Jerry Devillier started playing the harmonica at just five years old and developed a love for the instrument at a young age.
Le Musee in Iota honored Devillier for his many awards and volunteer work teaching others about Cajun music, culture and language. Devillier says he believes his work is keeping his culture alive.
"I do things like this as a volunteer, and it's preserved the music and the language, and that's all I do," Devillier said. "I'm 86 years old and I'm still going."
Celeste Babineaux says she and her three kids traveled from Lafayette to hear Devillier play his harmonica, but also ended up learning about Iota's history and Le Musee's World War 2 connection.
"The kids got to see a little bit of history for the town, for our culture, with Cajun music. The artifacts you get to see, how we lived back in the day," Babineaux said. "I think it was so priceless to see."
Devillier told KATC he used to decline events because he was very shy, but when he noticed the positive impact he was having, he started saying yes to all events.
"People said Jerry 'you need to let people know what you do', so now I say yes to everything. Today, I got an invite to go to Basile to do this," Devillier explained. "I did it for UL. I got an invitation from UL's board director to do what I did today."
For neighbors that would like to learn more about Cajun culture, Le Musee is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10am to 3pm.
