One calm morning 16 years ago, Plaquemine resident Gayle Schwing woke up to an odd surprise. She looked out of her bedroom window to see a gorilla in her front yard. She was not afraid, however. She was outraged. 
This 5-foot, 2,000 pound cement gorilla statue was not exactly what Gayle wanted as a lawn decoration. The moment she laid eyes on the gorilla, she knew it was her husband, Ed, who had placed it in their front yard. 
Gayle and Ed frequently visited their vacation home in Grand Isle to get away. While driving there in September of 2002, the couple passed a store that sold garden statues and patio furniture. When Ed spotted a massive gorilla statue in the window, he joked with Gayle that he was going to buy the statue. Every time they passed D & D’s Ornamental Concrete in Napoleonville, Louisiana, after that, Ed teased Gayle about buying the gorilla. It became an ongoing inside joke between the two. 
“When my husband saw that ugly thing out there, he said, ‘I’m going to buy that for you’, and I told him he better not,” Gayle said. “Then one Monday morning it shows up in my front yard. I was furious.”
Soon after Ed gave the gorilla a home in their front yard, a storm sped towards Plaquemine. Worried about how her father’s new lawn decoration would handle the wind and rain, Gayle’s daughter suggested they put a rain jacket on it for protection. Gayle agreed. After seeing how much joy it brought her daughter, Gayle decided to dress the gorilla up for Halloween, as it was approaching quickly. She dressed the statue in a witch’s hat and handmade witch’s costume. 
“My husband didn’t think that was enough, so we started having the costumes made,” Gayle said. 
Gayle called her seamstress, Nancy, and asked her if she could make a costume specially-tailored to fit the gorilla. Nancy eagerly accepted the challenge. Nancy continues to make costumes for the statue to this day, and Gayle has been dressing the gorilla in costumes to match her favorite holiday seasons ever since. 
Ed died in April of 2003, only 6 months after the tradition of dressing up the gorilla began. However, Gayle has kept their tradition alive. She plans to continue the tradition for as long as she lives. 
“It will not be undressed, so to speak, except when I change the costumes,” Gayle said. 
Today the gorilla has custom-made costumes for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Mardi Gras, Easter, 4th of July, and even the LSU football and baseball seasons.