Restless spirits...

By COLIN MURPHEY
There is no shortage of stories in Louisiana about things that go bump in the night. Tales of apparitions that mysteriously appear and disappear without a trace, victims experiencing icy chills or people feeling as though they are not alone in their homes or plantations are abundant in this part of the country.
New Orleans has the infamous voodoo practitioner Marie Leveau who is said to haunt the Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1 as well as the well-known and apparently well-dressed ghosts who inhabit the 100-year-old Arnaud’s Restaurant.
Baton Rouge has the Old State Capitol which is said to be haunted by the spirit of parish legislator Pierre Couvillon who, according to legend, suffered a heart attack after a speech about corrupt politicians. Shreveport, Lake Charles, Cheneyville and Natchitoches are just a few of the other places in Louisiana that lay claim to famous haunted locations.
So what does St. Mary Parish have in the way of places where ghostly apparitions make their presence known and cause various types of havoc and mayhem? Among others but most infamous is the Susie Plantation located between Garden City and Centerville that is claimed, by those who have dared to call the place home, to be haunted by the spirit of a 22-year-old woman who perished under mysterious circumstances in 1872.
Located just a few yards away from the classic, antebellum-style estate east of Franklin is the structure which, according to the current owners, takes much of the blame for why many people over the years have refused to set foot on the property.
The inscription on top of the above ground tomb of Addie E. Harris, situated on the property of the Susie Plantation, includes the line: ‘Weep not she is not dead, but sleepeth.’ And if dozens of eyewitness accounts are to be believed, the words on the tomb are as well.
Current residents Gail and Ray Bourque recount weekly episodes of hearing voices, heavy footsteps creaking on their stairway and the smell of perfume or food cooking. And they are not alone. Their guest logbook is full of accounts of paranormal happenings from people who have stayed the night at the Susie Plantation.
One entry from November 2006 states, “I’m not sure what it was, but I woke up to the sound of someone climbing the stairs. Thinking of my children downstairs, I thought one of them might be coming to my room. The person knocked two times. The footsteps started again and walked away from the door. I got up, opened the door and looked around in the hall. All the other bedroom doors were closed. I went down the stairs and into my children’s room. I turned the light on and no one stirred. The three were sound asleep.”
Another entry from June 2007 also described hearing someone or something climbing the stairs only to find no one was upstairs at the time. In July of the same year, a person named Evelyn wrote, “We were standing on the back balcony when I heard a door from downstairs slam shut. What I never understood is that they were all blocked open and still were open when we came downstairs. I find myself saying, ‘Addie, I’m tired. Leave me alone.’”
The same entry also included the following, “I was unloading the car and walked across the back porch. I could hear wind chimes ringing. I stopped to look. There was no wind blowing.”
Apparently, the happenings at the Susie Plantation are well known in the community.
When the Bourques were renovating the house, they had trouble getting people to help work on the site. Ray Bourque said there were numerous instances where, if they could even convince someone to come and give them an estimate on a particular project, they never returned. But for them, the noises and other occurrences just come with the territory.
“It doesn’t bother us anymore,” said Ray Bourque. “We still hear the voices and footsteps regularly. Everybody around here knows about it. The house is supposedly one of the most haunted in all of Louisiana. One day we might know what’s going on. A lot of these things could probably be explained. But the voices…I don’t know how you explain that.”