Aug. 21, 2001 – Frenchtown was a little less last week with the loss of Frank Frederick Francis Anthony Olive, better known as "Deacon."
Deacon lived all of his life in a little house next to what is now Craig and Sally's restaurant, except for when he served in Viet Nam. His dog, Zouk, with her quizzical look, one ear up and one ear down, could be seen lying out front guarding the small structure 'most any time of day.
And Deacon, usually in his army camouflage hat, would be swinging in his hammock, greeting friends who passed by through his open door, if he wasn't off on a painting or gardening job.
He changed his hat for Carnival this year. Sitting among his old buddies on the porch of the Zima Supermarket across the street from his house, he observed Carnival in his own way, proudly wearing a red hat sporting two bull's horns and chatting with his pals using his tracheotomy apparatus.
After battling cancer for a year and a half, Deacon learned in March that his disease was terminal. That night, his faithful companion Zouk heard Deacon having apparent difficulty in breathing. The dog trotted up the street to Deacon's brother's house, scratched on the bedroom louvers, and awakened Deacon Alberto Olive, an actual church deacon, who rushed his brother to Schneider Hospital, where doctors performed a tracheotomy.
Deacon learned to live with his "trach." He was moved from the hospital to the Sea View Nursing and Rehabilitation Facility, but his sister and brother-in-law Sylvia and Tommy Winckler and his brother Frank brought him home every weekend to see Zouk and his old buddies.
Lifelong friend Steve Turbe shook his head sadly this week. "He was such a good friend to everybody," Turbe said. "He always listened."
Deacon left a legion of friends in Frenchtown who felt the same way. Perhaps his cousin Mary Hendricks Scott summed up their feelings best in a letter Sylvia Winckler read at his funeral service at St. Anne's Chapel: "Behind that rough and straggly beard was a man who loved and cared and made this world a little better."
Deacon was buried in Western Cemetery on Aug. 16 with his camouflage hat and Zouk's leash. He is survived by his brothers Deacon Alberto Olive, Jean Francois Olive, Monsanto Olive, the Rev. Alphonse Olive and John Geraldo Olive; his sisters Sylvia Winckler, Emily Montes, Theresa Danet, the Rev. Marie Haydock, Terry Danet and Mary Duzant; brothers-in-law Pierre Danet, Thomas Winckler, and Juan Montes; sisters-in-law Sylvia Olive, Edna Olive, Irma Olive and Joanne Olive; his dog, Zouk; and many other relatives and friends.
Zouk has been adopted by Deacon's brother, the deacon.
