Louis Coulon Devillier was born April 3, 1914 in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of Olide Coulon “Skunk” Devillier, Sr. and Helen Stelly Devillier. He and his family moved to Bancroft, a small community just northwest of Winnie, in August of 1914. There they share-cropped with T. Simon until 1920. Devillier’s father bought a home in Beaumont so the children could go to school. At this time his father did highland farming and logging to make a living for the family.
Louis quit school in 1929 at the age of 15, to start farming with his father. This was during the period of the binder and separator method of farming. A lot of the work was done with mules. He and his dad farmed 1100 acres of rice. In 1933 he married Audrey Stutes, and together they fed and tended to the farm laborers which were as many as 40 at one time. In 1941 he started farming on his own. His first crop was 101 acres.
Devillier worked at the shipyard in Beaumont on the night shift during World War II, to make ends meet, and took care of his farm during the day.
In 1958 he formed a partnership with his sons, and together they farmed 1800 acres of rice and 800 acres of soybeans. In 1990 they were farming under the government’s rice program.
He was a partner with O. C. Devillier Jr. and Edward Devillier in the Devillier Bonded Warehouse. It was a complete operation in that they furnished the seed, cut, hauled, dried, and shipped the rice by train to the Supreme Rice Mill in Crowley, Louisiana, owned by a first cousin, Joe Dore. There the rice was sold. In 1990 the dryer was still in operation and is known as Chambers County Rice Dryer, operated by nephew Richard Devillier.
Louis and the late Audrey Devillier are the parents of two sons, Sammy and Jerry, and one daughter, Ann Austin, all of Winnie.
When asked about farming, Devillier said he has seen good times and he has seen bad times, but he managed to remain in farming. “Farming has been good to this community and this community has been good to farming and to me,” he said.