His funeral was scheduled at noon Saturday at St.
Luke's Episcopal Church in Baton Rouge, with
visitation Friday evening and Saturday morning.
He will be buried in St. Williams Cemetery in the
Livingston Parish town of Port Vincent, 19 miles
from Baton Rouge.Over Wilson's career, he released five
cookbooks, 27 albums of short stories and an
album of Christmas songs. He was host of
several cooking programs, including "Louisiana
Cookin'."His white hair, big smile and bright red
suspenders were well known. He wore a belt, too,
saying it was because he was a safety engineer.But he didn't play it safe on TV. He worked
without a script, taping before live audiences and
refusing to let mistakes be edited out or canned
laughter edited in, said Carl Fry, who produced all
of his Louisiana Public Broadcasting shows."He would say, `I'll tell a joke. If they like it, they
like it," Fry recounted.SNIP
Wilson used to say that he "granulated" from high
school at 16, then spent five years at Louisiana
State University "majoring in girls" before he gave
up on college without a degree.He "hoboed around the country," picking fruit,
washing dishes, digging ditches and whatever
other work the Depression afforded.In 1934, Gov. Huey Long hired him to police the
state's grain warehouse industry, starting a
career as a safety consultant and law
enforcement officer.He was inspired to pursue a career in public
speaking after meeting Will Rogers in the 1930s."He told me always to tell 'em clean, and always
tell your audience something serious -- or they'll
think you're a complete fool," he recalled.His recipes for television and cooking were
similar."Cajun cooking is the ability to take what you
have and create a good dish and season it right,"
Wilson told The Associated Press in 1990."It isn't all that hard, but so few people know how
to take what they have and put it together and
season it properly," he said. "It's creative cooking
-- that's all it is."
"A momma crawfish and her lil baby crawfish were walking along a wet pasture after a rain."
"Next thing you know, the lil baby crawfish go 'flap, flap, flap, flap' in reverse."
"The momma crawfish said 'What's the matter lil ones? Why you running away?'
"The lil baby craw fish said, 'We scared of that big thing mommy!'"
"The momma craw fish said, 'Oh! Don't worry bout that! That's just a cow. They don't harm us crawfish.'
"A little further down the pasture, the lil crawfish go flap, flap, flap, flap in full reverse."
"The momma crawfish asked 'What is is now? Why you so scared?"
"The lil crawfish say, 'Oh momma, we are scared of that!'"
"The momma crawfish said, 'Oh you lil crawfish! That's just a horse. They don't bothor us crawfish.'"
"Walking a lil further down the pasture, all a sudden the momma crawfish high tails it in reverse...flap, flap, flap, flap.."
"The baby craw fish asks, 'Momma! What's wrong?'"
"The momma crawfish told the lil crawfish, "Now you see that there is a cajun, and they eat anything!"