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Leonia Nunez, 90
September 3, 2002
Leonia A. Nunez, a businesswoman and homemaker, died Sunday at Chalmette Medical Center. She was 90. Mrs. Nunez was a lifelong resident of Violet, where she operated a restaurant and served as postmaster. She was the mother of former state Sen. Sammy Nunez Jr., D-Chalmette, and former Louisiana School Board President Tookie Nunez, who preceded her in death.
"My mother lived life to the fullest, " Sammy Nunez said.
Mrs. Nunez and her first husband, Samuel Nunez Sr., opened Sam's Restaurant in 1933 and operated it for 40 years. She also took on the role of postmaster after the postmaster general came to town, heard of Mrs. Nunez, and offered her the job during a visit to her restaurant.
"She loved cooking and loved people, " Nunez said
In 1965, Mrs. Nunez took part in the development of the St. Bernard Memorial Gardens. She stayed active in the development until her death.
After Samuel Nunez Sr. died in 1969, Mrs. Nunez went back to school and earned her GED, then took a job at the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office. She stayed there for 12 years.
"She just liked serving people. If anybody gets involved in as many people businesses as she was, you got to like people and like serving them, " Nunez said. "She enjoyed meeting people and doing business with people."
Mrs. Nunez was active in community affairs, especially those at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, where she was krewe captain of the annual ball for more than 50 years. She never missed a single ball, Nunez said.
The Islenos Cultural Society and Heritage Festival named her queen of the festival when she was 85, and The Violet Shrimp Festival Committee selected her as queen of the Blessing of the Fleet when she was 88.
Besides her son, survivors include a stepdaughter, Marie Gonzales; two sisters, Pauline Gonzales and Lillian "Babe" Brooks; a brother, Robert "Potchie" Asevedo; four grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren.
A Mass will be said Wednesday at 1 p.m. at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Violet. Visitation will be today from 6 to 10 p.m. at St. Bernard Memorial Funeral Home, 701 Virtue St. and Wednesday beginning at 11 a.m. at the church. Burial will be in St. Bernard Memorial Gardens.
NEWMAN, EDGAR LEON
December 11, 2001
Edgar L. Newman, historian, educator
Edgar Leon Newman, a historian who specialized in the turbulent years during and immediately after the French Revolution, died Nov. 30 of cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md. He was 62.
A New Orleans native, Dr. Newman was a great-grandson of Isidore Newman, the entrepreneur who founded the Uptown school that bears his name. He attended the school but graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy.
Dr. Newman, who earned a bachelor's degree from Yale University and a doctorate in European history from the University of Chicago, taught at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces since 1969. He also held visiting appointments at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Millersville University of Pennsylvania, and had been a Fulbright fellow and the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship.
He edited a two-volume historical dictionary of France for the period 1815-1852, and he wrote more than a dozen articles for scholarly journals, including the Journal of Modern History, Annales Historiques de la Revolution Francaise and the Journal of the History of Ideas. Dr. Newman also wrote for the Dictionary of American Biography and the Dictionary of Louisiana Biography.
He was a founder of the Western Society for French History, and he edited several volumes of its annual proceedings. The organization recently named him an honorary member of its governing council.
Survivors include his wife, Linda Clarke-Newman of Lancaster, Pa.; a son, Jonathan Newman of Redmond, Wash.; a daughter, Suzanne Newman Fricke of Albuquerque, N.M.; his stepmother, Colette Newman of New Orleans; and a grandchild.
Winston Moore III, ran Cook County Jail
November 16, 2002
Winston E. Moore III, who as superintendent of Chicago's Cook County Jail is believed to have been the first African-American prison warden in the United States, died Sept. 13 of congestive heart failure at his home in Sun Lakes, Calif. He was 73.
Mr. Moore was born in New Orleans and lived in Chicago for many years before retiring to California.
He attended McDonogh 35 High School, graduated from West Virginia State College with a psychology degree and received a master's degree in psychology from the University of Louisville.
He served three years in the Army.
Mr. Moore is credited with turning around the Cook County Jail, which he ran from 1966 to 1970. It was reported that on his first day as warden, Mr. Moore seized more than 200 weapons and a huge cache of illegal drugs in a facility that had been described as a jungle by the Illinois Crime Commission.
