Millet-Guidry Funeral Home

John the Baptist Parish(Kenny Oubre)Lloyd Johnson, the "country sheriff" who served as chief lawman in St. John the Baptist Parish during two decades of rapid population growth, died Monday (May 29). He was 87.Mr. Johnson is credited with pulling the Sheriff's Office out of financial straits when he took over in 1976, and with laying the foundation for a modern law enforcement agency. There were 43 officers on the force when he became sheriff, and 150 with a fleet of vehicles when he retired in 1996. In that period, St. John was evolving from a rural to an exurban parish, its population increasing 59 percent to more than 42,000, yet he seemed to know just about everyone. Current Sheriff Mike Tregre posted on Facebook Monday: "Today, St. John Parish lost one of its greatest leaders. Sheriff Lloyd B. Johnson started the careers of many past and present law enforcement officers here in St. John. And under his leadership, skills were defined to create two future sheriffs and one future district attorney. 'Good leaders don't create good followers. They create other good leaders.'''Bobby Hay, who worked 18 years at the Sheriff's Office after Johnson hired him as a patrol deputy in 1979, said, "Mr. Lloyd was the salt-of-the-earth type of person. "He was at every wedding, every funeral. It didn't matter who the person was." Mr. Johnson held a bachelor's degree in criminology from what is now Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond but didn't enter law enforcement until he was 40, after years working as an oil field leasing agent. He started as a road deputy under Sheriff Percy Hebert in 1970 and in four years held positions of detective, chief of detectives and chief deputy. He was the first St. John deputy to graduate from Louisiana State University's law enforcement academy.From 1974 to 1976, he served as the chief investigator for the St. John district attorney's office before his election as sheriff. In his new position, he won support for borrowing money to build a new 283-bed jail...

As Beaumont drove Monday afternoon (May 23) to pick up flowers for her 5-year-old daughter's funeral, she recalled the last time she saw Haley before leaving her three children -- Haley, her sister and her brother -- at their father's LaPlace residence at 9 a.m. Saturday. Eric Moore asked them what they were doing at his house, to which Haley and her brother responded with "Dad, it's your day," she said. LaPlace 5-year-old accidentally shoots herself, dies: What we know Sunday Haley Moore shot herself in the chest at her father's home on Country Club Drive and was brought to a local hospital where she died. Beaumont, who was granted custody of her three children after divorcing Moore over a year ago, stressed they were only supposed to spend a few hours with their father. Those plans, however, took a tragic turn when Haley was shot in the chest as Moore showered. She died that morning from her injuries after being taken to a local hospital, according to the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff's Office."He got the kids at nine that morning and he didn't even have the kids in his custody for more than 30 minutes before it happened," Beaumont said.The .45-caliber pistol was still on the table when it was fired in front of her daughters, the mother said. Beaumont, who did not allow weapons in the presence of her children, said her "child would never play with a gun.""She wasn't even holding the gun the whole time," Beaumont said. "She accidentally hit the trigger."Beaumont said she told her husband, a military veteran who has not been charged, to pay attention to his weapons when the children were present."I went off on my ex so many times and told him 'please, please lock up your guns, please do not leave your guns out in my kids' sight," she said. Beaumont said what irks her the most is that she learned many of the details of the shooting only when they were reported by the media.She said law enforcement called her Monday t...

Benjamin Piovan, the founding pastor of Ascension of Our Lord Roman Catholic Church in LaPlace and its spiritual leader during a 27-year period of remarkable growth, died Monday in Saltillo, Mexico. He was 78.Rev. Piovan had been serving as a mission priest in Saltillo since his retirement from Ascension of Our Lord. He returned from Mexico to LaPlace in June to celebrate his 50th  anniversary as a priest and the parish's 35th anniversary.Ordained a priest in 1964, Rev. Piovan was named by the Archdiocese of New Orleans as the founding pastor of Ascension of Our Lord on July 2, 1979. The parish began with about 150 families, and Mass was celebrated in the music room of St. Charles Catholic High School in LaPlace.By the time Rev. Piovan retired in 2006, the parish counted about 2,300 families. During this period, he was instrumental in the opening of Ascension of Our Lord School in 1980, the opening two years later of Don Bosco Hall, to where Masses moved from the high school, and ultimately in the construction of the church's own sanctuary, which opened in 2001. He also started a weekly Hearty Meal program for people in need, a program for eighth graders to accompany Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist on visits to homebound parishioners and a perpetual adoration chapel.In addition, Rev. Piovan served in the Metropolitan Tribunal, as the Catholic Knights of America state chaplain, the Faithful Friar chaplain of Archbishop Blenk Assembly 318, chaplain of Ascension of Our Lord Knights of Columbus Council 9623, and dean of the St. John-St. Charles Deanery.Upon his retirement, he told The Times-Picayune he wanted to work with poor people in the village of San Miguel, in Saltillo. "My hope is ... to finally fulfill my dream. I think San Miguel is the place, and I hope that after 50-plus years of waiting ... this may come to full fruition."Mike Abbate, who worked with Rev. Piovan since the founding of Ascension of Our Lord Church, said the priest strived hard to reach the many goal...