The Flying Vet of Lafayette

How one immigrant with an airplane revolutionized veterinary medicine in Acadiana

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It is 1945 in the Acadiana region of South Louisiana. Stepping outside into the heavy, summer heat, you breathe the scent of wet soil and livestock in deeply. You place your hand on your forehead to guard your eyes, and tilt your head up towards the vast Louisiana sky. A 1939 model Piper Cub Coupe airplane is lazily making circle after circle above the area.

The vet is in town. 

In mid-20th century Lafayette, where agriculture was a primary source of income and sustenance for families and where transportation was still largely dependent upon buggies pulled by horses or mules, veterinary medicine was a vital enterprise. It was also practiced largely in the realm of what is known as “traditional medicine,” by Creole folk healers known as traiteurs.

It wasn’t until the arrival of German immigrant Dr. Lippi Leonpacher that the practice of veterinary medicine as a science became established in the area. 

In 2016, Leonpacher’s granddaughter, Leslie Leonpacher, produced The Flying Vet of Lafayette, a documentary about her grandfather’s contributions to South Louisiana as an immigrant and as one of the first licensed veterinarians in the Lafayette area. 

Dr. Robert Leonpacher, who today works as a veterinarian himself, remembers helping out his father on those days, “I probably loaded way more syringes than most people in the country.” 

With the help of her neighbor and friend, director Eric Breaux, Leslie began filming interviews with her father, aunt, and uncles, and with other people who had known her grandfather. She began to look through the materials her grandfather had left behind and to consolidate it all. Leonpacher was an avid record keeper, writing down, drawing, filming and photographing everything. “It was almost like he left all the breadcrumbs,” she says. “And they were organized breadcrumbs.” 

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In addition to having produced documents that remain cherished possessions of the family, Leonpacher’s meticulous records are of great value today: for their raw insight into early veterinary medicine, and for the vibrant picture they paint of the Acadiana region at that time. His extensive journals, now held in the University of Louisiana Lafayette Special Collections and Archives Library, document the journey from his hometown of Traunstein in the southeastern part of Bavaria, Germany to his landing spot in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Dr. Louitpould Leonpacher was born on February 25, 1890, the youngest of 13 children. When his young nephews couldn’t pronounce his name, they called him “Lippi,” and the name stuck, forever. His daughter Margaret notes that even she never called him “Dad,” only Lippi. 

 He received his degree in Veterinary Arts from the University of Munich.  Growing up in an era of innovation, his journals indicate an inherent curiosity; a curiosity that beckoned him to distant shores, and the new world. “The United States was so promising and wide open. He felt that he could create his own life there, his own legacy,” says his granddaughter Leslie. After journeying across the ocean to Canada and down through the United States, he was finally offered a veterinary position with Dr. Paul Orchard in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1917. There he established his reputation, specializing in large animals. 

In the East Feliciana Parish town of Slaughter, Louisiana, Leonpacher experienced his first exposure to anthrax. The illness spread through herds of cattle, killing hundreds at a time. Here he began to theorize about the origins and causes of such outbreaks, and soon became a local authority on the disease. 

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A treatment for anthrax already existed, but it was proving ineffective. Leonpacher’s research on the matter helped labs to develop a new and improved vaccine that saved the lives of thousands of cattle in the area. 

“He would bring his microscope out into the field,” says Leslie. “To him it was the science of veterinary medicine, the germ theory of disease. He was studying it from a bacterial and microbial level, which was extremely new.”

In 1926, Leonpacher left Baton Rouge and opened a branch of Dr. Orchard’s practice in Lafayette. He would later open his own practice, Lafayette Animal Hospital. The Flying Vet of Lafayette describes the Lafayette of this time as a version of “country come to town.” People were migrating from country farms into the new city, and they were bringing their animals with them. 

“He loved the family culture here in Cajun Country,” Leslie says. “Family was really important to him. The way these people just embraced him…he was ‘Doc.’ He was creating his own little family.” 

And he was. Leonpacher married Fanny Mendel in 1927. Together they had five children: Erwin, Walter, Alfred, Robert, and Margaret. Margaret remembers his love of photographing his family, “He always had a camera out. He had his own darkroom; he developed his own prints. We have albums of treasures of the films that he developed and pictures he took.” 

In the mid-1930s, Leonpacher and Fanny earned their pilots’ licenses, and acquired an airplane so that Leonpacher could more easily reach remote parts of Acadiana where veterinary services were few and far between. Fanny earned her license first, making her the third woman in Louisiana to become a licensed pilot. Leonpacher would often fly to large cattle farms to stage large-scale vaccinations for anthrax. The all-day operation would end with more than eight hundred head of cattle vaccinated. Dr. Robert Leonpacher, who today works as a veterinarian himself, remembers helping out his father on those days, “I probably loaded way more syringes than most people in the country.” 

Robert also remembers a time when his father was being questioned about his occasional trips home to Germany. Leonpacher’s response was, “That’s the only place you can get good beer and the best sausages.” 

Before going on these larger operations, Leonpacher would alert the entire community to which he was headed that he would be in town, so that smaller farms would also get the opportunity to have their animals cared for. He would send penny post cards advertising his upcoming arrival, and on the day of, would circle the area several times to announce that he was there. His son Robert says that the priest would even announce in daily mass whenever “the flying vet” was coming to town. 

A German, a pilot, and a photographer active during the mid-twentieth century in America, Leonpacher’s particular blend of skills branded him as a “person of interest” in the eyes of the U.S. government. During both World Wars he was arrested on suspicion of being a German spy. The second time this happened, it was the testimony of local farmers and friends that confirmed that this man could not be a Nazi. Leonpacher was saving animals, helping to feed people here in America, and preserving people’s livelihoods. 

Nevertheless, his children remember being called “little Nazis” on the playground due to the rumors. Robert also remembers a time when his father was being questioned about his occasional trips home to Germany. Leonpacher’s response was, “That’s the only place you can get good beer and the best sausages.” 

Growing up in a German home in the middle of Cajun country, his children have fond memories of hearing their parents speak German while being tutored regularly in French. “We ate a lot of sauerkraut, but our family was also really into crawfish,” Robert says. 

His children often accompanied Leonpacher on his veterinary excursions and in his airplane. Margaret remembers, “Sunday afternoon was a time to go flying. It was a playful time.” 

As Leonpacher grew older, he began to work more and more in the gardens that surrounded his home, and a pond, still known today as “Lippi Lake.” This love of flowers is something that Leslie shares with her grandfather, something she feels connects her to him. “He loved that everything grew here. The Louisiana Irises were his favorite, and I love to paint them. It’s fun to work with the things he loved.” 

Margaret thinks Leslie’s extensive work on this documentary is admirable and a story that needs to be told.

“It’s a beautiful message. A pioneer coming to Louisiana and developing the anthrax vaccine to help the lifeblood of the ranchers and farmers in South Louisiana. This is what they lived for. The Flying Vet really did what he wanted to do. He was loved everywhere he went. He was proud of America. He loved it, the freedom. He said everything in America was so much bigger than in Europe. Everything about it was just wide open. He loved that.” 

The Flying Vet of Lafayette documentary will be screened on August 9th at the Acadiana Center for the Arts in Lafayette. The journals will be on display starting at 6:30 pm and the showing will begin at 7:30 pm with a question and answer period after the film. The tickets will be available at acadianacenterforthearts.org. 

The Flying Vet of Lafayette documentary is also slated to air on Louisiana Public Broadcasting in the near future. For more information on this and other screenings, look for The Flying Vet of Lafayette on Facebook.