Kerouac’s Characters: Robert “Pete” Houde

By Kurt Phaneuf

 Though Robert Olivier “Pete” Houde’s life began quite modestly, by the time of his death in 1993 he had become a figure of some importance in Lowell history.  His American literature footprint is also significant; in addition to appearing in seven of Jack Kerouac’s books, Houde’s whimsical worldview (Jack describes him as “a strange little bowlegged French Canadian W. C. Fields”), unique turns of phrase, boundless generosity, and athletic accomplishments helped make him one of the most vivid personages in Jack’s Lowell pantheon.

The second-youngest of 10 children of French-Canadian immigrants Théotime (1876-1964) and Marie-Anne Houde (1876-1944), Pete (renamed “Gene Plouffe” in Kerouac’s Lowell novels) was born in 1918 and lived for decades with his family in a large duplex on the corner of Phoebe and Sarah Avenues in Pawtucketville.  Joseph Théotime Houde emigrated from Saint-Prosper-de-Champlain, QC, in 1879, arriving in the burgeoning mill town of Lowell just shy of his 3rd birthday.  He achieved American citizenship in 1902.  Théotime married Marie-Anne Bacon on August 8, 1900 in their Québec hometown, returning to the “Little Canada” section of their adoptive city to raise a family.   They’d later move across the river to Pawtucketville.

Sadly, the couple lost their first two children; despite such hardships, a healthy son–Armand J. Houde (1903-1991)–was born in 1903.  Suggesting something of the insularity of the ethnic communities in which Jack and his family lived during his Lowell youth, Armand later worked for Leo Kerouac at Spotlight Print and eventually became a successful printer for The Lowell Courier Citizen and the proprietor of Lambert Printing.  Nine more children would follow for the Houdes at regular intervals over the next two decades.  Each of the last three of their brood–Mike (known as “Henry”), Robert (known as “Pete”), and Roland (known as “Ninip”)–rendered a singular impact on the impressionable Kerouac.

Laboring for many years as a clerk and meat cutter at area shops, Théotime is described in Doctor Sax as a “rheumy red-eyed old sickmonster scrooge of the block,” certainly one of the darker characterizations of any figure in the Duluoz Legend. Théotime’s saturnine temperament was such that for a time in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Marie and the children moved out of the Sarah Avenue home.  By the time of the 1940 federal census, all of the Houdes but Théotime were living in a separate residence at 147 Gershom Avenue.

The Former Houde Family Home at corner of Sarah & Phoebe Avenues

Once described as Lowell’s “Garden of Eden,” Pawtucketville–particularly the predominantly Franco-American enclave north of the Merrimack River and east of Moody Street (now University Avenue)–was considered a refuge from the often crowded, insalubrious tenement life of Le P’tit Canada (“Little Canada”).  Sarah Avenue is also one of the most mythologized locations in Jack Kerouac’s Lowell Duluoz Legend; the entirety of “Book Two” of Doctor Sax is set in the Kerouac home at 35 Sarah while many of the novel’s other key sequences occur within a stone’s throw of Jack’s 1935-1938 home.

One reason for the importance of the Houde family to Jack was simply an accident of geography; the large Houde family home at 23-25 Sarah Avenue was equidistant from the first two houses Jack and his family occupied during their years in Pawtucketville.  Also, the basement of the Houde home–which Jack describes as “a cellarful of Shadows that one time Gene Plouffe gave me use of”–was both a literal and figurative source of Gothic inspiration for “Jacky” Kerouac.

The Houde family minus Theotime – 1940 census

Robert’s younger brother Roland (1921-1938) was actually the first Houde to make contact with the shy, inquisitive Jack.  Renamed “Zap Plouffe” in Doctor Sax, Roland immediately makes a vivid impression with his Lowell-specific French patois and “prognathic jaw,” a distinctive physical feature Kerouac often identified with the Houdes:

“I first met Zap on a crazy screaming night about the third after we’d moved from Centralville to Pawtucketville (1932) on my porch (Phebe), he came rollerskating up on the porch with his long teeth and prognathic jaw of the Plouffes, he was the first Pawtucketville boy to talk to me… And the screams in the nightfall street of play!–

“Mon nom cest Zap Plouffe mué—je rests au coin dans maison la”—(my name it is Zap Plouffe me–I live on the corner in the house there).””

With his burgeoning interests in sports and fantasy games, Jack was quickly drawn to Roland and his large, eccentric clan.  By the early 1930s, the Houdes were regularly appearing in The Lowell Sun for their sports accomplishments.  Pete first gained notice as a standout baseball player in the W.P.A., Lowell Twilight, and Holy Name Leagues. He and brother Mike made an unbeatable middle infield double-play combo; additionally, both were standout basketball players and bowlers.  Along with other neighborhood “stars” like Victor “Vic” Alberts, Paul “Lefty” Desilets, and Tommy “Rubber” Hoyle (all who make appearances in Jack’s Lowell books), the Houde brothers were the backbone of many of the greatest amateur baseball teams in early 20^th century Lowell history.

