Linda Sue Abshire

By trade a lawyer, Linda practiced succession and family law for many years, though ultimately her professional life was as diverse as her interests. She also served as a Judicial Law Clerk for two state-court judges, was a “Land (Wo)man,” and an English and Geography teacher to secondary students in Lafayette. Away from work, Linda was an artist. She produced and consumed it compulsively. She wrote, painted, printed, photographed, dark-roomed, filmed, and cooked. In her forties, she learned cryptography, topography, and astronomy. She wanted her descendants to make splendid things, and spotted their talents with falconer’s eyes, which, incidentally, she also studied. "Come play chess with me," she would say to her grandsons, Grant and Jack, occasionally letting them win. "Play the trumpet for me." "You drew that cat at school, Marian? Oh, I love the way you curled her whiskers!" She wanted to find their spark and to nourish it, and she did. And they cherished her for it. She brought nobility to plain things if ever possible. She planted a kumquat orchard at her rental house in Kenner—and forbade anyone to touch it. She taught us that the world has beauty, and we have beauty, if we just stop and look. An echo of her is in the corridors of University Medical Center, pushing her walker and her IV tower until she can barely stand, all while admiring the paintings, one by one by one. The echo says, “Come join us. Look at this one here. I do not like the composition. Oh, but I love that shade of green.”

Raised in Kaplan, and a resident of Metairie, Linda was preceded in death by her father and mother, Dr. Gaulman "Papere" Abshire and Helen "Mamere" Staynoff Abshire, as well as her sister "Nanny" Jane E. Abshire. And she is survived by her two brothers, Dr. Stephen G. Abshire and Richard A. Abshire.

Linda was a loving and devoted mother of two children: Stephen Gaulman Abshire Myers and Hampton Paul Forrest Myers, of New Orleans. She loved her daughter-in-law, Stephen’s wife, Sarah Voorhies Myers, as if she were her own. And Linda (known as “Minna” to them) was the adoring grandmother of three thriving grandchildren: Stephen Grantham Voorhies Myers (“Grant”), John Abshire Myers (“Jack”), and Marian Helene Myers. Linda graduated Kaplan High School before attending then-named USL and later graduating with a B.A. in English from St. Louis University. She then achieved her J.D. from the Loyola University School of Law in 1978, where she met the father of her children, Stephen H. Myers.

Linda read extensively and participated in clubs with her friends that promoted learning, dialogue, and skill, such as her “Breakfast Club,” as she called it, and the New Orleans Orchid Society. She was the best cook that most of us will ever know, and she loved to entertain a handful of guests at a time (but never too many). A tender beef rib on peppers, garlic, and sour pineapple, was just an experiment to her, which was to be repeated until sufficiently fine-tuned. She did not like it at first (we did!). She loved wild rice with oil and salt, a thing basic and wonderful, with subtle flavors, suspended. In her final weeks, she ate as many snowballs as she could, preferably coconut flavored with a little lime on top, and ideally with her grandchildren. In each city, and in each epoch of her life, she gained a select few friends, and did not lose them. We, the dear friends and family of Linda Sue "Minna" Abshire, miss her. You are forever with us, Mom.

Services will be held on Saturday, October 28, 2023 at St. Dominic's Cathedral, 775 Harrison Ave, New Orleans, LA 70124. Visitation will begin at 10:00am followed by a Funeral Mass at 12:00pm.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to any of her favorite charitable groups: The New Orleans Museum of Art (https://my.noma.org/donate/i/inhonor), St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (www.stjude.org/donate), or Sisters Servants of Mary, Ministers to the Sick (#504-282-5549, 5001 Perlita Street, New Orleans 70122-1999).