Autobiography for my Early Years

I, Frank Wynerth Summers III, was born on June 15, 1964 in Crowley, Louisiana. Both of my parents born in Abbeville, Louisiana. My grandfather Frank Wynerth Summers was the Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court at the time of his retirement. My maternal grandparents Cecil Bruce and Beverlee Hollier Gremillion had two houses, a swimming pool, a boat or two and several acres of lawn and woods on the Vermilion Bayou just outside of Abbeville.  

My paternal grandparents had a home on 1812 Palmer Avenue in New Orleans and another home in Abbeville on 500 Second Street where my grandmother still lives as I write this.  My maternal grandfather was the president of a savings and loan, owned and operated a furniture store, was president of the Riptide Investors group that developed a local port called Freshwater City and was a real estate broker.  There were a lot of other things he did that were relatively significant on the local business scene.

My father’s family had a farm and we spent a great deal of time on it during my childhood. My grandmother Beverly Miller Summers was the eldest child of Dr. Preston Joseph Miller and Laura Broussard Miller. Laura Broussard was descended from Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil and her Broussard family lived in Cow Island in the countryside of Vermilion Parish. Her father was at one point the sole owner of a large and storied Palms Hospital and Hotel in Abbeville. Together they amassed a large farm although Laura Broussard Miller died while here three children were still very young.

My father studied law when I was very young. He studied at Tulane Law School in New Orleans, Kings College at the University of London and Columbia University Law School in New York. My mother and I lived with and beside him during all of these ventures. I attended a kindergarten in London and learned my nursery rhymes with an English accent. I went to first grade at Mount Carmel Elementary School in Abbeville, Louisiana.  Iattended second grade at St. Hilda’s and St. Hugh’s Day School in Western Manhattan when we got to New York. I really liked Episcopal nuns, the chapel, the science class, music class and walks in a great New York park. The urban area was not only a contrast to Abbeville but also to the great natural wonders on the way up to New York.      We made a long camping trip across the country on our way to New York. We went to England on the Queen Elizabeth II and came back on the France. My father became an assistant district attorney and I went to Mount Carmel Elementary School.  My mother worked in government programs for sharecroppers and small farmers and then became the society editor for the local newspaper.

That is about where our lives were when my parents became missionaries. That will be a story for another page.