Mr. John Clarence LeBlanc

John Clarence LeBlanc was born on November 15, 1941, and raised in Donaldsonville, LA. His parents were Leo and Denise LeBlanc. He had five brothers, Leo, Oliver, Milton who are deceased, and Nolan who lives in Donaldsonville and Leslie who lives in Baton Rouge. He also had two sisters, Emma and Marie Denise, who both live in Donaldsonville. John attended and graduated from Ascension Catholic School in Donaldsonville, LA. He had many good memories about the brothers and sisters that taught him during his school years. One of his best teachers was Sister Marie. John's favorite subject was Math, and he loved telling jokes. That trait carried on into his adult life. John had two special friends during his school days, Gerald Mabile and Darryl Burns. He also had several girlfriends because he loved women. Right after he finished high school, he joined the Air Force and spent 4 years in England. During this time he had an opportunity to serve Mass as an altar server at the Vatican in Rome. He was so proud of this honor and spoke about going back to Rome someday. In 1964, he wanted to purchase a new car and contacted Lloyd LeBlanc, a salesman from Donaldsonville and friend of the family who worked at Daigle Pontiac in Gonzales, LA. Here he met the love of his life, Dianna Trabeau, secretary at the car dealership. Lloyd introduced us and two weeks later, we met at a dance in Donaldsonville (the Town and Country Club) where John asked me for our first date. We continued to date and were married the following September, 1965. John was employed with Texaco Refinery and had to work shift work which we both hated. In order to get a straight day job, John quit Texaco and went to work for Chevron Chemical. John worked in the warehouse and later was a part time buyer which he truly loved. He retired from Chevron with 20 years of service in 1999. We had two daughters, Lori and Jill. Lori presented us with a granddaughter, Mindi and a stepgranddaughter, Grace and son-in-law, Steve Bond. Granddaughter Mindi married Brian Hugman and had two children, Margaret and Caroline. Jill presented us with two granddaughters, Lauren and Claire, a grandson, Michael and son-in-law Mike Kerby. John loved spending time with his grandchildren and family. John and I loved to go dancing. When we were young, we used to go dancing some Saturday nights and holidays. John became very active in the Knights of Columbus and served on many committees and even served as Grand Knight of Council 2657 in Gonzales. He was always available to help in the kitchen and he served on Bingo committees for a long time. Then he became an avid Bingo player. We used to love to go to the State KC Conventions and have many wonderful memories. He was also an usher at St. Theresa Catholic Church in Gonzales, and a Eucharistic Minister for many years. He loved baseball games both professional and college. We also had season tickets for LSU football for over 40 years. We had a great time when we would tailgate at LSU. Because I enjoyed basketball so much, our daughters gave us season tickets for the LSU women basketball games for several years, and John enjoyed that sport as well. He watched tennis and loved to watch Australian football on television. When casinos came to the Baton Rouge area John really enjoyed that type of entertainment. He loved playing the slot machines and he used to play Black Jack. Once the penny machines became popular, he gave up the cards and played the slots more. The Belle Casino in Baton Rouge had a First Friday event for Seniors every month. The casino would give three times your points from 8:30 until 11:00 am, a special prize at noon, then a free meal. This was a fun day for both of us. We would meet our special friends, Jessie Soileau, Janice Dick, Jack Foster, Cathy Venable, and Emma Orgeron and Gail Barter would ride with us each month. We had a wonderful time. Sometimes we would win and sometimes we would lose, but we always had a good time and enjoyed time spent with good friends. We also had fun when we would go to Mississippi overnight at the different casinos. John especially liked to get a massage at the Grand Casino in Biloxi. That was a special treat for him. John really enjoyed Mardi Gras. He had many relatives living in New Orleans and we attended many parades with them. We would spend several nights with them and the night before Mardi Gras the men would go and camp out off of St. Charles and rope off an area for the family to watch the parade on Mardi Gras day. In the morning the women and children would join them with donuts, hot coffee and snacks and be ready for a fun day. We did this for many years and always had a blast. One year one of John's relatives asked him if he would like to be a Duke in a Mardi Gras ball. He was ecstatic and immediately accepted. We made many trips to New Orleans for parties and practicing but John didn't mind. He was having fun. That same year Jill was invited to be in another ball for the Choctaw crew. She loved it as well and so we really had a great time celebrating Mardi Gras that year. When our children were younger we spent several vacations at the Mississippi and Florida beaches. We also went to Astro World, Sea World and Six Flags Over Texas. We