She passed away on July 20 in the Gers, but we only learned the news at the beginning of the week. A last fit of modesty? Louisette Texier was used to it, even if she was nicknamed the “bulldozer”. Modest and flirtatious, did she not declare, after one of her rally victories, that she was bound to “arrive before the others to have time to put on make-up before the finish” ? But she was not only modest, she was also of the caliber of those who never flinch, and never flinch. Because Louisette has come a long way. Precisely from Armenia, where she was born in 1913.

France after the Armenian tragedy

She was two years old when her father was hanged. The Armenian genocide perpetuates its massacres and the one who is still called Harpiné Hovanessian is hidden and hastily taken to an orphanage in Istanbul. She left it ten years later to join other homes, in Salonika in Greece, then in France. But at fifteen, she wants to be free. She runs away, trades her name for that of Louisette Texier and becomes a successful dancer in the cabarets of Montmartre.

Years go by and the Germans occupy Paris. Louisette no longer performs on stage. She enters into resistance, hides Jews and participates in the liberation of Paris. Its post-war period will be calmer. She married and gave birth to two children. But her taste for independence takes over and she divorces. Louisette has an idea: she wants to sell jeans for women. A trade that the Americans are barely starting. In France, no one has ever risked it. She opened a shop in Neuilly in 1956 and it was a success. But at the same time, another passion will emerge in his life and occupy him for a long time. She attends a motorcycle race where a pilot friend has trained her. it’s love at first sight for motorsports.

She will train and learn not to ride a motorcycle, but to pilot a car. A few months later, she became the first woman to enter the Monte-Carlo rally, driving a Simca Aronde P60 Montlhéry. Until 1964, she went through rallies, and participated in the Tour de France auto with her Jaguar MK2. In 1963, she finished second overall and went on to win victories across Europe. The car ? This is his thing “the rest, I didn’t care. I never even rode a bike”, she will explain at the end of her life. But auto racing would never occupy him full time. At the same time, she is developing her boutiques. She will own, and manage, three until her retirement, which she deigns to take, at 90 years old.

Before that, she will have raced her last rally, that of Kenya, at 80 years old. Retired in the Gers, Louisette will once again put on her helmet for a karting session with her grandson. She was then 104 years old. She passed away this summer after a long journey of 108 years. Obviously, she will be missed by her children, her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren. But Louisette has lived a life like no other. An exceptional life because, after a chaotic start, it was the one she had chosen for herself, the one she decided to lead as she pleased, to the end.

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