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ALBERT BOURGEOIS JR.
Mr. Albert Bourgeois Jr., 80, a resident of the St. Joseph Community and native of Verdunville, died Thursday, December 16, 2010, at 8:25 p.m., at Franklin Foundation Hospital following a short illness.
He is survived by a devoted friend, Ruby Matthews Davis of the St. Joseph Community; four sons, Johnny Clark of Baldwin, Keith Clark of Shadyside Community and Dwayne and Wayne Clark of Morgan City; one daughter, Shona Bourgeois of New Orleans; three brothers, Shelby and Merlin Bourgeois of Verdunville and Thomas Bourgeois of Los Angeles, California; three sisters, Marie B. Verdun of Verdunville, Betty B. Nelson of Jeanerette and Lorene B. Griffin of Brentwood, Missouri; and several grandchildren.
Mr. Bourgeois was preceded in death by one son, two sisters, three brothers and both parents.
Visitations were observed Tuesday, Dec. 21, from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., with a rosary at 10:30 a.m., at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Verdunville.
Burial rites were read Tuesday, at 11 a.m., at that church, with Father Thomas Vu officiating. interment followed in the Immaculate Conception Cemetery.
The Otis Mortuary of Franklin was in charge of preparations.
MICHAEL P. BORNE
Jan. 12, 1947 ~ Feb. 9, 2010
Michael P. Borne, 63, a native and resident of Franklin, Passed away Tuesday, February 9, 2010, at 9:10 a.m., at his home.
Mr. Borne is survived by his mother, Inez Barrilleaux Borne of Franklin; one brother, Charles Borne III and his wife, Marilyn, of Franklin; two sisters, Charlene Borne and Bridget Borne, both of Lafayette; and one niece, Savannah Soule’ of Franklin.
He was preceded in death by his father, Charles Borne Jr.; and one sister, Rebecca Catherine Borne.
The family requests that visiting hours be observed Wednesday, February 10, at Ibert’s Mortuary, from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m., with the rosary being prayed at 7 p.m. Visiting will resume Thursday at the mortuary from 9 a.m. until Mass time.
A Mass of Christian burial will be held Thursday, at 11 a.m., at Ibert’s Mortuary. Burial will follow in the Perpetual Park Cemetery. Father Thomas Vu of St. Jules Catholic Church will officiate the services.
Arrangements have been entrusted to Ibert’s Mortuary, Inc., of Franklin.
PERCY J. BONVILLAIN
Oct. 22, 1927 ~ March 4, 2010
A Mass of Christian burial will be held Saturday, March 6, 2010, at 11 a.m., at the Church of the Assumption for Percy John Bonvillian, 82, who Passed away Thursday, March 4, 2010 at his home in Franklin.
interment will follow in the Franklin Cemetery. Father Lloyd Benoit, Pastor of Church of the Assumption, will conduct the services.
Mr. Bonvillain, a native of Centerville and a longtime resident of Franklin, was born to the late Addie Bonvillain and Edna Martin Bonvillain. He was a veteran of the United States Air Force and was a member of the Church of the Assumption.
He is survived by his loving wife of 63 years, Hilda Mary Pichoff Bonvillain; two sons, Gary J. Bonvillain and his wife, Johanna, of Patterson and Mitchell F. Bonvillain and his wife, Sheila, of Franklin; one daughter, Sharon B. Dupuy of Franklin; one brother, Leslie Bonvillain of Jeanerette; seven grandchildren, Marnie Dupuy, Robert Dupuy, Erika Bonvillain, Jake Bonvillain, Tara Bonvillain, Jason Bonvillain and Zachary Bonvillain; and two great grandchildren, Nicholas Dupuy and Paisley Landry.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by one son, Richard J. Bonvillain; and one sister, Ethel B. Braud.
The family requests that visiting hours be observed on Friday, March 5, from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m., with the rosary being prayed at 7 p.m. Visiting will resume Saturday at the mortuary at 8:30 a.m. until time of dismissal.
