Katrina's Lives Lost: Marjorie Luscy Blancher, 1925-2005 Submitted By: N.O.V.A November 2005 Source: Times Picayune 11-02-2005 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** A whiz at her sewing machine, Marjorie Luscy Blancher's two daughters still are amazed by their mother's feat in 1969. Penny Blancher's fiancé, Bob Fitzgerald, received notice that he was being shipped to Vietnam before their planned wedding date. So Margie Blancher rushed to make her daughter's pearly white wedding dress -- as well as six cranberry bridesmaid dresses with puffed sleeves and pink ribbons. In 10 days. Margie Blancher understood young love. She grew up on France Street near North Claiborne, and met Joseph John Blancher, whom everyone calls Tommy, at the Famous movie theater. She told her mother, "I'm going to marry this boy." And she did: She was 19 and Tommy was 21. She called him "Honey" and he called her "Mookie." They were married 61 years. Tommy Blancher was a sheet metal worker and a fireman; his wife was a bookkeeper. They reared Penny and her younger sister, Sylvia, on Abundance Street, near Franklin Avenue, where their home was practically a neighborhood community center. In those days, friends said Margie Blancher resembled the actress Loretta Young. "I'd say, 'That's my mom!' " said Penny. Margie decided they should visit every state; eventually they set foot in almost 40, once driving 100 extra miles just to have their picture taken in Oklahoma. In 1964, the Blanchers built a house in Sherwood Forest in eastern New Orleans. The kitchen -- tile, sink, stove, refrigerator -- was aqua, Margie's favorite color. She'd cook pot roast and gumbo there, but her favorite food was boiled crawfish. She adored Bing Crosby and loved to dance. Later, she played church bingo with a group of women who laughed together. The family stayed close. Sylvia, a teacher at Resurrection of Our Lord School, lived with her parents. Bob and Penny lived next door. Their sons, Robby and Joey, are grown now, but as boys, they were always at their grandparents' house, occasionally bringing flowers. When Penny was 7 and Sylvia 4, Margie gave birth to Joseph John Blancher Jr. He died from a lung ailment when he was 2 days old. Margie almost never spoke about her grief, but sometimes the girls saw it in their mother's eyes. "When she saw my first child, she cried deeply," said Penny. Ten years ago, congestive heart failure and arthritis sent Margie to bed permanently. "We put the hospital bed in the living room, so she could be in the heart of everything," said Sylvia. They all endured Hurricane Katrina's winds just fine, but when the water from the levee breaks rose Monday afternoon, they were forced to move Margie to an upstairs apartment across the street. The rising floodwater traumatized her, her daughters say, and Margie Blancher died before dawn Tuesday morning, 10 days after her 80th birthday, her family beside her. To save their own lives, they were forced to leave her body behind when they evacuated. It wasn't until Oct. 23, after Sylvia took a DNA test, that Margie Blancher's remains were identified at the St. Gabriel morgue.