Robert and Loretta Broussard

We will be in Alexandria the second week of September (8th in the evening and 9th ) and would like to tour the hotel. I realize it is closed and am saddened by the lack of interest in restoring and opening this grand hotel. My husband and I would like very much to see the hotel and the apartment at the top. This is my only link to my mother’s past as she was an only child and truly lived the grandeur of the times in that lovely old building. If you could put me in contact with someone who can pull some strings to get us in the building we would be most appreciative. I can be reached at clapine@weber.edu We live in Utah – Mountain standard time – one hour behind Louisiana. I would love to be involved with saving this hotel. I co-owned two old hotels in Ogden, Utah, at one time in my life – small ones compared to the Bentley and would love to be involved in some aspect of the historic preservation.

Part of my mother’s obituary is below and it talks about the Bentley Hotel as it was the focal point of her life.

Loraine was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, on January 29, 1923, to Avice Peters Collier and Hewett Cullen Collier. Loraine was an only child who grew up “Eloise style” in a suite of rooms at the top of the Bentley Hotel in Alexandria. She liked to tell stories about the alligators that a family friend brought her each year. She kept them in the pond of the lobby of the hotel and they often crawled out of the pond and scared the hotel guests. When they were too big for the pond they were given to the local zoo. Another family friend, Governor Huey P. Long, gave Loraine her first doll. Her family, in a rather eccentric southern style, drove to Nieman Marcus in Dallas, Texas, each year to buy Loraine her year’s wardrobe. They chose only one color for her clothes each year. The doorman, Fisher, drove her to school each day, and when she was old enough to exert her opinion she had Fisher drop her off a block from school so no one would know she was being escorted to school. She had a very interesting childhood, which helped to create a very feisty and interesting southern lady.

Loraine met Joseph Reyna (Ray) Barrios while he was playing a music job at her Father’s hotel. They married in 1940 and were married for 54 years before Ray’s death in 1994.

The Bentley hotel has many memories for our family and we hate to see it shut down. So again, if anyone can help us visit this historic building please e-mail. I sent an e-mail to the Chamber but no response.

Thank you

Blessing unto all,

Ms. Gloria

Daniel, Emmanuel seems a lovely church family. I’m pleased that your new pastor is committed to the autonomy of the church. Good for the Baptists who are taking back their church from the extremists.

I’m happy you enjoyed your visit to Emmanuel. I grew up in that church, and after her nest emptied out my mother became a children’s minister there.

It is and is not a Southern Baptist church. By (original) definition, Southern Baptists have enjoyed the covenant of local church autonomy, so each church is allowed to follow the wishes of their congregation. On the other hand, the Southern Baptist Convention has been able to consolidate control over congregations through a number of means in the last thirty years.

Since I was a kid, Emmanuel has grown away from the policies of the Southern Baptist Convention, but as long as there is at least one member of the congregation giving money to the SBC they can claim us as a Southern Baptist church. Many members stipulate that their tithes go to other groups, such as the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Baptists churches can be affiliated with as many Conventions or Fellowships as they donate to.

When I was in the youth group, we took a side trip on the way to church camp to visit Disney World. This was in the midst of the SBC boycott of Disney after the creation of Gay Day. In the same trip, we stayed a night in the gym of our youth minister’s home church. Because she is a female minister, that church refused to recognize our presence during the Sunday church service.

I am been proud to have been a part of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Downtown Alexandria. It took me a number of years to recognize why my mother forced us to drive across town each Sunday and Wednesday to be a part of that particular congregation.

Dr. Larry Taylor, who retired relatively recently, was an amazing speaker and a wonderful pastor. He was a student at Central High School in Little Rock during that historic episode of desegregation in the late Fifities. I can remember his wonderful sermons on the importance of laughter in the book of Isaiah. He often gave non-Biblical teachings, too: I recall one about vising Hawthorne’s grave in Concord, and another about the life of Abraham Lincoln.

In churches such as Emmanuel, there are more and more Christians claiming that they are Baptists from the South, not necessarily Southern Baptists. Fortunately, the new pastor of Emmanuel is equally committed to the autonomy of our church, the priesthood of the individual believer, local community support, and the personal spiritual growth of each and every member of the church.

I’ve been a fan of your blog for some time now.

Are you referring to the Heart of Spain exhibit?

Regarding the Bentley’s rooms, yes, although the hotel’s lobby and common areas are quite impressive, the rooms are actually quite plain– definitely in need of some updating.

Emmanuel is a great structure, as is St. Francis Xavier next door.

My husband and I stayed at the Bentley shortly before it closed, when the marvelous religious art exhibit was in Alex a couple of years ago. The exhibit was great! The lobby of the Bentley is magnificent, but our room was only so-so. I hope that someone gets this lovely old hotel going again. It would be a shame to lose it.

We had a tour of Emmanuel Baptist Church with it’s beautiful stained glass. That’s a different kind of Baptist church from those I know. We visited the art gallery in the basement, which even had a nude painting in it. Our tour guide told us that the church was not Southern Baptist. I could tell.