Katrina's Lives Lost:	Goldie Gardner Gulledge, 1914-2005
Submitted By: 		N.O.V.A December 2005
Source:			Times Picayune 12-02-2005

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Home was everything to Goldie Gardner Gulledge. She didn't care for
formalities or fancy things. She took pride in such simple things as her
German chocolate cake or the hem she put on a hand-sewn dress.

"One time her grandson Paul, who is an airline steward, met Dolly Parton on
a flight and they got to talking about good homemade chicken and dumplings,
and Dolly said she hadn't had some real Arkansas dumplings in a good while,"
said Robert "Sonny" Gulledge Jr., the son of Robert Joel and Goldie
Gulledge. "My mother was from Whelen Springs, Ark., and there was nobody who
could make dumplings like her. So, Paul told Dolly he would bring her some,
and the story goes that Dolly loved Mama's cooking just as much as we did."

Goldie's goodies were famous among her children, Robert Jr. and Bobbie Nell
Chaisson, and her 12 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren. Holidays were
spent for the most part in Whelen Springs and Luling, where the Gulledges
worked, tended to a large garden and raised their kids. Dad ran a service
station. Goldie stayed home when her children were young, but once they were
off to school she worked at the St. Charles Parish clerk of court's office
until 1975.

The couple married in 1935. On Christmas Eve, Robert drove Goldie, who was
on winter break from Peabody College (now Vanderbilt University) in
Nashville, Tenn., straight from the train depot to the office of the justice
of the peace. When they got there, he proposed. They honeymooned at her
folks' house.

"She worked hard every day of her life," said Chaisson of her mother, who
had a green thumb when it came to growing vegetables and roses. "If it
wasn't the garden or work, then she would be sewing or cooking for us."

Goldie attended the First Baptist Church of Luling and for many years taught
Sunday school. Her grandson Paul Chaisson said he has tried to instill in
his own five children his grandmother's virtue.

"I'll never forget the first time I heard my grandmother curse," Paul said.
"It makes me laugh to this day, how she said, 'Oh, foot!' I wish everyone
could learn how to curse like my grandmother."

Goldie was also a traveler and would join family members on trips to Europe
and throughout the United States. In her 70s, she went white-water rafting
with Chaisson's family. But no matter how much she enjoyed the journey, she
was always glad to get back home to Luling.

"We'd sit in her back yard by a giant oak tree and watch the birds, talking
about everyday things," Robert Jr. said. "What I'll miss the most about her
is the gentility of being with her in our home."

Not long after her husband died on Nov. 29, 2001, Goldie began to battle
Alzheimer's disease and severe arthritis in her knees. This past summer, at
91, she moved from her home to an assisted living care center and then to
Canon Hospice. During Hurricane Katrina, Canon residents were evacuated to
St. Charles General Hospital, which subsequently lost power and ran out of
food and supplies. Two days after the storm passed, her body was found on
the fourth floor of the hospital.

"She was just the kind of Grandma we all hope and pray to have," Paul said.
"Mawmaw was a totally selfless woman who maximized every resource God made
available to her."