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RAYNE - With the announcement of the soon closing of Worthmore’s of Rayne, a common saying comes to mind, “If you can’t find it, check Worthmore’s.” -- and 99% of the time, it is true.
Known not only in the Acadiana area, Worthmore’s 5 & 10 Cent Store, located on the corner of avenues of Louisiana and South Adams, is known to many around the nation as it has been shopped during national RV conventions, visited by family members during vacations, and cruised by tour groups who visited downtown Rayne during multi-state trips.
But, shopping at one of a handful of the original “five and dime” stores remaining will be no more in February when the Hanks family has decided to close the doors, and also on a past that is remembered by generations.
“This is so sad for Rayne,” commented Monique Domingue, a Rayne native who has just returned “home” to enjoy her cherished memories of home. “For me, this was kinda of my playground and where I went for every single thing while growing up. I feel like my heart is broken.
“Like so many other people, this store has been here my entire life and will be missed. I just hope, if not the store, this building is here for many more years to come.”
Domingue picked up a few things for her grandchildren, knowing it would be her last shopping trip to the store she and so many others love.
You name it -- cast iron and Magnalite pots, china and silverware, school supplies, any and all sewing supplies, religious artifacts, rosaries and statues -- you name it, they had it.
All Saints Day will not be the same without Worthmore’s as floral bouquets where sold by the hundreds in any color desired for the graves of loved ones who have past on.
“You can’t buy flowers like this anymore,” stated one customer while in the store right after the announcement was made the store would be closing soon. “They last forever, literally.”
Worthmore’s has served the Rayne community for over 80 years, providing whatever it needed in so many ways. Whether it was for a school project, sewing or knitting supplies, rubber boots for the little ones or the best flowers around, it will be missed by many.
“When you needed something and didn’t want to run to Walmart or Lafayette, you went to Worthmore’s,” stated Judy Svendsen. “I walked the aisles this week for the last time, remembering about how many times I have shopped here and visited with so many familiar faces. This place will be missed.”
History
Worthmore’s has come a long way, not at all as we know it today. Local historian Sidney Stutes has penned many stories of the local landmark, including a history of the infamous corner that has defined Rayne since its beginning in the 1880s when the south Louisiana prairie was cut by an iron trail by the new railroad company.
The new railroad station, established by railroad official and Rayne’s founding father Dr. William H. Cunningham, is believed to named after railroad executive B.W.L. Rayne.
And what better place to situate a new store in a new community than near the railroad, eagerly welcoming anyone who hopped off the “iron horse” right in the midst of a new hustling and bustling community that was growing by the day, eventually incorporated in 1883 as the town of Rayne.
As noted by Stutes in a feature he provided for The Rayne Acadian-Tribune in late 2018, a brief history of the historical building was given, along with its owners.
“The lure of Rayne Station as the “doorway” to SW Louisiana attracted yet another Levy family member in the person of David Levy who, at age 28, arrived in the community from New Orleans just as the new year of 1887 was beginning. He started quickly in business of a “general mercantile store” at the corner of N. Adams and Louisiana (Worthmore’s).
Within three years, David Levy was elected to the town council in the administration of Mayor Louis Keller, the St. Mary native who operated a bakery across from St. Joseph Church.
Years later, it would be said of David Levy that if he had had “any luck at all,” he had been poised to challenge Mervine Kahn as Rayne’s premiere merchant. He had started off that well in his two-story business house.
It was not, however, so much in competition, but more in collaboration that the two Jewish merchants worked – again, in evidence, of mutual support among the “kinship.”
In 1894, when Mervine Kahn initiated the move to open Rayne’s first bank, David Levy joined the venture as a major stockholder and member of the Board of Directors.
Again – in 1897, David Levy banded with the likes of Edwin Bruner, Anselm Chappuis, Alphonse Duclos, and J. D. Bernard – along with family members Ernest and Leopold Levy – to establish the Rayne Ginning Company in the making of round bales of cotton by that fall.
