Lambert Joseph 'Bobby' Gonzales Jr., who helped rescue people after Hurricane Betsy, dies at age
90
Times Picayune 07-01-2010
Submitted By NOVA

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Lambert Joseph "Bobby" Gonzales Jr., who was part of a Coast Guard detachment that drove through
floodwaters to rescue people from their roofs in the wake of Hurricane Betsy, died Sunday at his
Metairie home. He was 90.

When Betsy was barreling toward New Orleans on Sept. 9, 1965, Mr. Gonzales and his colleagues
were summoned to the Coast Guard base near the Industrial Canal.

When the 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish flooded, "everyone who had ever driven a 2 1/2-ton
truck was pressed into duty to get people off the roofs," said his daughter, Janice Gonzales
Barry. "I remember my father telling me that families were huddled together on top of the roofs.
They were crammed into the trucks.

"They drove for 36 hours without sleep, driving back and forth. When the trucks were full, they
had to pass up people who were begging to be picked up, but there was no room."

In recognition of that effort, the unit received a letter of commendation from Coast Guard
Commandant Edwin J. Roland.

"By your meritorious service, you have upheld the highest traditions of the United States Coast
Guard," he wrote.

Mr. Gonzales spent 28 years in the Coast Guard, retiring in 1968 as a master chief petty
officer.

During World War II, his unit established and maintained telephone communication from New
Orleans to the mouth of the Mississippi River and in remote areas of the Gulf Coast, his
daughter said. It was, she said, an area that had been regarded as too sparsely populated to
justify service.

"When the war came, the military realized they needed phones for security reasons," Barry said.
"My father was climbing telephone poles."

After leaving the Coast Guard, Mr. Gonzales went to work at Tulane University, where he
performed administrative duties such as directing work crews in the housing department and law
school. He retired in 1981.

A native New Orleanian who graduated from St. Aloysius High School, Mr. Gonzales grew up in a
family of opera lovers. Before his voice changed in adolescence, Mr. Gonzales was in demand as a
soprano, his daughter said.

He ushered for operas when he was in high school, and he was a regular listener to the
Metropolitan Opera's Saturday afternoon broadcasts, Barry said, even when he was stationed in
Ketchikan, Alaska, during World War II.

Mr. Gonzales also was an athlete, competing in swimming, boxing, basketball and wrestling. He
was the mascot of the New Orleans Athletic Club's championship baseball team of 1933.

In 1956, Mr. Gonzales won the Class B singles championship in the annual Commercial Athletic
Association tennis tournament, prompting this appraisal from Jimmie Powers in The Times-
Picayune:

"Gonzales' game is based on steadiness. He keeps the ball in play, preferring to let his
adversaries make the errors."

Survivors include his wife, Gloria Schaff Gonzales; a son, Lambert Joseph Gonzales III; a
daughter, Janice Gonzales Barry; a sister, Lorraine Gonzales Braun; and two grandchildren.

A Mass will be said Friday at 1 p.m. at Jacob Schoen & Son Funeral Home, 3827 Canal St.
Visitation will begin at 11 a.m. Burial will be in Hope Mausoleum, 4841 Canal St.