Eston Bellow was born on August 5th, 1931, to parents Lawrence and Lena Brown Bellow in the farming community of Swords, near Opelousas, Louisiana. He was the second of six children. There was older sister Helen, then younger brothers; Norris, Jim, Melvin, and Lawrence Jr. All were born in Swords, except for the youngest, Lawrence Jr., who was born in Eunice. Besides farming on a section of inherited family property that was previously owned by his grandparents, Frank Francois Brown and Marie Godeaux Brown, Eston's father Lawrence was also a school bus driver. As a young boy, Eston along with his siblings had to help on the farm to survive, whether it was picking cotton on their property for themselves to sell or for other property owners, and also plowing and planting different seasonal crops from dusk until dawn. Eston recalls the house had no electricity or running water. They used candles for lighting and drew water from a well. He recalls the winters were harsh in the old house on piers and hot during the summer, but the family all got along. In the winter time the family would make a boucherie ( butcher a pig) which was a whole day event, to make cured hams, sausages, bacon, crackling, boudin, hog head cheese, along with cuts of meat like pork chops, ribs, steaks, etc. They also raised a few cows and chickens, not to mention they grew their own garden vegetables. But life was hard on the farm and eventually, Lena convinced Lawrence to move the family to the town of Eunice. Eston's parents, grandparents, and other relatives all decided to sell the property and moved all five family houses to the city of Eunice, which had to be made up to fit the city codes. The Bellow kids quickly adapted to small town life. They lived near a store and Eston's grandmother would send the kids with eggs to trade for goods. She would make homemade ice cream on occasion for a treat for the family. All the Bellow kids went to school, were involved in sports, especially football for the boys. Eston excelled on the football field. His younger brother Melvin graduated from Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute (currently University of Louisiana - Lafayette) in the city of Lafayette, Louisiana. All of them graduated high school. As a young boy, Eston's grandfather Francois Brown ran a blacksmith shop. There was a man who would bring things to get repaired but had little to no money, but he had a German made Steiner brand fiddle that he offered for trade, which Francois excepted. Francois taught himself to play it and would entertain the family with music while they danced on Saturday's. That same fiddle is still in the family and is over 100 years old. Eston did not pick up fiddle playing like his grandfather but 1st learned the guitar. But observing his father Lawrence tapping his foot while keeping the beat inspired Eston to learn to play the drums, which he would self teach himself. In his teens, around 1949, Eston and a fellow teenage cousin from Eunice by the name of Harry Lafleur, who played the fiddle, would join up with veteran accordion player Amar T-Frere Devillier and went on to play many Bals de Maison ( house dances), birthday parties, and other private events in the area. But, as Eston quipped, "Everyone wanted them to play, but not for pay"! They would call themselves "Harry and the Louisiana Aces". Eventually, Amar got the bands first dancehall gig, playing at the infamous Courtableau Inn in Port Barre, known as "Bloody Bucket." The club was notorious for fights and stabbings. Port Barre was where the Devillier family had originated before Amar's mother re-located him and his siblings to the farming community of L'anse Maigre, located between the towns of Mamou and Eunice. The gig at Courtableau payed them $12.50. That same year in 1949, Eston went to work at a local Ford dealership in Eunice and in 1950, bought himself his first car. It had no air conditioning and he would taxi Harry and another musician who joined the band, guitar player and vocalist Joseph "Cabri" Menier to the bands gigs. Around that same year, a group consisting of Amar on accordion, Eston on drums, Cabri on guitar, Dennis McGee on fiddle, Isom Fontenot on harmonica, and Wallace Lafleur on vocals recorded the two 1st songs for Khourey records new Lyric label out of Lake Charles. The songs were the "Durald Two-Step" and "Shoe Pick Waltz". The songs were recorded live at KEUN studio in Eunice. They were later released the following year around 1950/51. The group was gaining attention and doing well. Not long afterwards in 1951, near tragedy struck the band. Amar and Eston along with their wives were driving in Amar's truck with a homemade camper in the bed in which their kids were passengers. Two oncoming vehicles (supposedly state troopers) were racing each other and one of them avoided hitting them by swerving into a gully on one side of the road, but the other vehicle struck the drivers side. The crash was so violent that it knocked the camper off the back of the truck on the railroad tracks, which was on the opposite side of the road, with the kids flying out and landing hard and injuring them. Amar would suffer an injury to his brain, which caused him to have to stop playing his accordion for several years. Eston and Harry would continue the band and picked up Iry Lejuene's step-brother, Whitney Doucet from Point Noir, the birthplace of Iry. They would pick up Whitney and continue to make the drive to Port Barre to play. On occasion, Easton said while he would drive the others would sometimes drink a little too much and would get into arguments. He would have to pull over while they would sometimes get into a fight or roll around in the grass. He knew he still had