Leatherneck Magazine

Lejeune, Lejern

And How to Say It

The common denominator of all Marine Corps virtues is “respect.” Therefore, it would, indeed, be difficult, if not impossible to find a Marine, past or present, who has earned our respect more than Lieutenant General John Archer Lejeune, pronounced LeJERN. Every year, Marines worldwide read, as ordered in November of 1921, LtGen Lejeune’s Birthday Message, which enhances our much-envied 10 Nov. tradition.

The birthday traditions take a distant second place to the fact that the general is credited with single-handedly saving the Corps after World War I. Respect for the general, post his passing, has reached almost religious proportions. A major base in North Carolina, memorial halls at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., as well as a major highway

P. T. BRENT

By P. T. Brent

in Florida have all been named in honor of the general and his impressive military record.

“Respect” is the issue down in Pointe Coupee (pronounced pon kupee) Parish, La., where the citizens, including nearly 200 descendants of the general’s family, have for two centuries pronounced the family name Luh-JERN, albeit spelled Lejeune. Today’s Lejeune family traces its heritage back to the Jean Baptiste Lejeune family. Louisiana is “gyrene” territory, with six Marine generals hailing from the bayous, including two Commandants, Major General Commandant John Lejeune, the 13th, and General Robert H. Barrow, the 27th.

Family members share the story in a kind and gentle fashion, that when Northerners (aka Yankees) say the name, they change it without regard for the correct pronunciation. In our lastest generation of leathernecks, many have lost the correct sound for the name Lejeune.

The Lejeune name is a legacy in this southern parish where the general was born on 10 Jan. 1867. The French heritage, Cajun and Creole accents, and the Napoleonic legal codes all blend to create a chivalrous way of life in southern Louisiana.

The Louisiana state
historical marker
tells all who pass that
LtGen John A. Lejeune
was born in Innis, La.,
but little remains of the
old house. Lejeune descen-
dant Jacques LaCour (right)
stands in front of the ruins
of the Lejeune home.

LtGen Lejeune’s descendants such as Jacques LaCour, whose family owns the Old Hickory Plantation where John Lejeune was born, as well as the parish administrator, Owen J. “Jimmy” Bello, and the parish historian would like to know how their most famous son’s name became so widely misspoken. In the 1960s and ’70s, consensus has it that at least half the Marines used the correct LeJERN articulation. Time and inattention in other climes has diminished the proper pronunciation of the general’s name.

There is absolute unanimity on the correct pronunciation at his birthplace. One retired Marine told me: “It was like tomato/ tomäto.” He later recanted and assured me that leathernecks pronouncing “ LeJERN” are both on target as well as respectful. So where did it go awry?

It took several generations and some notable sea stories to have our illustrious leatherneck’s name so mispronounced. One Marine major’s French lady tried convincing her Marine that the French pronounce the name Luh Joon, which means “the young.” Clearly, she had not been to Pointe Coupee, La., and learned of the Lejeune (LeJERN) family legacy.