Grace Ramke

Grace Ramke was a dedicated, faith-filled Christian, grateful recipient of God’s gifts of every individual family member by blood and by marriage, beloved family matriarch, professional art teacher, recognized visual artist and sculptor, poet, dearly loved and appreciated friend, life-long appreciator of feline companions—her beloved cats. She will forever be remembered as “gifted with family and friends.”

Born October 16, 1924 in Perry, Louisiana, near Abbeville, she died peacefully at home in Baton Rouge, at the age of 96 on March 21, 2021. She was the daughter of the late Edwin Derrick Ramke and the late Lydia Marie Lee Ramke and the sister of Zoie Ramke Cabral, Edith Ramke Blush, Otis Vincent Ramke, Iris Ramke Coumes, and Lina “Pinky” Ramke Parisi, all deceased. She is survived by three nieces: Florence Edith Blush Frederick (Lewis Wayne Frederick), Patricia Lois Kennard Mistrot (Richard Valliere Mistrot), Susan Grace Parisi Ingber (Bruce Franklin Ingber) and seven nephews: Richard Kohnke Blush, Jr. (Fay Carole Conway), Ernest Edwin Blush (deceased in babyhood), Herbert Allen Blush (Gloria Ann Hughes Blush), Herman Hoover Coumes (Jean Ann Mipro Coumes), Ronald William Coumes (June Rita Dudenhefer), Otis Vincent Ramke (Sally Waller Ramke, deceased), Paul Kenneth Parisi (Sharon Elaine Alcock Parisi, deceased), (Linda Wilson Parisi), and numerous nieces and nephews from the next two succeeding generations.

Grace moved with her family to New Orleans in 1927. She was an active member of the Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in her formative years where her faith in God was greatly nourished. She was educated in the city’s public schools, graduating as Student Body President in 1941 from John McDonough Girls High School. She was a member of the last class to graduate from an all-girls, New Orleans public high school, before it became coed the following year. She graduated from Rabouin Vocational School in commercial art in 1943 where she was also student body president. From 1943-45, she was employed by the Louisiana Power and Light company in New Orleans as editor/artist of the company’s in-house publication. In 1945 she enrolled at LSU and received Bachelor of Arts degree in sculpture in 1949. Subsequently she earned the Master of Arts degree (1957). Concurrent with her university studies at LSU, Grace taught art and English, first, for a year at Istrouma Middle School and then for seven years at Istrouma High School (1949-57). She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture (1978). Her sculpture professor, Armin Scheler, was a major influence in her artwork and he and his family became lifelong friends.

From 1957-79, she was on the faculty of McNeese State University in Lake Charles, retiring there as Assistant Professor of Fine Arts. During her tenure at McNeese, she continued to produce her own personal work in sculpture, drawing, and painting, exhibiting in local and regional art shows. She was commissioned by Monsignor Irwin DeBlanc to create a sculpture for the Consolata Catholic Cemetery. It was at that time that she converted to Catholicism. In 1958-59, she received a Ford Foundation Grant for a year’s study of African sculpture in the museums of former European colonial powers of Europe: England, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, and Rome, Italy. In 1980, she retired from McNeese and returned to live in Baton Rouge, bringing her widowed mother to live with her. This relocation allowed her siblings to more easily assist in the care of their mother. After her mother died, Grace was hired as an administrative assistant for two years at the St. Gabriel site in the Jobs Skills Education Program (JSEP) operating within the Louisiana State Penitentiary system. The program offered computer and technical skills to prisoners and probationers. At the same time, she took poetry classes at LSU.

Through the years, Grace was very generous in offering her help. She imparted her accumulated wealth of knowledge of art and the benefit of her teaching experience to Sr. Adelaide Williamson, CSJ, head of the Art Department of St. Joseph’s Academy. She also assisted Sr. Eugenie Veglia, CSJ and Sr. Jane Aucoin, CSJ with the organization of archives for the Sisters of St. Joseph in the south Louisiana area, along with work organizing records for St. Joseph’s Academy under the direction of principal, St. Judith Brun, CSJ. Her self-sacrificing devotion was manifest by care given to both of her parents and later to her sister, Zoie, as she brought them into her home to personally care for them in the latter years of their lives. She also gave selfless care to her aging, widowed former professor, Armin Scheller, at the end of his life. She was a member of St. George Catholic Church in Baton Rouge and a participant in The Red Shoes, where she made lasting friendships, among them Wendy Herschman, Susan Hymel, Becky Simmons, Ann Trousdale, Missy Crews and Anne Bucey. Her life-long interests were art, teaching, spiritual reading, and writing both poetry and reflective essays. Daily she spent hours in “Lectio Divina,” communing with her beloved God. She was also a deep lover of cats, her constant dear companions throughout her long life.

The family wishes to extend special thanks to Lois Warrington and Sr. Adelaide Williamson, CSJ, for their many years of loving friendship and solicitous care for their aunt. Also appreciated is the loving care Aunt Grace received from Jenny and Melinda in her last days. Last but not least, we join Aunt Grace in thanking her dear neighbors, Katie and Derrick Freeman and their four beautiful children, Pierre Baker, RN and all of the Sisters St. Joseph for their presence and service over the years.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at St. George Catholic Church, 7808 St. George Drive, Baton Rouge, Louisiana at Noon on March 26, 2021. At a later date interment will take place at Garden of Memories, 4900 Airline Highway, Metairie, near the site of her parents’ burial. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Sisters of St. Joseph at www.csjoseph.org and The Red Shoes at www.theredshoes.org.