By Rachel Cherry

ABBEVILLE - At the Abbeville City Council meeting a motion was made to name the industrial park loop near the airport after one of Vermilion Parish’s prominent and influential citizens, Revis Sirmon.

The road, located on the east side of the city, services businesses near the airport.

The request to the mayor and council came from the Louisiana Military Hall of Fame and Museum board.

Sirmon, who served his country in World War II, came back to his childhood home of Abbeville and went to work for the Godchaux family.

In 1954 he became a partner in the newly formed Coastal Mud Co. and in 1958 was a partner in forming Coastal Chemical Company.

An excerpt from a biography printed in the Abbeville Meridional described the early days of his business:When we started Coastal Chemical Co. in the summer of 1958 I was president, salesman, and warehouseman. With my son Johnny’s help on weekends we drummed up our supply of inventory for delivery the next week. My wife, Lorraine was bookkeeper, order taker, and social escort when we entertained our customers and suppliers which was a large part of our selling in this business. Our office was a small desk in the corner of our small bedroom. For delivery we had Moon Fredrick who made his headquarters at the pool hall. When Lorraine got an order she would call him there and he came by the house, picked up the delivery ticket, got the delivery truck loaded up, made the delivery, then dropped off the signed delivery ticket so that Lorraine could type and mail the invoice. Moon then went back to the pool hall and waited for the next call. The next call may be the next hour or next week.