He went on to become executive director of the Cook County Department of Corrections and for a time was security director of the Chicago Housing Authority.
Mr. Moore also had been a psychologist at the Reception and Diagnostic Center in Joliet, Ill., the Youth Center of Illinois State Employment and the Mary McDowell Settlement House.
Survivors include his wife, Mabel L. Moore; three sisters, Myraline Jamison of New Orleans, Helen Jordan of Los Angeles and Juliette Barnes of Chicago. Services were private.
James Monaghan, Quarter bar owner
December 15, 2001
James Leonard Monaghan, whose Molly's at the Market bar on Decatur Street played host to local and national media greats, politicians and a cross-section of French Quarter characters, died Thursday of a cerebral hemorrhage at Tulane University Hospital. He was 63.
"It's the end of an era, " said Andrei Codrescu, author and journalist who often joined Monaghan in the front window of Molly's on weekends, watching the crowd go by. "He was a gruffly generous man of incomparable wit."
A native of Zanesville, Ohio, Monaghan moved to New Orleans from Chicago in 1969.
"He was on vacation here and walking through Jackson Square, and a lady went by on a skateboard trailing a duck on a string, " said Joe Walker, a longtime friend. "It was Ruthie the Duck Girl. Jim turned to his wife and said, ‘This is the kind of place where I'd like to live.' "
During the past 30 years, Monaghan owned 30 different bars, said his son, James, including as many as eight at one time. But it was Molly's at the Market that Monaghan made into a watering hole for journalists and politicians. Media night began at 10 p.m. on Thursdays in the narrow bar, where the walls are lined with mementos from past guest bartenders and parades that Monaghan sponsored.
Monaghan held court near the window fronting on Decatur Street, peppering his conversation with outspoken opinions.
"He never worried about whether what he was saying was politic, " Walker said. "He didn't care who he offended."
Reporters were drawn to the weekly events to mine for story ideas. Politicians were drawn there both in self-defense and as a way of gathering intelligence on opponents.
"We always wanted to know on Friday what people were talking about at Molly's on Thursday night, " said Mayor Marc Morial, who was a guest bartender in the early 1990s.
Former Gov. Edwin Edwards remembered that Monaghan granted him and his defense attorneys equal time in 1985, after U.S. Attorney John Volz and his staff served as guest bartenders during Edwards' federal fraud trial involving hospital construction permits.
While Edwards tended bar to a packed house, nephew Charles David Isbell played piano and brother Marion Edwards mugged for photographers.
Monaghan also invited politicians running for federal, state and local office to bartend each year. In 1990, Monaghan entered the fray himself, becoming one of 18 candidates for a District C City Council seat. He placed fourth.
Walker said other businessmen thought Monaghan was crazy to buy the bar in the 1100 block of Decatur at a time when that part of the Quarter was run-down. But Monaghan used his business acumen to help lead a rebirth of the lower Decatur area, Walker said. In addition to the Thursday night media crowd, Monaghan created the Decatur Street Irish Club Parade, sponsored the Bastille Day Parade for many years, and, about five years ago, began an annual Halloween Parade.
Monaghan, along with Walker and lawyer Clancy Dubos, also created an annual lunch party in Washington, D.C., that became so successful that it had to be canceled because people complained it was so big they could no longer get in.
Before moving to New Orleans, Monaghan served for eight years in the Air Force in Korea and Vietnam, and he sold bridge parts for companies in Chicago.
Monaghan is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Scott Monaghan; two sons, James Monaghan Jr. and Jon Jason of Kansas City, Mo.; a daughter, Kelly Elizabeth Bittner of Kansas City, Mo.; and four grandchildren.
The Stompers and the Olympia Brass Band will accompany a horse-drawn hearse and lead mourners in a procession beginning at Molly's at the Market, 1107 Decatur St., on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., traveling along Decatur, Iberville and Bourbon streets and Esplanade Avenue, ending back at Molly's with a ceremony placing an urn holding Monaghan's ashes on a shelf above the cash register behind the bar.
Dr. William Mogabgab, 80, isolated cold virus
December 15, 2001
Dr. William Mogabgab, a New Orleans physician and researcher who first isolated the virus that causes the common cold, died Thursday of ulcerative colitis at his Williamsburg, Va., home. He was 80.
