Prosper Lamal, son of parents Tilman Lamal and Isabelle Banderelst, came to New Orleans in 1884 to manage the Belgian exhibit at the World Cotton Centennial. Lamal fell in love with a department store clerk named Marie Grandmont. They wed April 23, 1885 in New Orleans and that union bore one daughter, Isabelle on July 16, 1886.
Prosper became a successful Belgian manufacturer's agent importer of many goods from paving stones, window plate glass and mirrors, steel iron beams, encaustic tiles, colognes, soap, linens, woolens bi-sulphite of lime, veterinary products, gloves, buttons, trimmings, musical instruments, lozenges, liturgical prayer books, chromos, toilet waters, and sugar plantation specialties. His company, Comptoir Industriel Belge, was the envy of local businessmen.
In 1886, he is most noted for the implementation of the New Orleans encaustic blue colored street tiles along street corners at some of the most impressionable locations in the city. Carriage drivers, horsemen and pedestrians could find their ways around better while stores, services, homes and apartments could mark their the identities of its thoroughfares.
Prosper Lamal, who represented the United States in the Jury of Awards, Group 158, musical instruments, merchandise, etc., at the Musical Instruments of the World's Columbian Exposition held May 1 to October 31, 1893 in Chicago, is not the least conspicuous.
Mr. Lamal died at his home in New Orleans, La., March 11, 1895, from the effects of a cold contracted while in attendance at the Antwerp Exposition of 1894 and of liver cancer, per death certificate.
Other burials listed on the Marie Grandmont's second husband James W. Gleason tombstone:
1849 J W Gleason 1904
1852 H R Grandmont 1908
1828 Wid E Grandmont 1912
Corinne Grandmont
Wife of R L Bernard
1866-1938
R L Bernard
1871-1939
M G Gleason
1858-1946
1836 Prosper Lamal 1895
Mrs J Carlisle
1886-1952