Community celebrates legacy of Nellie Lutcher with long-awaited festival

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - The Nellie Lutcher Memorial Park opened last year, and since then, the City of Lake Charles has been preparing for this celebration of her life and legacy.

“Nellie Lutcher made a name for Lake Charles,” said family friend Shirley Brown.

This festival is to celebrate the life of the singer and pianist. She gained her popularity in the late 1940′s creating jazz music with her own special swing on it.

The City of Lake Charles director of cultural affairs Amanda Donaldson said, “We’re celebrating a lot of things today; we’re celebrating the legacy of Nellie Lutcher, we’re celebrating this newly installed park inside the Nellie Lutcher cultural district.”

This free and open-to-the-public festival will pay tribute to her, featuring fun and educational activities about her music.

“We have a full lineup of local musicians, and we actually have a special guest coming in from Los Angles, Ms. Nellie Lutcher’s niece Jackie is going to be performing with us and doing a Nellie Lutcher melody. And there are things for kids to do out here we have some local vendors some amazing food trucks are going to be out here as well,” said Donaldson.

Friends of the Lutcher family remarked on the impact her music had of them.

“Growing up that’s all we had in our home, that’s all my parents played. Yes, we listened to it.”

Today was important for lifetime local Shirley Brown, although she didn’t know Nellie personally, she had a friendship with her brother Bubba. She’s proud of her city for giving the well-deserved credit to the Lutcher family.

“The City of Lake Charles recognizing those people that did what they could, in our time we didn’t have as much music and so Bubba Lutcher’s gone, and Nellie Lutcher’s gone, but their memories are going to live on,” said Brown.

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