fell through the roof.” “The nearest fire hydrant wouldn’t work so they sent a tanker truck to another nearby hydrant but it got stuck in our front yard,” Womack recalled. “They had to tie a wrecker to a big tree to pull out the tanker, which was an old heavy duty military.” “Fortunately no one was at home when the fire started so no one in the family was hurt. The investigator determined that lightening hit our hot water tank and See WOMACK on page 4

Tommy Womack

Zachary POST Tuesday, January 21, 2014

PAPAL BLESSING continued from page 1

the Vatican,” Anderson explained. “This man was able to guide us to an area close to the Square where we could drive to so it would not be so far to push someone in a wheel chair.” “Rick Smith was absolutely wonderful to me. Once we got into the square, we were initially told that we would be in a group of 5,000 who would have an audience with the Pope in a big room at the Sistine Chapel. After waiting for a while, the plans changed and the Pope decided to hold the audience outside. All the people in wheel chairs and even those on beds were brought up to the front of the group. There were probably 30,000 people standing behind us in the Square.” “As I sat there waiting for the Pope to come out, all I was thinking was that I would get the opportunity to see the Pope up close,” Anderson related. “At that point, I had no reason to imagine what was about to happen to me.” “After the Pope came out, he

began to move through the crowd of handicapped people in wheelchairs and beds stopping to talk to some of them and blessing them. There were lots of us handicapped people that day so it took a while for the Pope to get over in our area. Finally we could see that he was coming down the row that we were in.” “When the Pope reached me, he stopped,” Anderson recalled vividly. “He took my hand in his, said a few words in Italian, and then placed his hand on my head and blessed me. As the Pope turned to walk on, he said to me in English, “Pray for me.” The Pope is a very warm, charismatic person.” “It was an overwhelmingly, a once in a lifetime experience for me,” Anderson, a native of New Orleans, acknowledged. “It was particularly meaningful to me because last May, I lost my wife of 50 years to a sudden illness. She was in reasonably good health, but one morning she just did not wake up.” Anderson graduated from De Lassalle high school in New Orleans in the late 1950’s. After at-

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tending UNO for a time, Anderson began a 40-year career in the banking industry. His first job was with the old Hibernia Bank. However, he spent most of his career in Alexandria as an Executive Officer with the old Security National Bank. “After Regions Bank bought out Security National Bank in the early 2000’s, my wife and I decided to move from Alexandria to the Zachary area to be closer to our grandkids,” Anderson pointed out. “We had a lot of good friends in Alexandria, but no family. We had been active in our church in Alexandria for years and had a large church family.” Both of Anderson’s children graduated from Menard High School in Alexandria. Son Jeffery, works for a British law firm that specializes in municipal bond is-

sues throughout England and Europe. An LSU and University of Michigan graduate, Jeffrey works in public relations in the bond division of the British Law firm. Jeffrey is also a Rotary Club scholar, earning a year at the University of Durham in England. Daughter Lisa works at the Lady of the Lake in the Human Resource Department. She has two children, and lives in Zachary. Anderson is very active in various venues with Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church in Zachary. He expected the trip to Rome to be very enjoyable, but had no thought of be blessed personally by the head of the Catholic Church. It was a combination of not only being in the right place at the right time, but also being in the right condition.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014 Zachary POST 3

ACS Honor Ball Set for February 15 t Storewide clearance u Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. March on January 20

The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Committee, will be celebrating our Annual Candlelight March honoring the legacy of Dr. King. To commemorate Dr. King’s Legacy we will pay special tribute to all veterans. This event will be held on Monday, January 20, 2014, with the march beginning at 6:00 p.m. from the Zachary City Hall and ending at the New Pilgrim Baptist Church. A program will be held at the church beginning at 6:30 p.m. Retired Major Patrick Jenkins, Director of Operations, Zachary Community School Board will serve as our speaker for the evening. The committee is asking all church choir members to participate in the community choir. They extend a special invitation to all veterans. They are asking everyone to wear red, white or blue. The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Zachary Committee will also be celebrating their Annual MLK Scholarship Ball. This event will be held on Saturday, January 25, 2014, from 9:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m. at the Baker Municipal Center, Groom Road, Baker, La. The theme for this event is, “Living the Legacy and the Dream”. Tickets are $25 per person and can be purchase from any MLK Committee Member. This year chairpersons are Janice Huggins (225)939-3241 and Brenda Barber (225)978-4464.