Arrangements have been entrusted to Ibert’s Mortuary, Inc. of Franklin.
GEORGE L. BODIN III
LAFAYETTE — A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Wednesday, July 29, at 11 a.m., at Fountain Memorial Funeral Home in Lafayette for Mr. George L. Bodin, III, 53, who Passed away Thursday, July 23, 2009, at his residence in New Orleans.
Entombment will follow in Fountain Memorial Cemetery
in Lafayette.
The Reverend Father Howard Blessing, pastor of Holy Cross Catholic Church in Lafayette, will officiate.
A native of Franklin and long-time resident of New Orleans, George was the Senior Event Manager for Marriott New Orleans and was employed by Marriott Hotels for twenty years.
George was a loving son, brother, uncle and friend to all who knew him and will be deeply missed.
Mr. Bodin is survived by his loving mother, Dolores Ransonet Bodin of Lafayette; his brother and sister-in-law, Gerard Bodin and his wife, Stacy, of Destrehan; his sister and brother-in-law, Mary Rodriguez and her husband, Micah, of Youngsville; two nieces, Kathryn Bodin of Baton Rouge and Hannah Bodin of Destrehan; and his beloved dog, Harley.
He was preceded in death by his father, George Louis Bodin Jr. of Baldwin.
The family requests that visiting hours at Fountain Memorial Funeral Home in Lafayette be observed from 6 until 9 p.m. on Tuesday, July 28 and resume on Wednesday, July 29 at 8 a.m. until time of services.
A rosary will be recited Tuesday evening, July 28, at 7 p.m. in the Fountain Memorial Funeral Home Chapel.
Pallbearers will be Chuck Autin, Louis Alvarez, Fredrick Gollmer, Michael Norris, Keith Faulk and Troy Rauche.
Honorary bearers are Quinton Autin and Micah Rodriguez.
Fountain Memorial Funeral Home of Lafayette, (337) 981-7098, 1010 Pandora Street, is in charge of arrangements.
RALPH BLAKEMAN
December 13, 1955 — July 26, 2010
Ralph Ernie Blakeman, a native of Morgan City and resident of Bayou Vista, Passed away Monday, July 26, 2010, at his residence.
Ralph is survived by his wife, Paula Grow Blakeman; his mother, Nathalie Blakeman; his four sons, Brandon Blakeman and his wife, Heather, Joseph Blakeman and his wife, Karyn, Dane Grow and his wife, Lacy, and Nicholas Blakeman. He is also survived by eight grandchildren, Madison, Kole, Alli, Bali Blakeman, Sadie, Dane Jr., Blaine, and William Grow; and three sisters, Mary Jo Marshall, Janet Broussard and Susan Portal.
Ralph was preceded in death by his father, Joseph Blakeman
Visitation will be today, July 28, 2010, at Twin City Funeral Home in Morgan City beginning at 9 a.m. until funeral services at 11 a.m.
IRENE D. BERARD
LYDIA — A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Saturday, December 8, 2007, at 11 a.m., at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Lydia for Irene Dickerson Berard, 92, of Grand Marais who died Monday, December 3, 2007 at her residence.
The Rev. Donovan Labbe will be the Celebrant.
interment will follow in the Patoutville Cemetery.
Mrs. Berard is a retired teacher from St. Mary Parish Schools with 35 years of service. She was a member of the St. Mary Retired Teachers Association and the St. Nicholas Holy Name Society. She enjoyed visiting with her family and friends.
Survivors include her son, Anthony Ernest Berard and wife, Daphie Olivier Berard, of Grand Marais; grandchildren, Joshua Anthony Berard, Matthew Thomas Berard, Harmonie Nicole Berard, all of Grand Marais; and one godson, Lionel Boutte of Rochester, New York.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Ernest Charles Berard; parents, Warmoth and Augustine Sigue Dickerson.
A gathering of family and friends will be Saturday, from 9 a.m. at St. Nicholas Catholic Church until time of service. A Rosary will be at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Pellerin Funeral Home, 502 Jefferson Terrace Blvd. in New Iberia, is in charge of arrangements. 337-365-3331.