Truth be told, however, David Levy’s business house was never as expansive in variety of merchandise or in association with the markets of New York-like Mervine Kahn’s store. But more directly, David Levy seemed “fated” to suffer, not once, but twice, the scourge of all small towns of the era “built of wood” – fire!
At the start of his eighth year in Rayne – in February, 1895 – David Levy’s general store was destroyed in Rayne’s second so-called “great fire” in its existence, the one that fanned from Rev. J. W. Walker’s home in NW Rayne, ultimately to consume the properties of Pierre F. Besse, Edwin Bruner, Paul Hebert, Anselm Chappuis, and more.
Resilient – aided and buoyed by assistance from the Jewish community, David Levy rebuilt at the corner of N. Adams and Louisiana an even larger facility at his magnificent “Acadia Cash Emporium,” with warehouse and furniture department.
And – in what was, in effect, a second start, David Levy would continue in service to community, serving yet another term on the town council in the O. Broussard administration (1898-1908). In September, 1904, he arranged a meeting of some 10 “Master Masons” whose work led to the organization of Rayne Lodge No. 313 in April, 1906. He had, as well, originally upon arrival in Rayne, been a founding member of Old Hickory Camp No. 31 of the Woodmen of the World.
But – it was David Levy’s “lot” to suffer yet another fire loss – this one, in 1909, estimated at some $80,000, with only about half covered by insurance. About that, historian Mary Alice Fontenot wrote, “An immediate offer of help came from a fellow townsman, Emile Daboval Jr., who owned the Valverde Hotel at the moment, and offered the use of the two-story, brick structure free of charge until Levy could rebuild.”
And rebuild again, David Levy did, this time in brick at the same corner of N. Adams and Louisiana Ave. Then, with a vitality that showed his strength in courage, he married, at age 49, the widow Mrs. F. S. Fleming.
Primed for a third start in Rayne, tragedy struck and David Levy died from heart failure at his residence at 9:50 p.m. on Monday, May 8, 1911, “at age 52 years, 4 months, and 15 days.” Although his heart had given him trouble previously, his condition was not thought to be serious and “. . . caused neither him nor his family any alarm.”
In fact, David Levy had been seen that late afternoon “on the streets of Rayne” and was in apparent good health “up to an hour or so before his last.” The Tribune would write in its next edition, “David Levy’s sagacity and honesty in all his dealings won for him a reputation as an excellent business man. He was well-liked by everyone and esteemed by his friends as a man commanding respect and one who was square almost to scrupulousness and true to his fellow-man.”
Members of his beloved Old Hickory Camp No. 31. Woodmen of the World, assembled that Monday evening at the Levy residence to escort the remains to the Southern Pacific Depot, where at 11:30 p.m. that night, the casket was placed on the train that brought David Levy to his final resting place in the family plot in New Orleans.
In settling the estate, David Levy’s business house was purchased in 1911 by a company headed by Dr. John D. Hunter (then, the mayor) and Albert McNeil, who continued in operation under the same name, “Acadia Cash Emporium,” for a number of years, until Dr. Hunter and Mr. McNeil liquidated the establishment to form the McNeil-Hunter Motor Company at the site to sell Ford automobiles in 1922.
In later years, Dave Rosenbaum came to Rayne in 1936 to purchase the building and open “Worthmore’s 5, 10 and 25 Cent Store” on June 14, 1936, eventually to sell to the partnership of Effie and Isaac (Ike) J. Hanks and Claude Guidry.”
With their passing, the Hanks’ grandchildren assumed ownership of the Rayne landmark which was operated by Normand Faulk (and his late wife Nettie) for many years until February of 2020 when the grandchildren have announced the closing of the cherished Rayne business.
Not sure what the answer will now be of where to find that hard-to-find item, but it will not be our beloved Worthmore’s.