Italian roots still run deep in south Kenner. It is a rich heritage that has been kept alive through traditions carried down through the generations. Family and friends gathered recently to preserve this culture at the annual St. Rosalie Procession held at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church. 

Hundreds processed through the streets of south Kenner in honor of the saint who answered the prayers of the first Italian settlers of Kenner. The 119-year tradition still brings descendants of those immigrants to celebrate their Italian ancestry. Italian immigrants came to Kenner in 1855 and settled in the area that stretches from Williams Boulevard to the St. Charles Parish line and Airline Highway to the Mississippi River. In 1898 an anthrax epidemic broke out, killing their livestock. Without livestock the immigrants could not feed their families.