"I was strictly an individual. I always did things on my own, " Dr. Mogabgab said in a 1996 interview.
Dr. Mogabgab, who isolated the virus in 1955, spent his career of nearly half a century at Tulane University School of Medicine, where he was professor of medicine and chief of infectious diseases. He retired in 1992 and moved to Williamsburg with his wife, Rose, last year.
In 1966, Dr. Mogabgab completed a four-year study that resulted in the first exhaustive description of the characteristics, properties and behavior of influenza.
"He had a sharp mind and a wonderful dry wit, " said Dr. Brobson Lutz, who trained under him. "He was a man of few words, but the words were always intense and with a punch." He might have come across as genial and laid-back, "but he was always thinking, " said Dr. Larry Millikan, Tulane's dermatology chairman.
Dr. Mogabgab was born in Durant, Okla., where his Lebanese-born father was a doctor, and he earned undergraduate and medical degrees from Tulane. At Charity Hospital, where he went for postgraduate training, he was chief resident.
After completing his residency, Dr. Mogabgab joined Tulane's medical faculty. Although Tulane was his home base, Dr. Mogabgab had fellowships and visiting professorships around the country, and he did three years of medical research for the Navy. In the early 1950s he was chief of infectious diseases at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Houston.
Survivors include his wife, Rose Mogabgab; three sons, Robert Mogabgab-Berryman of Leesburg, Va., William Joseph Mogabgab-Berryman of Meridian, Miss., and Edward Mogabgab of Concord, N.C.; three daughters, Ann Weathersby of Tucker, Ga., Kay Glaser of Silver Spring, Md., and Jean Fisher of New Orleans; a brother, Anees Mogabgab of Mandeville; and six grandchildren.
The funeral will be private.
MINYARD, NORMA DUGAS
September 30, 2002
Norma Minyard, 97, entertained with music
Norma Dugas Minyard, an Algiers-born musician who never learned to read music yet played ragtime piano in New Orleans' silent movie houses and, in spite of her age, continued to perform until this month, died Saturday at Maison Hospitaliere in the French Quarter.
Mrs. Minyard, mother of longtime Orleans Parish coroner Dr. Frank Minyard, was 97.
Born Norma Louise Dugas, Mrs. Minyard said in a 1997 interview that she learned to play music by ear, although her mother tried to teach her to read sheet music. She played ragtime and popular piano in silent movie houses in the 1920s and 1930s, memories of which she recounted for an oral history series housed at the Hogan Jazz Archives at Tulane University.
"Don't ask me the name of the shows, I've forgotten, " Mrs. Minyard said in a 1997 interview with The Times-Picayune.
She worked for 20 years at Capdau Elementary School's cafeteria in Gentilly, but she returned to performing in the 1970s and was an entertainer at the Senior Center at Krauss department store until it closed. She also was a regular performer at the annual Jazz Roots benefit concerts her son organized.
She moved to Maison Hospitaliere in 1990 and regularly entertained other residents and its staff. Her last public performance was Sept. 8 at Jazz Roots 26 at the Fairmont Hotel.
She found humor in aging, and she played daily in spite of the stiffness in her fingers. She said, though, that there were days when "Arthur's visiting."
"Yeah, Arthur-itis, " she said.
In her later years, she noticed she was forgetting songs.
"That's ‘cause I'm, well, I can't say I'm gettin' old, " Mrs. Minyard said in The Times-Picayune interview. "The years go by so fast. I'm 92, but the doctor tells me my heart's good. He says, ‘You got a wonderful beat.' Next time he tells me that, I'm gonna say, ‘Well, I should, I'm a musician.' "
Mrs. Minyard volunteered with the American Red Cross and was a member of Eastern Star, for which she was grand matron in 1947. Two years ago, she and her son were the subject of a PBS documentary on longevity.
Survivors include her son, Frank Minyard; six grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
A Mass will be said Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Mothe Funeral Home, 1300 Vallette St., Algiers. Visitation will begin at 9 a.m. Burial will be at McDonoughville cemetery.
Patrick McMahon, funeral director, 81
May 22, 2002
Patrick "Mr. Pat" Joseph McMahon Jr., retired executive representative for Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, died Tuesday at Sunrise Assisted Living Center in New Orleans. He was 81.
