Andrea Banatte

MADAME VEUVE LOUIS BANATTE,

Née Andrée Beauzile

October 25, 1922 – November 19, 2018    

    Mrs. Louis Banatte, the former Andrée Beauzile, was called home to the Lord from Arch Plaza nursing home in Miami, Florida at around 09:50 pm on Monday, November 19, 2018. She was 96 years old.   

    The oldest of the four daughters of Mrs. Rodino Durand, née Ermite Beauzile, she was born in Camp-Perrin, a small and bucolic village in southern Haiti, on October 25, 1922. Under the watchful eyes of a loving step father, Mr. Rodino Durand, who had some basic education and training, unlike his wife Ermite since at that time, literacy was not widespread, especially for women growing in a patriarchal society. A brilliant and diligent student, she completed that cycle at the prestigious Catholic Sisters School in Les Cayes, the capital city of the Southern Department of Haiti, and was the valedictorian of her graduating class, obtaining the coveted certificate of “Brevet Elémentaire”.  

    After some training in tailoring and dress making and private tutoring of some students, under the watchful eye of a tough minded aunt in Les Cayes, she returned briefly to her village of Camp Perrin. Later on, she was sent back to Les Cayes to run the household for her younger sisters who were, in turn, sent to school in the big city. For six years, she gave them her very best, supervising their homeword and studies, preparing them for school, cooking, and so on. Excellent training for her future role as a mother and spouse, as she wrote later on.

    In September 1947, she married Mr. Louis Banatte, esq. who would go on to a long judicial career, from a justice of the peace in Les Cayes to associate justice of the Haitian Supreme Court. Four children were born from this union: Jean-Marie, Nelly, Louis Junior, and Marie Denise. Andrée gave them her very best with love, care and attention that had become her hallmarks. In 1967, she emigrated to the United States to help always! Her teenage children in their professional studies. Three decades later, she retired in her Camp-Perrin, where she will be returned to rest in peace, a specific request she had made, many years ago, to one of her children.  

      She is survived by her sisters Marie Rose Montès, Marcelle Thomas, and Camille Louis, all nées Durand, her son Jean Marie Banatte, her daughters Nelly Banatte and Marie Denise Avignon, née Banatte, and numerous grandchildren, nephews, nieces, cousins, in laws, family and friends, scattered around the globe.