The privileges which extend alike to movables and immovables are the following:
Whenever a surviving spouse or minor children of a deceased person shall be left in necessitous circumstances, and not possess in their own rights property to the amount of one thousand dollars, the surviving spouse or the legal representatives of the children, shall be entitled to demand and receive from the succession of the deceased spouse or parent, a sum which added to the amount of property owned by them, or either of them, in their own right, will make up the sum of one thousand dollars, and which amount shall be paid in preference to all other debts, except those secured by the vendor's privilege on both movables and immovables, conventional mortgages, and expenses incurred in selling the property. The surviving spouse shall have and enjoy the usufruct of the amount so received from the deceased spouse's succession, until remarriage, which amount shall afterwards vest in and belong to the children or other descendants of the deceased spouse.
La. C.C. § 3252