visited Tennessee, Las Vegas, Boston and North Carolina. We also visited San Francisco, Wyoming and Salt Lake City. John loved to travel and to drive. He always drove us wherever we chose to go. He would never complain about being in the car for so many hours. When John retired we took a trip to Rome, Florence and Venice, Italy. It was the week of his birthday and we all celebrated his birthday everyday and every night. We met so many wonderful people from all over the world. This would probably be his favorite trip. However, traveling to different states to visit some of our grandchildren would be a top favorite as well. When I retired we visited London, England because this was the place John was stationed when he served in the Air Force. This was also a great trip because John knew the area so well. Several years ago John set up a beautiful aquarium with gold fish and a few other types of fish. He kept it very clean and handled the chores for the upkeep. He enjoyed watching the fish for hours each day. John developed colon rectal cancer in 1997. It was discovered in an annual physical check up with a colonoscopy and it was very serious. We were referred to Dr. Richard Byrd, Jr in Baton Rouge. Jill was working at the Lady of the Lake hospital and she had a friend whose husband was a physician who recommended Dr. Byrd. He was wonderful and did the surgery. John also needed chemo and radiation so we contacted Dr. Patrick Stagg, an oncologist. His office was in Mary Bird Perkins and John began treatment a few weeks after surgery, and was in and out of the hospital. It was a very rough treatment and John had one bad side effect after another. He lost his appetite and dropped 58 pounds. He became very depressed. We really didn't think he was going to make it, but God had other plans and John did make it. He stayed cancer free over 19 years. That cancer never came back. However, he developed a pain in his hip from side effects of the radiation. He had to get a stimulator implanted in his back which helped him to walk with less pain. It also helped him to be able to dance again which we both enjoyed. We participated in St. James and Ascension Relay for Life for many years. We attended many cancer survivor celebrations sponsored by the American Cancer Society. His cancer free days ended in March of 2016. One early Sunday morning John had a very high temperature and a bright red rash all over his body. I brought him to the ER at St. Elizabeth but after several tests nothing showed up so they sent him home. The next day the same thing happened so I brought him back because I could not get an appointment with our family doctor. The same doctor was on duty in the ER so he admitted John for observation. Again nothing showed up in blood tests so they called in an internist and she ordered a cat scan. The next evening she came to John's room and reported the scan showed that his lymph nodes from his neck down to his groin were extremely enlarged. Although she was not positive she thought he had lymphoma cancer. She wanted to bring in an oncologist so John told her he would like to have Dr. Stagg as he had used him before. She said she had previously worked with Dr. Stagg and would contact him. We certainly were not expecting that bad news but we thought we had beaten cancer once, we could do it again. At 6:30 pm, Dr. Stagg walked into John's room. He had reviewed the scan and he thought it was lymphoma cancer. Of course, we would need a biopsy to verify. He discharged us the next morning, set up a pet scan at Mary Bird in Gonzales for the following Friday. He suggested Dr. Manally should perform the biopsy, and he handled those arrangements. The pet scan showed only the lymph nodes were enlarged and that was good news. Dr. Manally did the biopsy removing a lymph node from the groin area and we had to wait two weeks for the results. Finally, we were called to Dr. Stagg's office because he had received the results. Unfortunately, the news was not good. John had a very rare type of lymphoma that usually occur in older men and only 2% of people in the United States had this rare type. If John didn't do any treatments, he would probably live only a few months. With treatments, he could possibly live one to two years. Of course, we opted to do the chemo treatments. It would be a harsh treatment. He would go into the hospital for five days and have chemo via IV the whole time and stop on the fifth day, then go home. While taking chemo, there would not be any side effects but for the next ten days, the effects would appear. John had low blood counts, little nausea, tiredness, lack of appetite and did not feel well. He had several pints of blood and many times he had to get fluids at the doctor's office. From March to October, John received 33 pints of blood. We were on the fifth floor at the Lady of the Lake Hospital and that floor was dedicated to cancer patients. We had some very special nurses and aides on that floor. Dr. Stagg was super with his care for John. After the third week of treatments, Dr. Stagg ordered a pet scan because he did not feel John's enlarged lymph nodes in the neck, armpits or groin areas any more. The pet scan came back all clear. We were so happy and Dr. Stagg decided to do only