Kirby Verret’s life was one of defying odds and enriching Terrebonne Parish for others.
“It’s all about service,” he said. “God gave each and every one of us a life, and you know, he expects us to do something with it.”
Jonathan Foret presented Verret with The Courier’s 2023 Most Useful Citizen Award during the Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce’s 94th annual Banquet. The newspaper has given the award every year since 1946 to recognize Terrebonne residents who put in extraordinary time, talent and effort to make the parish a better place to live. The Courier solicits nominations from the community, and the recipient is selected by a panel of anonymous judges.
A member of the United Houma Nation, Verret’s education was limited by state-sanctioned racial discrimination, May 1963. Terrebonne’s public school system did not provide high school education to Native Americans.
Fate had other plans, and a hunting accident would change the course of his life, and by extension Terrebonne’s. The accident sent him to a hospital for 22 days, where a Catholic priest learned of his plight and offered him a chance to attend the St. Francis Boys’ High School.
“Father Carter Richaud came to see him and found out that he could not go to Terrebonne High because he was an Indian,” a letter nominating him for the award said. “The priest got him into St. Francis Boys’ High School, and in 1967, he was part of the first class of Vanderbilt Catholic of Houma, receiving the first male diploma and the Most School Spirited Award.”
He became the first Native American to graduate from Vanderbilt Catholic High in Houma. His education would not stop there, as he went on to obtain a business degree from Nicholls State University in Thibodaux in 1972.
Verret would ensure others had the same opportunities he had. For more than four decades, he served as director of the Terrebonne public school system’s Indian Education Program, where he established academic programs that had been denied to him and other Native American children during more than a century of racial segregation. For decades, his annual graduation ceremony for the parish’s Native American students has recognized young people whose parents and grandparents were denied the opportunity to attend a public high school.
“I have told students for years and years, there is nobody that can stop you from reaching your dreams except yourself,” he said. “Education can open doors, but you have to be willing to walk through.”
He served as Chief of the United Houma Nation from 1984 to 1992, where he continued efforts for federal recognition for the tribe. While that is still an ongoing battle, he successfully fought to include Dulac and Dularge within Terrebonne’s hurricane protection system, an action that helped preserve the homes and heritage of thousands of families, including many Native Americans who have called those communities home for generations.
He served on boards for nonprofits and community efforts. They include the Dulac recreation board, the Terrebonne Council on Aging, the area Salvation Army and the Dulac Comunity Center. He was the first Native American named to Louisiana’s Human Rights Commission, serving under two governors. The board investigates complaints and helps the state enforce laws aimed at preventing discrimination in health care, housing, public accommodations, banking and employment.
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Since 1986, he has served as pastor of Clanton Chapel United Methodist Church in his longtime home of Dulac. In 1987, he started the Ecumenical Walk of the Cross in Dulac, which continues each Good Friday. He has led numerous efforts to help the people of Dulac and southern Terrebonne recover from hurricanes, including Ida in 2021, which left his church heavily damaged. He has helped lead efforts to repair both the church and the Dulac Community Center, both hubs for the bayou community.
Raised speaking Cajun French, his talk and music program on KHOM-KTIB in the 1980s may have been the last local radio show that regularly broadcast in the language that once permeated the community.
Verret said he remembered the teaching of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, and quoted King from memory: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that,” he then added. “We are all together in this parish. Les bon temps de Louisiana, Terrebonne, bon temps rouler.”
This article originally appeared on The Courier: Kirby Verret named Terrebonne’s Most Useful Citizen
Elaine Hadley is a dedicated journalist covering the ever-evolving landscape of U.S. news. With a keen interest in politics and a commitment to uncovering the truth, she provides insightful commentary and in-depth analysis on domestic issues. When not reporting, Elaine enjoys exploring the diverse cultures and landscapes of the United States.
