Biography of Joseph Lauricella   ; Jefferson Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by N.O.V.A. July 2005




Submitted to the LAGenWeb Archives
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Joseph Stephen Lauricella, the first president of the West Jefferson Tidal 

Levee District, died Thursday of a heart attack at West Jefferson Medical 

Center. He was 79.



Mr. Lauricella, a lifelong resident of Gretna, was a retired maintenance 

foreman for the Jefferson Parish School Board.



In 1980, he was elected president of the newly formed levee district, which 

took over the maintenance and construction of West Bank tidal flood levees. 

The Legislature had created the district in 1979, severing it from the 

Lafourche Parish Basin Levee District and granting Jefferson Parish 

officials greater control over what at the time was 216 miles of tidal and 

back levees.



It later became the West Jefferson Levee District.



One of the district's first actions was to approve a 5-mill property tax to 

finance levee improvements.



Mr. Lauricella also was a Democratic Executive Committee member for Gretna, 

a past president of Local 454 of the United Postal Workers Association of 

America, a past president of the Grela Carnival Club who reigned as King 

Grela XXIV in 1971, a member of the Gretna Historical Society and a tour 

guide.



He was a Navy veteran of World War II, serving as a machinist with Fleet Air 

Wing 14 aboard the seaplane tender USS William B. Preston in the Pacific. He 

was a member of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3121, David Weidman Post 64 of 

the American Legion and the Order of Alhambra, Darro Caravan 29.



Mr. Lauricella was a parishioner of St. Anthony Catholic Church and a past 

grand knight of Archbishop Blenk Council 1905 of the Knights of Columbus, a 

former district deputy of the 6th District Knights of Columbus and a member 

of the Very Rev. Thomas J. Larkin Assembly of Fourth Degree Knights of 

Columbus.



He is survived by his wife, Scelina V. Lauricella.



A Mass will be said today at 9 a.m. at St. Anthony Catholic Church, at 

Burmaster and Franklin streets in Gretna. Burial will be in Westlawn 

Memorial Park. Mothe Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.





Times Picayune  04-11-1997