Mr. McMahon was a lifelong resident of New Orleans.
He graduated from Warren Easton High School and attended Tulane University and La Salle Extension College. He had been a track standout and a swimmer.
He was a Navy and Coast Guard veteran of World War II.
Mr. McMahon joined his father's business and became a licensed funeral director and embalmer in 1941. During his career, he served for 23 years as assistant manager of McMahon-Coburn Funeral Home; as president of McMahon-Coburn Life Insurance Co.; for eight years as general manager and director of operations of Lamana-Panno-Fallo Funeral Home; and for almost two decades as funeral director and arranger at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, St. Bernard Memorial Funeral Home and All Faiths Funeral Home.
He was past president of the Louisiana Insurers Conference and the Kiwanis Club of the Third District. He was a member of the board of directors of the Fireman's Charitable and Benevolent Association and former member of the board of directors for Commercial Bank and Trust Co. He was a member of the Knights of Columbus, the American Legion Lyons Post and the Ancient Order of Hibernia. He was a member of the Krewe of Alhambra.
In 1988, he was chosen an outstanding employee of Stewart Enterprises. He was recognized in 1999 by the New Orleans Funeral Directors Association for his 55 years as a licensed funeral director and for his contributions to the community.
He was a parishioner of St. Dominic's Catholic Church, where he was an usher for many years.
Survivors include his wife, Betty McMahon; a son, Pat McMahon, three daughters, Maurine Sickinger, Marilyn Meyer of Tampa, Fla., and Lisa Ellard of Baton Rouge; and eight grandchildren.
A Mass will be said Friday at 1 p.m. at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Boulevard. Visitation will begin at 11 a.m. Burial will be in Greenwood cemetery.
Rev. Hugh McKee Jr., St. Martin's rector
June 14, 2002
The Rev. Hugh Crockett McKee Jr., a journalist turned minister who was rector of St. Martin's Episcopal Church for a quarter-century, died Thursday at Lambeth House in New Orleans. He was 91.
He was born in Frankfort, Ky., and was a writer for The Louisville Times for 10 years before joining the Army in 1942. He was a lieutenant in the Army's "Fighting 69th" Division.
After World War II, he enrolled at the University of the South's School of Theology, and graduated in 1948. He served two churches in Kentucky, at Bowling Green and Russellville until 1951 when he moved to Metairie to become St. Martin's rector.
He retired in 1976.
Father McKee was a founding member of St. Martin's Episcopal School's Board of Trustees, and he wrote a history of the school in 1995. An avid genealogist and amateur historian, Father McKee was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, the Society of Colonial Wars and the National Huguenot Society.
Survivors include his wife, Mary-Frances McKee.
A funeral will be held Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at St. Martin's Episcopal Church, 2216 Metairie Road. Visitation will start at 12:30 p.m.
Burial will be in Metairie cemetery.
Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Virginia McConnell, Newcomb chemist
September 24, 2002
Virginia Fenner McConnell, former head of the chemistry department at Newcomb College, died Saturday at her home. She was 97.
Mrs. McConnell was a lifelong resident of New Orleans.
She graduated from Isidore Newman School and Newcomb and received a master's degree from Tulane University. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
She taught chemistry at Newcomb for more than 25 years.
Mrs. McConnell was considered an authority on the history of chemistry and particularly on Emil Fischer, a 19th-century German scientist considered one of the fathers of chemistry, and his son, Otto, a professor of biochemistry at the University of California at Berkeley.
She was a member of the Historic Division and Organic Division of the American Chemical Society and was active in the Chemical Heritage Society, presenting papers at its meetings into her 80s.
Mrs. McConnell, the daughter of a founding partner of the Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Beane brokerage house, was married
to Richard Bland McConnell, a sugar chemist, stockbroker and later co-owner of Caribe Co., a barge rental company.
She was a member of the Colonial Dames, the Junior League of New Orleans and Trinity Episcopal Church, where she did volunteer work until her death.
Survivors include a son, Richard Bland McConnell Jr.; a daughter, Virginia McConnell Walker; seven grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held Wednesday at 11 a.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church, 1329 Jackson Ave., followed by visitation at the parish house. Burial in Metairie cemetery will be private. Bultman Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