to go to work in the morning. Another story he tells, is of a time he talked Cabri into taking a turn driving, so Cabri borrowed his fathers car. They got a few miles down the road from Eunice and the car had stopped running. After looking around under the hood for awhile Eston asked,"Whats going on with this car"? Cabri said "I don't know. They eventually look at the gas gauge and as it turns out the car was on empty. After awhile, they got a guy coming down the road in his vehicle to push them from behind to a gas station. When they get there one of them asked how much money did they have. The guys start digging in their pockets and all are coming up empty, except Eston, who had one silver dollar that he carried on him for a long time. It got them just enough gas to make it to the Courtableau Inn. ( Harry Lafleur was married to the floor bouncer's daughter). Eston recalls not long after that night, Iry Lejuene had booked himself to play at the Blue Goose in Eunice. It was on a Sunday and people laughed at Iry that he had booked a band to play on a Sunday, because they never had a dance on Sunday's held there. So he asked Whitney's son-in-law, who was blind drummer, Eston on guitar, and Harry on fiddle to play the gig with him. When they showed up to play, it was so packed with people they could not all get in. They played two more times after that, filling the dancehall each Sunday, before Iry went on to Lake Charles to cut records and perform there. In 1958, Eston, Cabri, and Harry Lafleur were encouraged to join up with Austin Pitre and the Evangeline Playboys to make recordings. The group performed at many functions during Austin's tenure with Swallow Records for Floyd Soileau at Floyd's Record Shop in Ville Platte. Eston would go on through the next several decades playing with many big name Cajun musicians such as: Robert Bertrand, The Balfa Bros, Marc, Savoy, Jean Savoie, Ray Landry, J.C. Labbie, Don Thibodeaux, Nunc Allie Young, Blackie Forestier, Jerry Devillier, Paul Daigle, just to name a few. The list is impressive and goes on and on. In the mid 1980's, close friend Harry Lafleur visited Eston in his home and while over supper in the kitchen/dining area Harry pitch's an idea to him to start a music organization similar to country music's and also introduce a Cajun Music Hall Of Fame similar to other what the other music genres had. The two did a lot of the legwork together to make it happen, such as holding meetings, holding fundraiser events, etc. Thus, the Cajun French Music Association (CFMA) was established in 1984, in Basile, Louisiana as a non-profit organization, with its first charter chapter in Eunice, with it's purpose to preserve the Cajun Music and the Cajun heritage. Harry became the organizations first charter member President and Eston became the first charter member Treasurer. In the beginning, it had started out with about 30 members. Since then it has grown to over 2000 members and has several chapters throughout Louisiana and Southeast Texas. Eston, through his 74 year music career has done a remarkable job of documenting his life in Cajun music with an impressive personal collection of photo's, writings, music recordings, etc. He currently has an entire room in his home dedicated for it. Eston at this time is 91 years of age and is still sharp minded and carries with him a ton of valuable knowledge of Cajun muisc, heritage and culture. He is truly deserving of any accolades and awards he has received which includes "The Heritage Award" presented to him by the CFMA Acadiana Chapter in 2018. In my opinion, this man should be in the Hall of Fame and should have been a charter inductee. I can't help but wonder how this man was missed through all these years. Hopefully it will be rectified someday soon. A special thank you to all who contributed to this biography: Jerry Devillier, The Eunice News archives, The Opelousas Daily World archives, The Evangeline News archives, CFMA, Eston's daughter Delores Bellow Fontenot, granddaughter Lisa Bellow Myers, and especially Mr. Eston Bellow himself, for graciously allowing me to interview him at his home in Eunice, Louisiana. This man is a living treasure for Cajun music. **NOTE** Dedicated to Eston , his kids David Bellow, Dolores Bellow Fontenot, and Ricky Bellow from the late Mrs. Eula Mae Lee Prader and grandkids. **NOTE** Eston was inducted into the CFMA Lake Charles Chapter's Cajun Music Hall of Fame. Thank You Ms. Rhonda Istre, who is the person in charge of the Hall of fame in Lake Charles. Composed by Neal P Granger
The 1st recording Eston was a part of. "Durald Two Step" with Amar Devillier and the Louisiana Jambileers
One of several recordings Eston was on with Austin Pitre
Left to right: Norris "Boboy" Fontenot (fiddle), J.C. Labbie (accordion), Joseph "Cabri" Menier (guitar) and Eston Bellow (drums),
Former members who in the past had played with Amar Devillier .Left to Right: Angelas Manuel (Fiddle) Eston Bellow (drums), Joseph "Cabri" Menier,(guitar), and Jerry Devillier ( Amar's accordion)
Eston on drums with Paul Daigle and Cajun Gold
Performing at DI'S Cajun Restaurant in Basile, Louisiana on the bass guitar.
Pictured above is Eston in his incredible room of his lifetime of music memorabilia.
Cliff Miller (fiddle), J.C. Labbie (accordion), Eston (drums), Joseph "Cabri" Menier (guitar)
The photo at Belizaire's left to right: Gina Forsyth (fiddle), Blackie Forestier (accordion), Eston Bellow (drum), D.L. Menard (guitar)
Mulates photo : Vincent Young ( bass fiddle), unidentified, Harry Lafleur (fiddle), Nunc Allie Young (accordion) Eston (drums), Claudia Woods (guitar)
Left to right: Roy Fontenot (fiddle), Joe Ortego (drums), J.C. Labbie (accordion) and Eston (guitar)