The Houde Brothers’ Baseball Exploits, Lowell Sun, July 20, 1936

Not all of the 1930s was halcyon for the Houde family.  Tragically, Roland would become one more “ghost” haunting the dark corners of Kerouac’s Pawtucketville adolescence.  Just weeks after the passing of Kerouac neighbor and Pawtucketville Social Club member Norbert Marchand (1875-1938), “Ninip” suffered a gruesome injury while helping neighborhood milkman Ernest Beauchesne make deliveries.  Houde got his foot caught in the spokes of the horse-drawn cart’s wheel, badly mangling the heel.  Despite prompt medical attention, the injury became infected and Houde died a short time later of gangrene. He was only 17.  According to local legend, Roland’s “ghost” began haunting nearby Bourgeois Park (immediately opposite the street from the accident site on Sarah Avenue), forcing neighborhood kids to avoid playing there.  Robert would later claim during interviews that Jack had witnessed Roland’s tragic accident.

Roland Houde’s obituary, Lowell Sun, July 15, 1938

Despite the shock of such a senseless death, life in Pawtucketville continued to be filled with laughter, imaginative play, and adventure.  Pete, Jack and the neighborhood gang would prowl the banks of the Merrimack River, performing risky stunts while dangling from the girders underneath the old Moody Street Bridge.  Houde became one of a small group of neighborhood youths–including Albert Leblanc and Jack Kerouac himself–who portrayed the “Moon Man,” a local wraith that haunted the play of kids at the nearby “sand banks,” two large undeveloped plots of land adjacent to Phoebe & Bodwell Avenues and Riverside Street.  While in their teens, Pete and Mike also earned coveted positions as pin boys at the nearby Pawtucketville Social Club, allowing them to contribute to the austere finances of their large family.

Mike & Pete Houde continued playing ball in the military.

The brothers assumed further adult responsibilities quite early, each toiling for a time in Lowell mills.  The Houde boys were also swept up in the powerful currents of history.  Pete was one of four brothers (including Albert, Lionel, and Henry) who served in the Armed Forces during World War II, surviving a harrowing experience in Stalag 7-A Moosburg after being captured in Belgium in September 1944.  Subject to grueling labor and imprisonment in disused boxcars (the train cars were frequent targets of British bombing efforts), Pete’s early experiences with hardship and his robust sense of humor likely helped him endure the unthinkable.  His seven months as a P.O.W. and subsequent escape–an odyssey that required him to traverse 100 miles of hostile German territory on foot–are the stuff of Hollywood movies.  By Houde’s estimation, his gift of gab and fluency in his parent’s native French tongue likely saved his life during an unnerving encounter with German troops near Memmigen.  With the help of a member of the French Resistance, Houde and fellow escapee PFC Joseph Delchko of Pennsylvania eventually found their way to safety with a group of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division, some of whom had been part of Operation Overlord at Normandy the previous year.

The Houde Brothers serving the nation, Lowell Sun, April 12, 1945

At the conclusion of the war, Houde had little interest in travel or adventure and instead chose to pursue a quiet life in Pawtucketville.  After marrying Mildred Jodoin (1915-1976) in 1950, Pete found employment at Fort Devens, working for decades at the Army Security Agency Training Center and School. He maintained his love of sports and immersed himself in Lowell’s Franco-American social, civic and religious life for his remaining days.  A member of VFW Walker Rogers Post 662 and Club Lafayette, he served as the President of the Pawtucketville Social Club and the Greater Lowell Family YMCA, the chairman of the 1975 Franco-American Day Committee and Franco-American Week, and as a licensing commissioner.

Pete Houde’s community involvement, Lowell Sun, July 15, 1980

A thoughtful, articulate man, Houde never shied away from opportunities to talk about Jack Kerouac.  His interviews with Jack’s biographers–particularly those with Memory Babe author Gerald Nicosia–are some of the most detailed and generous accounts of the early years of the young “Jacky” Kerouac.  A lifelong resident of Pawtucketville and communicant at Ste. Jeanne D’Arc Church, Pete was twice married, his first wife predeceasing him in 1976.   After a period of declining health, Robert Houde died in August 1993 just a few months after the passing of his brother and double play partner Henry.  “Pete” was 75.

Robert O. “Pete” Houde’s grave at St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Chelmsford.

The corner of Phoebe and Sarah Avenues–the site of his childhood family home and the former entrance to the park reputedly haunted by his brother’s ghost–has been dedicated in his honor. Like nearly all of his large, fascinating family, Robert “Pete” Houde is laid to rest in St. Joseph Cemetery, Chelmsford.

“pete” Robert Houde Square, intersection of Sarah & Phoebe Avenues

For those interested in learning more about key figures in Jack Kerouac’s Duluoz Legend, please consider attending the free walking tours and guest lectures at the 2025 Lowell Celebrates Kerouac Festival.  The novel Doctor Sax and references to the Houde brothers figure prominently in the “Ghosts of the Pawtucketville Night” tour on Sunday, October 10th at 5:00 P.M.  For more details, please visit the official festival schedule at

https://lowellcelebrateskerouac.org/events/lowell-celebrates-kerouac-2025-fall-festival-oct-9-13/