Eugene Anthony Katz

Eugene A. Katz, 97, of New Orleans, Louisiana, passed away on the evening of August 14, 2021, in Charlotte, North Carolina, one year, two months and two days after his wife of 75 years, Anna Mae. A recent survivor of Covid 19, he died peacefully from natural causes of advanced age.

Gene was born on November 16, 1923, the second child of Joseph Theophile Katz, Sr., a well-known New Orleans newspaper seller, and Antoinette Pumilia, a young, first generation Sicilian homemaker. His brother, Joseph T. Katz, Jr. was born not quite two years earlier.

Gene faced a challenging start in life as he was separated from his mother and brother at six years old by a painful Sophie’s choice at his parents' divorce. After five unsettled years, sometimes with his father, other times with his grandmother and aunts, he re-joined his mother and brother when Antoinette remarried Frank Eitmann, a house construction carpenter, in 1934. Finally in a stable, supportive home, the 11 year-old Eugene, now raised Catholic, flourished. And from that time on, seeking, building and preserving a strong, loving, family of his own became his obsessive life-long goal.

After graduating from Alcèe Fortier High School in 1941, where he excelled in math, drawing, baseball, basketball, and occasionally crashing weddings, Gene entered the workforce with the U.S. Corps of Engineers on the Prytania Street docks while also playing semi-pro baseball. In 1942, WWII intervened and saw him follow his older brother into the U.S. Navy in service to his country. Honorably discharged early, Gene enrolled in business school upon his return to New Orleans, where he met his destiny, the unwavering love of his life, Anna Mae Chaix. Anna Mae eventually said “yes” to a September 1945 wedding. Their union would last 75 loving years.

His second longest union would be with the utility company, New Orleans Public Service, Inc., where he would distinguish himself with sales awards, bowling trophies and life-long friendships for 38 years until his retirement.

Gene is survived by two proud sons, Eugene M. Katz of Charlotte, NC (Helen Bleakley Katz) and Michael E. Katz of Sharon, CT (Jaclynn Carroll); five loving grandchildren, Lee Chaix McDonough (Patrick), Robert Katz (Emily Greene Katz), James Katz (Cindi Katz), Alexander Katz, and Oliver Katz; and six adoring great-grandsons, Jack and Ben McDonough, Charlie, Dodger, Tyler and Reed Katz.

Gene’s earliest memory was of the 1927 Great Mississippi Flood, when the city was drowned under 4 feet of river water on a Good Friday. In the years after, he witnessed and survived not only his own family break-up and re-building but also hurricanes, economic depressions, wars, transformative social change and a tragic global pandemic. He could not bear to witness nor did he ultimately survive the passing of his beloved Anna Mae, however.

His life story spanned almost a century. At its conclusion it told of a remarkable marriage, two sons, their spouses, five grandchildren, their spouses, and six great-grandchildren; plus countless relatives, close friends and passing acquaintances who all loved him almost as much as he loved all of them equally, ceaselessly and without reservation or judgement for his entire adult life. They are all living testament to the ultimately spectacular success of the simple life-plan of a child of New Orleans in the early twentieth century. “Rascal” will be acutely missed, and forever loved and lovingly remembered.

A Funeral Mass at St. Peter Catholic Church in Charlotte will be celebrated at a later date.

Memorial contributions may be made to Loaves & Fishes/Friendship Trays, Inc.; International House of Metrolina, Inc.; and AldersgateHeroFund.com.