ELIZABETH A. BELL
Elizabeth Aycock Bell died at her home in Franklin, Louisiana on Sunday, June 17, 2007. Kena, as most knew her by, was born Aug. 25, 1916 and was one of five children of Dr. Guy G. and Florence L. Aycock. Her father, Guy Aycock, a Scottish descendent, was the former Mayor of Patterson from 1926 until 1939 where he founded Nurses Hospital, the first nursing school in the State of Louisiana . Dr. Aycock was elected Sheriff for the Parish of St. Mary, in 1940. Nine years later in September 1949, following a speaking engagement in New Orleans, Kena’s father died unexpectedly from heart complications. While her mother, Florence Lewis Aycock, completed the unexpired term of her husband as the county sheriff, Kena unabashedly assumed the administrative challenges of a growing medical facility founded by her father. Her mother, Florence Lewis, a stellar lady embodying a strong sense of social justice through dialogue, easily defeated her opponents becoming the first elected female sheriff in the state and other states in the early 1950s.
Although a gifted athlete in her younger years, an accomplished Atchafalaya swimmer along with her brother and sister, she routinely engaged in sparring matches to increase personal stamina. An avid outdoor tennis player leading teams to state competition, she was listed by the Times Picayune as the state indoor table tennis champion while still in nursing school. After one year as a physical education student at Northwestern State University, Kena hopped a train bound for New Orleans determined to pursue a career in nursing. Landing on the doorsteps of Mercy Hospital, nursing administrators requested parental approval which was granted when her father drove to New Orleans to confirm Kena’s enthusiasm.
A graduate of Mercy College School of Nursing in New Orleans in 1941, she continued medical training at Louisiana Charity Hospital becoming a nurse anesthetist in 1942. As a pioneer in the early days of anesthesia, where administering ether was the most common form of anesthetizing patients before surgery, she continued to expand her scientific learning core by studying herbal medicine, acupuncture, and spiritual psychology. Kena was also an avid student of traditional medical practices often employing indigenous home remedies to sooth the illnesses of the elderly and children. Her county house calls to patients were threaded with Kena’s special brand of treatment — compassion, humor and self-care, a sort of Patch Adams approach to humanness. Her progressive nature stimulated many innovations which frequently challenged hospital protocol by introducing alternative operating room procedures and medical devices still in use by anesthesiologists today.
She served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Nurses Corps at Camp LaGarde Medical Hospital in New Orleans from 1942 until 1944 where she met and married Edward W. Flynt and had four children. Following the war, they returned to Franklin where Kena became an assistant to her father at the Aycock Clinic which had opened in 1941, only one year prior to her joining the U.S. armed services. As the only operating room anesthetist for miles around, she maintained a routine peppered with enthusiasm dashing from the operating room to attend emergency calls at other area hospitals day and night.
Forfeiting her love for athletics and the ribbons of luxury which often accompany, Kena’s dedication to care for the sick, her vocatus, imbued her purpose driven life, one clearly without discrimination as to social class, religious difference, and racial or ethnic background. Accompanying her whimsical, free-floating laughter, the grace of touching hands was the unquestioned symbol of her presence.
"You knew by the way she held your hand, by the way she touched you, it was Kena," said a friend and associate.
Although she never really elaborated on the precise origin of this unusual name given to her by her father, it must have been synchronistic, originating from the word "kinesthesia," meaning an ability to sense a position, or, a light touch. Yet, in many ways Kena’s journey was not different from many, she insisted there is a "hero" in all of us. She continually endeavored to discover the new horizons of her own hero … "the task of the hero is to go through life’s struggles and be transformed by them" (Jung).
After a tragic Greyhound bus-train crash less than a few miles from the Clinic, increasing probabilities of hurricanes in low-lying coastal areas, and a general increase in the county’s population, Kena’s commitment to community facilitated the organizing and eventual construction of a larger medical facility, the Franklin Foundation Hospital, which opened on June 1, 1953. She became its first superintendent until Grady Wells, a professional hospital administrator, relocated to Franklin to assume administrative responsibilities.