four treatments since they were so harsh and John's scan was clear. We all rejoiced. Then we made it to the last treatment. Amen....June 24, 2016 was John's last chemo treatment. I decorated his room even the IV pole with balloons, signs honoring Dr. Stagg, nurses, aides and especially God. It was a great day to remember. We were finally discharged. The next two weeks were great. John was feeling really good, and he could walk with a cane, no weakness or tiredness....it was awesome.. Then the next week he began to feel a little tired. He did fairly well until August 16. The night before his legs sort of gave out on him, and he could not walk or stand up as he usually did. I thought his blood counts were low again so I had an appointment with Dr. Yadlapati because Dr. Stagg had decided to retire. Then we had a storm and flooding began to happen all around us, so the doctor's office was closed and they instructed me to bring him to the ER in Baton Rouge because of the flooding. We didn't know if we could get through the roads in Baton Rouge, but we made it. There was also a possibility that our house might flood but we had to leave. Lori and I picked up some important paperwork and left our house in God's hands because we didn't have time to do any more. I just prayed that God would protect our house. After they did blood work on John, it showed that his sodium level was very low and he needed to be admitted. We were told it would be a slow process and we would have to be in the hospital for 10 to 12 days because they could not increase the sodium quickly for that would harm other organs in his body. His blood counts were good so that was helpful. John could not give a urine sample so they had to insert a catheter. They started him on medicines, brought in physical therapists and he slowly improved. He could not walk or stand on his own. Finally, after ten days his counts and sodium level were good. It was decided John needed rehab so we moved to Sage Rehab near the hospital. They allowed me to stay with him since he could not get up on his own and needed some assistance. The rehab at Sage was not the best program for John. He was too weak to handle the exercises. They wanted him to do the therapy back to back for three hours and he could not tolerate that much at one time. He improved a little but not too well. After four weeks, he developed a serious bladder infection and had blood in his urine. They could not do ex-rays or sonograms at the rehab center, so I decided he needed to go into the hospital. On September 24, John was admitted into the Lake and began medicines for the infection. He improved within one day but his blood pressure was dropping at different times. After four days, the bladder infection was under control and we were discharged. We informed the doctor we did not want to go back to Sage Rehab but chose to go home and contact home health. We met with Amedysis Home Health and set them up to come to our house the next day. That worked out for John beautifully. The people were so nice and we had a great physical therapist, Marcus, and a great occupational therapist, M-Lee. We also had a wonderful nurse, Becky, which turned out to be someone we have known for many years. It was a perfect solution for us. John responded to the therapists really well and showed good signs of improvement. They came on different days and that made it easier for him to handle the therapy. We were so glad to see John progress. He was almost able to walk on his own and could stand really well. He gained a few pounds and had a decent appetite. Then into November John began to lose some strength and was very tired with a lack of energy. Blood work showed that his numbers were low again. We contacted Dr. Yadlapati and he was afraid the lymphoma was back and probably in the bone marrow. He wanted to do a test in the office to see if it had gone into the bone marrow. We scheduled the test but he only got the blood and did not get any of the bone marrow. John's count was lower so Dr. Yadlapati said it was back and that's where it would go. Since John was too weak for more treatments, there wasn't anything more they could do for him. We could just give him medicines and keep him comfortable. They suggested we contact hospice which we did, using the same company. This worked out great for us and they were wonderful. John and I spoke about the time he had left and we discussed the necessary things we had to cover. He was so full of faith and courage. He told me he was tired fighting and felt that the Good Lord was ready for him. