Girard, M. D. (Marie D.) | Tulane University Special Collections

Name: Girard, M. D. (Marie D.)

Variant Name: Drivon de Perry, Marie Louise Hieroniyme.

Fuller Form: Girard, Marie Drivon.

Historical Note: Marie Louise Hieroniyme Drivon de Perry, born Jan. 16, 1814, in Liverpool, England, came from an aristocratic family originating in Sainte-Lucie, in the Lesser Antilles. Her father was Antoine Tauvin Bernard Drivon and her mother was Jeanne Drivon. At the age of nine, she and her mother moved to Paris, where she was educated; eventually the two returned to Sainte-Lucie. Marie married Jean Marie Aquart in 1836, but he died just two years later. For economic reasons, the family was forced to abandon the once prosperous island plantation, and in the early 1840s purchased a home in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. She married Osiris Augustin Girard, who disappeared while fighting in the Mexican War. She had two children, both of whom got scarlet fever in 1853; the daughter, Marie Acquart, recovered and lived until 1906, but her son Auguste died. M.D. Girard became a prominent and admired teacher of the French language to the New Orleans community. She wrote a book entitled Histoire des Etats-Unis suivie de L'Historie de la Louisiane, published in 1881. She died in New Orleans in 1913 at the age of ninety-nine. A biographical memoir, Madame Girard, was written by Grace King in 1922.

Sources: Manuscripts Collection 638

Note Author: sp

Records or Manuscript Collections Created by Girard, M. D. (Marie D.)