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Zachary POST Tuesday, January 21, 2014

WOMACK

continued from page 1

knock it off line letting the natural gas accumulate in the house and attic. When the unit cycled back to the ignition stage, the lighter ignited all the natural gas in the house causing a big explosion.” “Someone asked my dad at the scene what he was going to do, he replied, I hadn’t planned on spending my summer doing carpenter work but I will have to rebuild my house,’’ Womack remembered. “By that time, my dad had been talking about running for Chief of Police since the chief was retiring. However, he decided to run for Mayor because Mayor Breaux was sick and was not running for re-election.” “However, it was our neighbors and friends around town that really made it possible for our family to bounce back from the fire. When we were rebuilding the house, Mr. O’Bannon, one of our neighbors got a group together to come help us put up the beams and rafters. On September 1, 1980, our friends held a Jambalaya Benefit at our new house to help us financially.” “From April 8th through summer vacation, my brother Randy and I were extremely busy. Once we got the burned house area cleaned up, we started rebuilding. Back in those days, most of the political candidates made their own signs and put them out. That was part of mine and Randy’s work for the summer. My dad also operated a grass seed harvester machine.” “The harvester was a pull behind Allis Chalmers 65 that would

clip the top of the grass off that held the seeds putting them into a hopper,’’ Womack explained. “When the seed hopper would get full, Randy and I would dump the seed into bags which we would carry to the see cleaning mill.” “It was tough work during a very hot summer but I think my dad made good money from the seed harvesting operation which helped rebuild our house. The summer of 1980 taught me how busy someone could be and still do a good job at what they were doing. My dad actually bought a small seed cleaning mill but we never set it up in operation because it had a three phase motor and we didn’t have three phase electricity at our house.” “However, with all that going on, daddy still won the election for Mayor. He served 22 years as Mayor of Zachary,” Womack noted. “I enjoyed my dad being Mayor. We always knew everything that was going on around town. I really enjoyed the campaigns.” “I was somewhat of a messenger for my dad as people would say to me, ``tell your dad that this or that needs fixing or tell him that he should do this or that about whatever was happening around town. When I talked about running for City Council in 2010, my dad advised me not to run. His reasoning, which he told me just before he died, was that the City Council job would take me away from the family so much as his job as Mayor had him.” “I didn’t exactly agree with my dad’s assessment of taking time away from his family because I

thought that as Mayor, he spent much more time with the family than he did as Assistant Chief of Police,” Womack, who was elected to the Council post in 2010, elaborated. “Qualifying for the office of councilman opened the day my dad died. On the last day of qualifying, I went down and filed my papers to run.” “I had two opponents including Mr. Melvin Reilly who was the incumbent. One of the questions that came up in the election was the absolute necessity of getting a college degree. Speaking from personal experience of not having finished my degree before getting into the workforce, I asked my opponent: “If your commode is stopped up or you’ve got a big water leak, when you call a plumber, do you ask them if they have a college degree?” “My opponent answered no to that question and then I said; “then when you get the big bill form the plumber for thirty minutes work, aren’t you glad they didn’t have a college degree because if they had, the bill would probably be doubled,” Womack recalled saying. “I didn’t finish my degree in criminal justice although I did work for the EBR Sheriff’s Department for 10 years as a reserve deputy.” “My son told me that he didn’t think going to college would be the right thing for him. I’ve encouraged him to pursue a technical course that will prepare him as a millwright and pipe fitter. He will be finishing that course within a year and it seems to working out very well for him.”

Zachary Council District 5 that Womack represents is an odd shaped area that goes west from across the railroad tracks in downtown eastward past Plank Road and then south to encompass some of Lower Zachary Road. It includes McHost Road on which Womack and his wife Diane, a former City of Zachary employee for 22 years live. Diane Womack is currently the Administrative Assistant to State Representative Kenny Havard. “It is a diverse district,” Womack acknowledged. “Mr. Melvin, the previous councilman for the district was a native of Zachary who spent many years in California. He was an educator among other things and extremely intelligent. I learned a lot about him from his family when I attended his funeral about six months after the election. I think that he was sick during the campaign.” “One thing that I try to do is to really get to know as many people in my district as possible. I think it is both honor and responsibility of a Councilman to know the people he represents. There are a lot of interesting things happening in our city including the by-pass from Hay 19 around to Lane Hospital. We are upgrading our sewer system, and Main Street will soon be a 5 lane highway through downtown.” Womack’s day job is a Maintenance Supervisor of a 12-person crew at Georgia Pacific paper mill at Port Hudson. The Councilman position is Womack’s second foray into politics. He previously served 6 years as a Constable in Zachary.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014 Zachary POST 5

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Zachary POST Tuesday, January 21, 2014

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Zachary POST Tuesday, January 21, 2014

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