Ken Paul Ramsey

Kenneth “Ken/Kenny” Paul Ramsey passed away on February 25, 2023 at The Crossing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at age 60 after a brave 20-month battle with aggressive chondrosarcoma. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana to John and Dale (Wagner) Ramsey, Ken was the eldest of two children. His father left the family when Ken was only three years old, so his mother raised him and his sister as a single full-time working mother. Despite the hardships of that situation and with the help of his paternal grandparents, Ken’s small family made the best of things and eventually thrived. He enjoyed learning math, playing football and baseball, competing in chess and creating class clown mischief as a child and even more advanced mischief as a teenager at Bonnabel High School in Kenner, Louisiana.

Ken met his best friend Albert and his future wife Marsha at Bonnabel. All three attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where Ken initially studied electrical engineering but later found his passion in photography. He was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) fraternity, where he got into fraternity-level mischief and enjoyed playing floor hockey. While at LSU, he married Marsha just as his grandmother Lillian had predicted he would long before. Ken and Marsha were married for 32 years.

To help pay for school, Ken joined the Army National Guard, serving for six years as a generator mechanic and helping south Louisianians regain power after Hurricane Andrew and other storms. He was also deployed to help build schools in Guatemala.

Always the entrepreneur, Ken worked with his friend Albert and published university telephone directories and coupon books, which helped him hone his natural sales skills. While working in a sideline job as a photographer for Party Pics, he had the opportunity to buy the franchise, which was floundering financially at the time. Ken built the business back up at LSU and expanded it to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL), Tulane University, and Texas A&M. He developed an innovative, award-winning back office and sales management software platform which he later sold to Candid Color Photography, a national event photography company based in Oklahoma City. Ken next grew a thriving graduation photography business that served universities in Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as high schools in Louisiana, New York, and Connecticut. Ken eventually sold his graduation photography business and started a wedding photography and photo lab business, opening offices in Houston, Austin and Birmingham. Several of his former employees have been or are still working as talented photographers with their own businesses.

Ken’s biggest blessing of all was the birth of his son, Jordan, whom he loved like no other. Not having a relationship with his own father strongly compelled Ken to be present for his child. Despite being busy with work, he found time to pick up Jordan from school every day, coach his sports teams, take his family to Saints, LSU and Astros games at every opportunity, and enjoy fun trips to the beach, llama ranches, and the mountains. Ken loved dogs of any sort and shared his mother’s enthusiasm for plants and gardening. He was a member of the Krewe of Thoth in New Orleans and a member of the Krewe of Yazoo (dancing lawnmower brigade) in Baton Rouge for more than 20 years. It is fitting that he made it through one more Mardi Gras season prior to his departure.

After closing his photography business, Ken was semi-retired but still working in Customer Development for LifeTouch/Shutterfly, expanding accounts in four states until the COVID-19 pandemic hit, shutting down events and event photography altogether. After his first surgery in August of 2021, Ken made a heroic comeback from chondrosarcoma with no evidence of disease for nine months. He worked hard in rehab to make his way from bed to wheelchair to walker to cane. He had begun working in sales for Renewal by Anderson when the cancer returned with a vengeance, which led to two more surgeries and quick metastasis to his lungs and soft tissue.

Ken enjoyed aggravating family and friends and making them laugh. He and his unique sense of humor will be forever missed by his wife and son, Marsha Porter Ramsey and Jordan Paul Ramsey, Baton Rouge, LA; mother Dale Wagner Ramsey, Kenner, LA; sister Celeste Saltalamachia (Bruce), Luling, LA; brothers-in-law Troy Porter, Portland, OR and James “Jim” Porter (Melaine), Carrollton, TX; favorite nephew Christian Brandt Porter (Kelsey) and baby great-nephew Henry Abel Porter, Carrollton, TX.

Ken is preceded in death by his paternal grandparents Jesse “JD” and Lillian Ramsey, maternal grandparents Robert and Gunda Wagner, and father-in-law and mother-in-law Robert and Jung Ok “June” Porter.

The family wishes to thank the wonderful staff at the Baton Rouge Orthopaedic Clinic, Our Lady of the Lake Orthopaedic wing, Neuromedical Center Rehabilitation Hospital, Pinnacle Hospice and The Crossing at Clarity Hospice for their care, sensitivity and friendship over the course of three surgeries and their aftermath.

Family and friends are invited to celebrate Ken’s life on Friday, March 24th at 5:30 pm in the Orangerie at the LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens, 4560 Essen Lane in Baton Rouge. In lieu of flowers or donations, please make a little mischief, tell a funny story to someone who needs to laugh, buy someone some BBQ or a po boy, take someone to a ball game or make friends with a complete stranger. Ken would have wanted it that way.