Nevest Marie Fontenot

Nevest Marie Bouquet Fontenot of Greenwood, Arkansas died at home on Wednesday March 5, 2025 of complications from leukemia. She was only a few days short of her 82nd birthday. Like her mother before her, Nevest was the matriarch, glue and orienting point for her family over the many years of her life.

The daughter of Thomas and Agnes LeBeau Bouquet, Nevest was born in Morganza, LA in 1943 and spent her childhood and adolescence in Eunice, LA where she grew up with her brother Tommy and her cousin Shelia. Although academics were a necessary evil, in her youth her true love was dancing, whether at parties or at local dance halls into which she was known to sneak or talk her way into. It was at one such dance hall, the then-famous Southern Club in Opelousas, LA that she danced to the music of Fats Domino, a memory she loved to recall.

Nevest was married to Edward Fontenot in 1962 (that marriage ended in divorce) and later graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a degree in nursing. She went on to build a long nursing career beginning as a nursing instructor at UL, a job she loved perhaps more than any other. Her entire professional career was devoted to helping others and her work spanned medical disciplines from adolescent psychiatry to oncology. At work Nevest had a reputation for callings things as she saw them and insisting that patients come before bureaucracy. It was because she did not suffer fools gladly that she believed she never won the Lourdes’ annual St. Francis Nursing Award. Her family rectified this egregious wrong by awarding her their own special Lifetime Achievement St. Francis Award at her retirement party.

Nevest had three sons, Edouard, Brit and Justin Fontenot and lived with her family in Milton, LA for many years. It was in Milton that she took on the school district and, with other residents, successfully resisted an effort to close the local elementary school. Nevest was not easily daunted by life and was the master of the work-around. Finding a way to get things done in spite of obstacles is a lesson she taught not only her own children but a whole generation of their friends. She was known to have fed many, bailed some out of jail, lent others a bed for the night, and furiously challenged all of them to live up to their potential, particularly by pursuing their education. Nevest believed in the power of education beyond almost anything else to give people power to find a way through hardship and she ceaselessly encouraged people to “get some letters behind your name.”

Always a night owl, Nevest preferred the 3p-11p hospital shift, after which she might be seen midnight grocery shopping at Albertsons or watching late-night police dramas. Once she retired from nursing Nevest devoted her energies to remodeling and decorating her home. She had a remarkable and unique sense of style that her family came to call fondly, Nevestonian Baroque. Her homes and gardens in Lafayette, LA and later Greenwood, AR are testimonies to her distinctive aesthetic. Always a lover of beautiful clothes, Nevest knew how to wear a fancy hat but her creativity extended past interior décor and fashion to her use of the English language. When Nevest did not find the language adequate to her needs she had no qualms about inventing her own words and phrases. Perhaps the most famous example of her linguistic creativity is the word “earl-ated,” which she created to describe a gift given early in the way that “belated” describes a gift given late. Nevest was known as a profoundly generous person. She gave gifts often and, frequently, early because she couldn’t stand to wait.

Nevest never saw a crawfish boil, fish fry or barbecue she didn’t like and was pleased that her family continued these traditions in Greenwood. She will be celebrated by a gathering of all her family later this spring with a grand crawfish boil in the style she would have enjoyed. She is survived by her three sons and their families, Edouard Fontenot and Christopher Bellonci of Truro, MA; Brit Fontenot and Kristina Allison and their sons Max and Remy of Bozeman, MT; Justin and Rachel Fontenot and their sons Seth and Myles of Greenwood, AK; her brother Thomas Bouquet, Jr. of DeRidder, LA; and her cousin Shelia Reams Areno of Eunice, LA.

A celebration of life service will be held 10:30 a.m., Friday, March 7 at McConnell Funeral Home Chapel in Greenwood with burial at Liberty Cemetery to follow.

Pallbearers will be Edouard, Justin, Myles, Seth and Rachael Fontenot and Floyd Manuel.