Friends Make Sure Man Gets 'Proper Farewell'
Submitted by N.O.V.A. July 2005
Times Picayune	08-22-1998


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Wayne Lacharite was a big man, with an even bigger heart, his friends said. And his
friendship and caring nature inspired a sense of loyalty that transcended his death.

Lacharite, 50, died of a stroke earlier this month at Ochsner Foundation Hospital. With
no family and no money, he was headed for an indigent burial in Potter's Field, the
resting place for the parish's poor.

But then word of his ultimate fate reached members of the Delgado Community College
Honors Council, of which Lacharite had been a member during his two years at the
school.

Club members solicited donations and contributed club money to help defray the cost of
giving Lacharite a "proper service."

"We just didn't want Wayne to go to Potter's Field," club Vice President Dee Scott-
Smith said. "He deserved better than that. We just thought this would be a good thing
to do for him."

On Friday, a small group of his friends, most of whom he met while attending Delgado,
gathered in the chapel at Leitz- Eagan Funeral Home in Metairie to say their goodbyes
at a Catholic Mass.

A few pictures of Lacharite with his friends adorned the simple gray coffin draped with
a white covering. He was buried at Garden of Memories.

"He was just a really neat person, a very intelligent person," club President Victoria
Baumann said. "He had a lot of problems himself, but he never complained. We didn't
even know he was poor."

Lacharite left his home in Ohio at an early age and lost touch with his relatives, his
friends said.

He never listed any family on his hospital records, even when he had a heart operation
three years ago, they said.

And while his friends didn't know a lot about Lacherite's private life, they said he
sometimes talked about his rather colorful past.

"He said he used to train animals in the circus," Scott-Smith said. "He had scars on
his leg from where a tiger attacked him."

He's also said to have done television commercials.

"Wayne was brilliant," said Patricia Donelon, one of Lacherite's nurses at Ochsner. "He
was probably the best listener I ever came across."

Lacharite, who was set to attend Loyola University this fall with the help of a $4,000
scholarship, was full of plans.

His dream was to become a law professor.

"He wanted to share what he learned with younger people," Baumann said. "He felt his
age would be an advantage. He wanted to show people that it's never too late to pursue
goals."