Hulda Mary Bockenhagen

Hulda Mary Bockenhagen 

(7/7/1913 LaCombe Louisiana -12/20/1990 Bossier City, Louisiana)

married Jacob Alphonse Cousin(Memphis, Tennessee)

*Rita Cousins 1934-2000 (Tennessee/North Carolina)

   m. Jesse Thomson

      Linda Thomson 1961 (Texas/--)

*Alphonse Jacob Cousins Jr. 1934-2011 (Tennessee/Ohio)

   m. Willa Mae Steenman

*Peter Raymond Cousins 1943-2024 (Georgia/Louisiana)

Hulda was counted in the 1920 census twice. In January while visiting her grand aunt in Chicago (apparently her older female cousins took her with them there) the census taker knocked on the door and recorded her at 6 as the "grand niece" to the head of the household (her grand aunt had divorced in New Orleans and moved to Chicago buying a house to rent rooms out). Then in July after she turned 7 a census taker knocked the door to her place back in Lacombe, Louisiana and she got counted again.

Hulda got to be in the movie The Alamo with John Wayne. She played one of the dancing Mexican women in the bar scene. Her daughter Rita, who used to dye her hair blonde, got to play the lead females part for non-talking scenes of the actress. The lead actress was paid by the hour so as to save money Rita got to fill in the non-speaking parts for her for minimum wage so the production company could save money.

Hulda lived in Arizona after the movie for a shirt time then

moved to Memphis.

She also, at least while in New Orleans, practiced Voodoo. She would be involved with practices that included spinning a chicken around by the neck until it's head came off in rooms full of blue smoke.

Her son Alphonse had fled to Fort Wayne before they came back from Arizona (1961) and his siblings were sure he was dead due to his mob activities. But Hulda, while on her death bed (1990) due to liver complications, told her two surviving children to keep looking for their brother for she was sure he was alive somewhere out there. She died before finding out he was. In the internet age (1999) his siblings were tracked down and he went to meet them in 2000. When his brother Peter came to the door they were both wearing work boots, black pants and the same blue t-shirt. When he met his sister she hugged him and my mother said "He doesn't let anyone touch him" to which he responded "oh shut up". His sister called him "Bobby" and apparently that was his nickname growing up.

So Hulda was right. "Bobby" was alive the whole time.

BTW, her son Peter was a chauffeur for Johnny Cash while touring Louisiana in his early days.