NEW IBERIA – A Mass of Christian Burial will be conducted for Emi Noda Comeaux, age 93, at 11:00 am on Saturday, April 2, 2022 at St. Peters Catholic Church. Interment will follow at Holy Family Cemetery.
A gathering of family and friends will take place on Saturday at St. Peters Catholic Church from 9:00 am until the service time.
A native of Kyushu, Japan and resident of new Iberia, Mrs. Comeaux passed away on Tuesday, March 22, 2022 at Baton Rouge Medical Center.
Emi was born in Kyushu Japan in 1928 as the second of five children. After her father’s death when she was 16, Emi and her older brother worked to support the family. A short time later, during WWII, she was forced to work as a riveter in a fighter-plane factory in Kitakyushu, Japan. Kitakyushu’s military factories were repeatedly bomb while Emi worked there. Kitakyushu was the primary target for the second atomic bomb but was spared due to dense cloud cover over the city on the day the bomb was to be dropped. It was dropped on Nagasaki instead.
Emi and her family’s ordeals in the aftermath of WWII lead her to take a job as a clerical worker on a U.S. military base in Kitakyushu. She met her future husband in the base’s church choir. She married Euceville Frederick Comeaux, Jr. in 1957, then moved to New Iberia, Louisiana to start a family. They had four children in five years. To make ends meet, Emi ran a tailoring business out of the family home, often sewing for customers into the early morning hours.
After all the children were in school, Emi worked as a seamstress for several department and clothing stores, most notably Beall’s Department Store. She retired from Beall’s after more than twenty years of service to focus on her grandchildren: Ben, Matt, Andrew, and Alex Comeaux and Claire and Sally Robichaux. She truly loved her grandchildren and sewed many of their clothes, especially for the girls.
Throughout her life, Emi displayed a mental toughness and work ethic instilled in her by her upbringing, by surviving in a war zone, and by struggling in post-WWII Japan. She never quit and had a strong determination to reach her goals. She stretched a very tight family budget so she could proudly make renovations to the family home.
Emi is proceeded in death by her husband of 58 years, Fred Comeaux, Jr.
She is survived by her 2 sisters in Japan; her four children and their spouses, Wayne Comeaux (Debbie), Bob Comeaux (Kitty), Cathy Robichaux, and Linda Comeaux; six grandchildren, Ben Comeaux, Matt Comeaux, Andrew Comeaux, Alex Comeaux, Claire Robichaux, and Sally Robichaux; and 3 great-grandchildren, Zeek, Stella and Jack Comeaux. We will always be grateful to our mother for her tireless efforts for our family and for all she taught us through word and deed. We love you, Mom.
Pallbearers will be her loving grandchildren.
To view the on-line obituary and sign the online guest register, please visit www.evangelinefuneralhome.com.
Evangeline Funeral Homes, Inc. of New Iberia is in charge of arrangements.
