Ex-Newspaper Employee Diego Patron Is Dead At 80
Times Picayune 02-7-1996

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Diego "Didi" Patron, a retired employee of The Times-Picayune Publishing
Corp., died Tuesday at NorthShore Regional Medical Center in Slidell. He was
80.

Mr. Patron, a master typographer who was known for his hail-fellow-well-met
manner, was born in Merida, Mexico, and came to New Orleans when he was 2. He
was a graduate of Fortier High School and had lived in Slidell for the past 15
years.

Mr. Patron was in charge of New Orleans' Taxicab Bureau in the 1940s.

In the 1950s, he worked as a typographer in an advertising shop and went to
work for The States-Item part time as a proofreader in the late 1950s. He
later worked full time for the newspaper's copy desk and became makeup editor.

When The Times-Picayune and The States-Item merged in 1980, Mr. Patron stayed
on as a makeup editor before retiring in 1981.

Mr. Patron, with his zesty, distinguished looks, also became known to many
area residents in the 1960s and '70s through the television ads he did for
banks and other businesses and the print ads he did for the newspaper.

He was a parishioner of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church in Slidell and a
former captain of Manresa.

Survivors include his wife, Leola Lemoine Patron; three sons, Diego Jr. of
Phoenix and Christopher and Fernando Patron of Slidell; a daughter, Judith
Hebert of Lafayette; a sister, Dolores Patron of New Orleans; 10
grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.

A Mass will be said Friday at noon at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100
Pontchartrain Blvd. Visitation will begin at 10 a.m. Burial will be in
Metairie Cemetery.