Sybil Haydel Morial a Force of Nature Part I

The 89 year old mother, author matriarch of New Orleans most successful political family discusses the importance of knowing your ancestry.  A first rate storyteller lets us in on a couple centuries of her family history woven into a recipe for successful navigation of the American experience for those of the African Diaspora. From the Wolof people of Senegal to the Haydel plantation to participating in ending Jim Crow tyranny to First Lady of New Orleans our Living Legend is our history.

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Count Time Podcast Living Legend Sybil Haydel Morial

ld and sybil morial

 

Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra Interview with Sybil Haydel Morial

ld and sybil morial

Sybil Haydel Morial (1932- ) was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Eudora Arnaud and Clarence C. Haydel. The wife of the first African American mayor of the City of New Orleans, Ernest N. “Dutch” Morial, Sybil Morial spent her career in the education field, first as a public school teacher and then later, as a dean at Xavier University in New Orleans. A community activist, Morial has served on numerous boards and committees that focus on women’s professional advocacy through her memberships with the International Women’s Forum Leadership Foundation and the affiliated Louisiana Women’s Forum.

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Other organizations that she has served over the years include The Links, Inc.; Advocates for Science and Mathematics Foundation; the Youth and The Arts National Committee; HMO Louisiana, Inc. and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Louisiana; The Public Law Center; PICO National Network; the Southern Institute for Education and Research; among others. Morial served as president and chair of the I’ve Known Rivers Afro-American Pavilion Louisiana World Exposition (1982-1985).

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Good evening. Good evening. Good evening it’s 4:00 PM. Stand up it’s count time, time for every man and woman to stand up and be counted. Welcome to another edition of Count Time podcast. I am brother LD Azobra. Thank you for joining us today.

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Well, y’all better get ready, folks, because today gonna be another doosie. We got truly a living legend here that sits before me. And I like to welcome Miss Sybil Haydel Morial

SHM
Happy to be here to talk to you.

LD
And we are very happy for you to open your home up to us to come here and do this interview. And I like to thank my dear friend and Dr. Joyce Marie Jackson for making this happen because these ladies are Link sisters. So we want you all to tune in today and enjoy this wonderful story. But we want to get you started today. You have so much history. We got to get to your book that you wrote. Like, what makes you how old were you 84? What made you write a book? So we want to get into all this. Now, you were born in 1932, so you’re 90 years old.

SHM
I’m going to be 90 in November. I got some stories to tell.

graduation party 1953

LD
But your mind is just sharp as ever. That’s got to be a beautiful thing.

SHM
I take care of myself. I cook for myself. I don’t have a car anymore because I had a bad accident, But I know how to manage. I got somebody who takes my children, shop for me and all that. I have three children that live here. They don’t live too far from me. Two of them live kind of right around the corner. You got to stay sharp. I read a lot. I work crossword puzzles every day. Keep my mind keep busy. I take care of my business, pay all my bills, so I do all that. So when you have to do all that, your mind says sharp, keeps you engaged.

Now my body’s getting raggedy since that accident. I got to walk with a cane. But I have a really cool cane. My life is good. I told the doctor last time, my parts are wearing out. But I was in a hospital, and it was at LSU New Hospital. And so they had attended for residents and so forth that came in my room and they said, oh, we’re in the wrong room. I said, well, who are you looking for? They said for Sybil Morial. I said, well, that’s me. They said, oh, we’re looking for an 89 year old lady. You can’t be 89 years old. Said to myself, Black, don’t crack.