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OPELOUSAS, April 23 — A heart attack during his sleep was fatal to Thomas Leslie Stafford, 62, Opelousas Elementary School principal at about 4:30 a.m. today. Stafford had held his position for the past 19 years.
The body is at Lafonde & Son. Services will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday at Methodist Church with the Rev. R. Walton officiating. Military and Masonic rites set at graveside in Myrtle Grove Cemetery.
Survived by wife, the former Pearl Fowler of Opelousas; one son, Thomas Lee, coach at Melville High School; one daughter, Mrs. Jack Perry of Jacksonville, Fla.; two brothers, George of Angie and Mark of Franklinton; one sister, Mrs. D. E. Lampton of Tylertown, Miss.
Stafford was born March 18, 1892, in Washington Parish. He attended Northwestern State College and received his BA and MA degrees from LSU. He taught in the public shools in Washington and St. Tammany parishes for several years, coming to St. Landry in 1921 as principal of Washington High School. He was transferred to Opelousas Elementary School in 1935. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge, the American Legion, the Eastern Star, Indian Hills Country Club, the National, Louisiana and St. Landry Education Associations and the St. Landry Principals Association.
He had served as superintendent of the Methodist Sunday School for 25 years, retiring only last year.
All three white public schools in Opelousas were closed today in respect to Stafford.
Published in The Morning Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA), Saturday, April 24, 1954
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1892 - 1954 (62 years)
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