Ellis Marsalis Sr., a regular at Snug Harbor and father to four famous musicians, died April 1 at age 85.

He was what is affectionatey known as a “priest’s priest.” Maybe the term “people’s priest” is even more fitting. When Msgr. L. Earl Gauthreaux died of lymphoma Feb. 8....

Father Francis “Frank” Montalbano, an Oblate priest who was revered at Notre Dame Seminary as a consummate teacher of Scripture, died on Christmas Eve in San Antonio....

Daughter of Charity Sister Mary Louise Happich, a native of New Orleans and longtime elementary school teacher and principal, died Dec. 11 at Seton Residence in Evansville, Indiana. She was 91 and had served for 70 years in religious life.

Deacon Anthony “Tony” J. Ferretti, a native of New Orleans who served as a permanent deacon in the Archdiocese of New Orleans for 36 years, died Dec. 22 at the age of 86.

Bishop Roger Paul Morin, the third bishop of Biloxi, Mississippi, and a former auxiliary bishop of New Orleans, died Oct. 31 on a flight from Boston to Atlanta.

WASHINGTON (CNS) –Cokie Roberts, a broadcast journalist and political commentator who spoke publicly about her Catholic faith and her admiration for the Sacred Heart sisters who taught her, died Sept. 17 due to complications from breast cancer. She was 75.

School Sister of Notre Dame Colleen Hennessey, a native of St. Louis who served in education in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, including three years as president of St. Michael Special School, died Aug. 19 at St. Mary of the Pines in Chatawa, Mississippi.

Jesuit Brother William J. Dardis, a legendary figure at Jesuit High School, died July 10 in the school residence where he had lived for 55 years. He was 79 years old, a Jesuit for almost 61 years and in final vows for 45 years.

Deacon Rbert J. (Bob) Binney, a native of Hornell, New York, and a longtime resident of Slidell, died May 3 at the age of 87, following a lengthy illness.

Jesuit Father Paul Osterle, a pastoral minister for five decades, died June 14 at the age of 91 in Opelousas, Louisiana. He was a Jesuit for almost 73 years and a priest for 60 years.

St. Augustine Church, 1210 Gov. Nicholls St., New Orleans, will offer a Memorial Mass and celebration of life Jan. 26 for Divine Word Father Jerome LeDoux, the longtime St. Augustine pastor, who died Jan. 7. The Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m., followed by a celebration of life from noon to 4 p.m. Father LeDoux served as pastor of St. Augustine in New Orleans from 1990-2006. In his retirement, he lived at St. Augustine Seminary and then at Holy Ghost Church in Opelousas from 2016 until his death.

BILOXI, Miss. (CNS) – Bishop Joseph Lawson Howze, the founding bishop of the Diocese of Biloxi and the first black bishop in the 20th century to head a U.S. diocese, died Jan. 9. He was 95. A funeral Mass was celebrated Jan. 16 at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Cathedral in Biloxi, with burial following in the new Bishops' Prayer Garden behind the cathedral. “While we are saddened by the death of Bishop Joseph Lawson Howze, we rejoice in his life,” said Bishop Louis F. Kihneman III of Biloxi. “His was a life well lived in faithful service to almighty God and to the people of Mississippi, both as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Natchez-Jackson and later as first bishop of Biloxi from 1977 to 2001.”

Divine Word Father Jerome G. LeDoux, the longtime pastor of St. Augustine Church in New Orleans, died Jan. 7 in Lafayette following heart surgery. He was 88 and had served as a priest for 61 years. The native of Lake Charles, Louisiana, entered the Divine Word High School Seminary in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, at the age of 13 in 1943, began novitiate studies at the Divine Word Seminary in Techny, Illinois, in 1947 and took first vows in 1949. He attended Divine Word College in Epworth, Iowa, and then St. Augustine Seminary in Bay St. Louis, taking final vows in 1957. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 11, 1957.

Deacon Theodore (Ted) J. Roussel, a native of Destrehan, died on Nov. 14 at the age of 83. A funeral Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Gregory Aymond on Nov. 21 at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Destrehan.

Deacon John Howard,who served for many years at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Pearl River, died Oct. 26. He was 94 and had been ordained in 1985. 

Sister of St. Joseph Patricia Brandner (formerly Sister Joseph Louise), who served for 26 years as an assistant principal and guidance counselor at St. Frances Xavier Cabrini School in New Orleans, died Nov. 24 at Mount St. Mary Convent in Wichita, Kansas. She was 91 and had served for 74 years in religious life.

Father Harry Joseph Adams, the founding pastor of Our Lady of the Angels Parish in Waggaman and the former pastor of St. Joachim Parish in Marrero, died on Nov. 20. He was 79 years old and had served for 50 years as a priest.

Sister of St. Joseph Mildred Guillot, a native of Natchitoches who served for 75 years in religious life, died at Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge on Nov. 22. She was 92.