Forgotten no more: Terry A. O'Neal and Volunteers reclaim Chloe Historic Cemetery, uncovering family ties generations in the making
By Lexie DeCastro Published: Oct. 18, 2026 at 5:23 PM PDT
LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - For generations, Chloe Historic Cemetery sat buried beneath briars, fallen trees and decades of neglect. This weekend, volunteers cleared a path through it - and found far more than they expected. The 19th-century burial ground, also known as St. Mary Cemetery, sits off Shane Road and English Bayou in Calcasieu Parish. It holds the graves of African American, Creole and Native American families, including people who were enslaved - all once barred from burial in the area’s white cemeteries.
“For generations, this was a burial ground for people of color,” said Jed Duhon, principal chief of the Louisiana Attakapas Eagle Tribe. “You weren’t going into the white cemetery. Not going to happen.”
The cemetery was deeded to the Chloe community in 1904 by landowner Eulalie St. Mary, according to CAACPA. While neighboring cemeteries were maintained over the decades, Chloe was left to overgrowth - compounded by damage from Hurricanes Rita and Laura.
“I’m surprised that they let this place get the way it is,” said Leon Tillman, a Chloe descendant and the uncle of Terry A. O’Neal, who founded the Chloe African American Cemetery Preservation Association (CAACPA) earlier this year. “I think somebody should have taken care of it a lot better than what it is.”
O’Neal discovered the cemetery earlier this year while researching her own family history, something she’s done for more than two decades. In February, she visited the site in person for the first time.
“Actually being here and seeing it for myself led me to [realize] we need an organization to come in here,” O’Neal said.
She established herself as cemetery steward and founded CAACPA weeks later in March. Since then, she says, the response from the community has been overwhelming.
O’Neal’s own family history runs deep in the cemetery. She is a descendant of the Hunt, Alphonse, Taylor, Tillman, LeBleu and Roberts families - including James Alphonse, who, according to his 1943 obituary, was the last living person enslaved by Major J.C. LeBleu, and who historians believe is buried at Chloe.
This weekend, volunteers located a family section connected to the Hunt, Alphonse, LeBleu, Roberts and Tillman names. Among the headstones read so far: Pascal Hunt, who died in 1958.
O’Neal says the search also led her to a long-sought discovery: her mother’s grandmother, whose burial location had been unknown for years.
“My mother, who’s now deceased, did not know where her grandmother was buried,” O’Neal said. “But we found her. We found her yesterday.”
The discoveries at Chloe haven’t been limited to the dead. Volunteers are finding they’re connected to each other, too. Sam Kershaw, a LeBleu descendant who brought equipment to help with the cleanup, learned only days before volunteering that he and O’Neal are related.
“Apparently, on Ancestry.com... I think we’re third cousins,” Kershaw said.
“Her uncle that’s here, Mr. Leon, is actually first cousins to my grandmother.” Kershaw’s grandmother, he said, is believed to be the oldest living member of the LeBleu family and will turn 97 in January.
The LeBleu name traces back to the area’s earliest European settlers along English Bayou, according to local histories cited by CAACPA. O’Neal described a similar moment of her own. “I found a new cousin that I didn’t know about,” she said. “He was there volunteering, and we found out we were second or third cousins.”
For Duhon, the cemetery isn’t a new discovery - it’s a place he’s known most of his life. Duhon, principal chief of the Louisiana Attakapas Eagle Tribe and a descendant of Cyprien Duhon, says he has visited the area for roughly 50 years, long before CAACPA’s restoration effort began. “We would fish and hunt back here a long time ago,” Duhon said.
He recalled watching as Debbie Randall - the last known burial at the cemetery - was laid to rest there decades ago. “I remember seeing her grave,” Duhon said. “It was the last one, I think, that was placed in here. And her family came and couldn’t find her.”
Terry A. O’Neal says that burial wasn’t as long ago as people might think. “It wasn’t that long ago,” she said. “I believe Debbie Randall was buried in 1990.” Duhon says the site holds significance for Native American families as well.
Many Native Americans in the area were historically classified as “people of color” and buried in cemeteries like Chloe rather than in segregated white cemeteries, he said. The tribe hopes to eventually use the restoration effort as a starting point to locate a nearby historic Native American settlement along English Bayou.
Volunteers, including historical anthropologist Charlotte Jones, have spent the weekend locating previously hidden graves by hand.
“We’re bringing it back to life,” O’Neal said. “Back to the forefront. We’re bringing history forward.”
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