TERREBONNE and LAFOURCHE Parishes, La. OBITUARIY for CAPPEL, JAMES "JIMMY" Submitted by: Louis Lavedan Published in Houma Today & The Daily Comet from Feb. 23 to Feb. 24, 2015 Died: Wednesday, February 18, 2015 ============================================================================= Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgenweb.org/volunteers/copyright.shtml ============================================================================= CAPPEL, JAMES "JIMMY" ========== A photo is available for this file. Please go to http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafourche/obits/dateobits/2015/f1502.htm and click on the name of interest. ========== James Patrick "Jimmy" Cappel, 83, a native of Marksville, and resident of Thibodaux, died Wednesday morning, February 18, 2015, of complications from pneumonia at Thibodaux Regional Medical Center. A Memorial Mass will be at 10 a.m. Friday, March 13, at St. Joseph Co-Cathedral in Thibodaux. A remembrance celebration will follow at the home of his sister, Caroline Cappel, with Edmund on piano, of course. He is survived by his daughters, Maroy Merino, of Dallas, Texas, and husband, Bob Merino, and Cherry Cappel, of New Orleans, and partner, Beth Blankenship; former spouse, Anne Cappel, of New Orleans; grandchildren, Sarah Merino, Bert Merino and Matthew Merino, of Dallas, Texas; cherished siblings and their spouses, Teeny Kuhn, of Morristown, New Jersey, and husband, Don, Edmund Cappel and Caroline Cappel, of Thibodaux, Fred Cappel and wife, Sally, and Dick Cappel and wife, Eileen, of Lake Charles; seven nieces; five nephews; 10 great-nieces; 11 great-nephews and their families; and one irascible Pomeranian, Danny-Boy. He was preceded in death in December of 2013 by his beloved partner, Dr. Myrton Beeler; and by many pets over the decades, most especially his treasured Collie, Noodle. Jimmy was born Dec. 2, 1931, to May Roy Cappel and Ernest Berchmann Cappel, in Marksville, the second of six children. He was raised in Marksville and Alexandria, and graduated from Menard High School. He attended Mary Hill Seminary in Pineville from 1950 to 1951, served in the Fourth Army Infantry from 1954 to 1956, and studied Art at Louisiana State University from 1956 to 1957. An artist both by trade and in the kitchen, Jimmy was a quintessential Louisianan, happiest when cooking seafood gumbo for friends and family or painting scenes of his beloved bayou cypress trees. Though raised in central Louisiana, Jimmy gravitated to New Orleans in the early 1960s. In 1966, he met his partner of 47 years, Myrt Beeler, and they lived for many years in the Faubourg Marigny before retiring to Thibodaux in 1994. Jimmy loved all celebrations, but especially Mardi Gras, and was a sought-after costume designer. He created his own costume masterpiece for his reign over the 17th Annual Krewe of Petronius Ball Masque in 1978, served as its Captain in 1980, and would again don a Mardi Gras crown in 2013 when chosen to reign as King of the Krewe of Venus by his peers at the Lafourche Home for the Aged. A loving son, he spent a great deal of time helping to care for his beloved mother, May, in her later years. He will be long remembered for his vast talent, incredible imagination, infectious laugh and twinkling blue eyes. He leaves a legacy of beautiful artwork hanging in the homes of family and friends throughout the country, as well as a worn wooden box of recipes created, curated and annotated for more than sixty years, that will continue to be prepared with him in mind for many decades to come. Landry's Funeral Home in Thibodaux is in charge of arrangements. US Army ======================