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner at the house. Jill came early in the week; Michael made it in; Mike and Claire came later; Lori, Steve and Grace came over too. Mindi, Margaret and Brian had the baby in the hospital so they could not come, but we face-timed with them. Lauren was in France and was planning to come home but had to finish some classes. John did really well on Thanksgiving. He ate at the dinner table with us in a wheelchair and enjoyed being with everyone. Then on Sunday, Jill and her family went back home. That night I heard John's breathing change. He had some fluid on his chest and I could hear a slight rattle. I contacted the nurse and asked her to come check him on Monday morning which she did. She said his body was changing quickly but not to worry. That night his breathing was smooth and then about 9:30 pm, I went to check on him and he did not have a pulse. John had gone to God in his sleep. I tried to wake him but he did not respond so I called the nurse and asked her to come over. She came in about fifteen minutes and reported that he had passed. Then I called my daughters, my sister-in-law, Emma, friends Janice and Jessie and neighbor, Jo. My son-in-law Steve came over also. The nurse contacted the coroner and Ourso's funeral home. Then we called the other family members and friends. The nurse from hospice was super and she handled getting everything ready for the funeral home. John was waked on Friday, December 2 at Ourso's from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Members of the Knights of Columbus and Catholic Daughters recited a beautiful rosary at 6:00 pm. The Knights presented a special Bible to me and my family. We had many friends and family in attendance and we appreciated their presence. We had the burial on Saturday, December 3 with a Celebration of Mass at 11:00 am at St. Theresa of Avila in Gonzales. Father Charles Perkins, brother of our dear friend, Lucille Graham, celebrated the Mass for us. Father Eric had the flu and could not attend. Iris Schexnayder was the canter and did an excellent job. We also had the beautiful voices of the Resurrection Choir. Our great-niece, Ashleigh LeBlanc and great-nephew, Jacob LeBlanc were our altar servers. One of John's best friends, Darryl Burns, read the First Reading, and one of his Godchildren, Stephanie Chenier, read the Second reading. Felix and Mattie Mendoza, Lucille Graham and Deacon Jodi served as Eucharistic Ministers. Our pall bearers were Sons-in-law, Steve Bond and Mike Kerby, John's Brother, Leslie LeBlanc, Nephew, Graylin Mayers, Cousins, Freddie LeBlanc and Kenny LeBlanc, Friends, Darryl Burns and Doug McAdams. Darryl Burns also read a eulogy for John before the services began. It was a wonderful celebration of John's Life. He loved people and loved to have a good time. John was a very devout Catholic and practiced his religion all through his life. For many years of his life, he would attend a Silent Retreat at Manresa in Covent, LA with a group from Gonzales. The way John talked so much it was hard to believe he could spend three days without talking, but he did and loved it. He always wanted to be buried in St. Theresa's cemetery, and he had tried to purchase two plots for us many years ago. However, they told him they could not sell them to him until he died. He was always worried that they would run out of space before he died so the day after he died, I contacted the rectory and learned there was space available so I immediately purchased two plots for us. I have also purchased the black headstone that he always talked about having before he passed away. I know it made him happy to be buried at St. Theresa. Following the services, we went to the KC Hall and had lunch. We had many foods John loved (potato salad was his favorite), and had a beautiful celebration of his life. John was a loving husband, a wonderful father, an excellent grandfather and great-grandfather, a good uncle, brother and Godfather, and we will certainly miss him everyday of our lives. He loved to have fun and was always ready for a party. I feel like I have lost my best friend, but I know he is now free of all of his suffering and having a ball in Heaven.

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John Clarence LeBlanc, 75, passed away Monday, November 28, 2016 at his home in Gonzales, LA. He was born in Donaldsonville, LA on November 15, 1941 to Leo LeBlanc, Jr. and Denise Blanchard LeBlanc. He was a veteran of the Air Force and a retired storekeeper/buyer from Chevron. John was a member of the Knights of Columbus Council 2657 for many years. He was a past Grand Knight and was a 4th degree. He was a member of the American Legion Post of Baton Rouge. He served as Vice President of the Friends of Ascension Organization and was an avid LSU Fan. He will be remembered for the many jokes he enjoyed telling. John is survived by his loving wife Dianna Trabeau LeBlanc; daughters Lori (Steve) Bond and Jill (Mike) Kerby; sisters Emma LeBlanc Orgeron and Marie Denise Sagona; brothers Nolan LeBlanc, Sr. and Leslie LeBlanc; grandchildren Mindi (Brian) Hugman, Lauren, Michael and Claire Kerby and Grace Treme and great-grandchildren Margaret and Caroline Hugman. He was preceded in death by his parents and brothers Leo LeBlanc III, Milton LeBlanc and Oliver LeBlanc, Sr. Pallbearers are; Freddie LeBlanc, Kenny LeBlanc, Darryl Burns, Doug McAdams, Mike Kerby, Steve Bond, Graylin Mayers, Leslie LeBlanc. Honorary are: Martin "Bud" Braud, Jesse Soileau and Nolan LeBlanc, Sr.

Visitation will be Friday, December 2, 2016 at Ourso Funeral Home, Gonzales from 5PM to 9PM. Rosary at 6PM led by the KC’s and CDA. Visitation will be on Saturday, December 3, 2016 at St. Theresa of Avila Catholic Church from 8:30AM until mass at 10AM, celebrant Fr. Eric Gyan. Friends and family may share words of comfort at www.oursofh.com. Ourso Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.