During her years as a professional dedicated with unscrupulous values to the respect of the dignity of humans, Kena’s small frame gave her an unsuspecting presence which, when called for, unleashed her audacious determination to balance equities, create harmony, and drive for common goals. Her energy and resonate laughter inspired fellow workers and many others with accepting the validity of their own unique potential, a potential yet to be discovered.
Over the years, she walked with many, in fact, too many to recount here. Nonetheless, some of the medical practitioners, professionals, religious and political leaders are Dr.’s J.M. Fernandez, Louis J. Supple, Giuseppe Musso, D.J. Daspit, Larry Mouch, Skippy Stirling and Larry Schexnayder; nurses and administrators Jeanette Johnson , Lionel Mensman, Guy Kaufman, Virginia Todd, Billy Minor, Jeanne McGraw, Lucille Hayes, Dan Turner; and anesthetists Hertha Barrilleaux and Susan Landry.
Her brother, Dr. Clifton G. Aycock, a graduate of the LSU School of Medicine practiced as a surgeon until his death in 1999. He was a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps and saw action in the Pacific. Another brother, Roy Aycock, following a short stint in pre-med, joined the U.S. Navy. After the war, Roy completed studies in theology in Patterson, New Jersey and was ordained a priest in 1955. Her sister, Bobbie Aycock is a retired nurse-anesthetist who also served in the U.S. Army, still lives in Franklin and continues her fishing hobby on weekends. Harry Aycock, Kena’s youngest brother, served in the U.S. Navy like his two older brothers and still maintains a residence in Los Angeles.
When Kena married Matt Bell, son of John Bell Sr., her children with Edward Flynt, Eddie Guy, Chips, Phil, and Missy were adopted by Matt, becoming total ‘Bells.’ Matt was employed as an engineer for Sterling Sugars where he retired before embarking on a journey to Indonesia to train workers on behalf of the U.S. government on advanced technologies for sugar production. Kena and Matt had three children, Roye, an educator at Hanson High School, Robert Mathew Jr., a metal worker, and Gigi, a registered nurse at Lourdes’s Hospital.
Kena has 20 grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren who will learn from her dedication and leadership. The family gives special thanks to Cindy Hebert, Luna Bodin and Audrey Hicks; her personal physician, Dr. Roland Degeyter, and medical assistants, Louise Rogers, Sherry Carter, Donald Mae Davis, Mary Beth Pillaro and Eleanor Washington with Journey Hospice. Though all of Kena’s friends and acquaintances cannot be named in this limited space, the family offers its deep gratitude for their warmth and kindness — "sharing your uniqueness, like others before her, has carved and shaped her radiant stone, a pliable and integrated source of her unending energy — The energy of luminous soul!
"Let us not leave without acknowledging the action of Reciprocity. It means the unconditional exchange of values (love, trust and integrity) for the benefit of each person in a dynamic relationship — it is the energy, like energy of the soul, fueling personal expansion. Chips, Kena’s son and our loving brother provided us with a splendid model of the action of reciprocity. Words cannot express our gratitude for his years of dedication, his care and personal devotion to Mom."
Kena’s heritage was Scottish, first landing in the Carolinas and eventually moving to the farmlands of Louisiana . She, like her cousins, was a descendent of Simon Aycock, 1760, whose branch led to Albert A. Aycock, from Chacahoula. Albert, a plantation overseer, had 10 children and off-springs included many children who embraced the salting presence of respect for nature and human-kind in their religious, political, medical and business professions.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be sent to the Kena Foundation benefiting the Franklin Foundation Hospital at P.O. Box 577, Franklin, La. 70538.
Memorial visitations will be held Wednesday, June 20, from 10 a.m. to noon, at the Church of the Assumption.
A memorial Mass will be held at noon at the church. A private internment will be held following the Mass. Father Billy Ruskoski will officiate the services.
Ibert’s Mortuary, Inc. of Franklin is in charge of arrangements.
