LAFAYETTE, La. - The life and legacy of Dr. Ernest J. Gaines will be remembered with a public memorial service at Edith Dupre Library at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
His internationally acclaimed works include "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" and "A Lesson Before Dying," for which he received a Pulitzer Prize nomination and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1993. Gaines was a writing professor and writer-in-residence at UL Lafayette for more than a quarter century.
Following his retirement from the University, he worked to establish the Gaines Center on campus, which is a repository for many of his first-edition works and original manuscripts.
Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16, at Hall Davis and Sons, 9348 Scenic Highway in Baton Rouge. His family will receive visitors at the funeral home from 4-6 p.m. Nov. 15 and from noon to 1 p.m. on the day of the services. Burial will follow at Mount Zion Baptist Church, located on the grounds of Gaines' ancestral home in rural Pointe Coupee Parish.
The public is invited to attend.
