Katrina's Lives Lost:	Robichaux, John 1915-2005
			Robichaux, Virgie 1919-2005
			Robichaux, Edward 1944-2005
Submitted By: 		N.O.V.A March 2006
Source:			Times Picayune 

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Sometimes when John Robichaux would come across his wife in their house on
Franklin Avenue, he would give her a peck on the cheek and sing a few bars
of a love song to her.

"He'd sing those old-time tunes -- songs from when they were young," niece
Joan Cash said. "He would just stand there and sing to her."

Virgie Robichaux didn't always take to her husband's foolishness. Sometimes
she would light up, sometimes she would brush him off.

"It depended on her mood," Cash said.

But her disapproval, feigned or otherwise, never stopped him.

"He adored my auntie," Cash said. "She was the love of his life. You could
just feel the love there."

The sentiment was entirely mutual.

"She zeroed in on him," Cash said.

Their love endured as long as their marriage did -- for six decades,
beginning with their first meeting at a dance and then through the years
they raised their two sons, Curtis and Edward, through his career as a
musician, through his other career as a Sheetrock installer, through their
move to the house in Gentilly that always made them both so proud.

The spiritual center of the house was the kitchen, where Virgie held forth
with authority.

"My grandmother made the best gumbo," said Kenneth Robichaux, who joined
his grandparents for dinner whenever he could. "Seafood gumbo with sausage
and crabs. Oh man, she made that for every holiday. And baked macaroni and
red beans and oyster dressing and butter beans with ham in it."

Born and reared in LaPlace, Virgie was a generous woman with food enough
for anyone who showed up in her kitchen and money enough to give a few
dollars to anyone who asked. She had a raucous side, too.

"She was a character," Cash said. "She loved to tell off-color jokes. I'm
sure she'd be mad at me for telling this, but she used to like to play the
horses, too. Did pretty good sometimes."

As for John, his relatives say, he was laid-back and good-natured.

"Easygoing guy," Kenneth Robichaux said. "He'd go with the flow."

A nephew of the celebrated bandleader by the same name, John Robichaux
played the drums with the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra and doubled as a
singer with a charming, uncontrived style. He entertained frequently around
town and traveled the world performing. His grandson remembers his handsome
Premiere drum set with the pearly black finish.

"Looked like an oyster," he said.

The couple's son Edward was born with hydrocephalus, which caused brain
deterioration, and lived with his parents all his life.

Cash hadn't been to New Orleans for a few years when she came to visit in
July. A highlight of her trip were the sessions around the kitchen table
sifting through old family pictures -- sorting them and labeling them,
hearing stories from Virgie about the people who populated them.

"We created four beautiful photo albums for her," Cash says. "She was so
happy."

As Hurricane Katrina approached, family members tried to persuade the
Robichauxs to leave town. They wouldn't hear of it.

"The previous year a hurricane was supposed to come to Louisiana and it was
a dud," Kenneth Robichaux says. "We all left then and the storm missed us.
So this one, they figured, was going to do the same thing."

Kenneth Robichaux came back to New Orleans as soon as he was allowed to and
found his grandparents' house destroyed by floodwaters, their bodies
removed by rescue workers. He discovered the remains of their dog, Soldier,
but the photo albums were nowhere to be found.