"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them." --- From "For the Fallen" by Laurence Binyon, British poet.
Concluding this series on my remembrance of the legion of locals who succumbed in 2023, I turn to the church --- a natural meeting place - in any community. This by-product of worship has existed in Washington Parish since the days of our ancestors. And church is how I met Christine Varnado Morgan (1934-2023). The wife of Ben Morgan and mother of Clifford and Valerie (Mervine), she was an active member of First Baptist Church, where I was baptized as a youth. Everyone knew the Morgans in Franklinton.
And Judy Moore Rabuffo (1939-2023), a Registered Nurse, was very active in Holy Family Catholic Church. The daughter of Robert and Hester Moore, my parents' dear friends, and the mother of Mark, Paul, and Courtney, Judy was devoted to her family which included cousins Duke and Marilyn Moore and Jan Moore Jenkins, all of whom were very close family friends of mine. Family is another connection in a small town, in no small part, because most of us are kin.
It was through my family that I knew Nina Williams Warren (1945-2023), wife of Dr. Stephen E. Warren, who worked in the family-owned optometry clinics in Franklinton and Hammond for fifty years. The mother of Dr. Kristi Warren Cook, Stephanie Thomas, and Stephen Neal Warren, she was exceptionally kind. Ms. Nina was the daughter-in-law of my parents' close friends John and Jean Magee Warren, one of the owners of the Fashion Shop in Franklinton.
And I also knew Billie Crain Stafford (1934-2023) through my folks. The wife of Dr. Hollis Stafford and mother of Beth Stafford, she worked for many years as receptionist/secretary at the Stafford Clinic and later was The Merry Hearts coordinator at First Baptist Church. My mother and father were exceptionally close to Dr. Hollis Stafford and his family in the early years.
And Katherine Wilda Bateman (1924-2023), the daughter of Herbert and Wilda Creel Bateman, was my husband Rodney's cousin. But that is not how I knew her. Ms. Katherine and her brother Charles and sister Marilyn Mima Bateman's parents --- Ms. Wilda and Mr. Herbert --- were my Pa-pa and Ga-ga's best friends, hands down. I knew Katherine and Marilyn all my life.
While the primary purpose of this series was to cover friends that I had not heretofore featured, I cannot in good conscience omit Dr. Jerry Thomas (1953-2023), husband of Lou Ann Pitre Thomas and father of Dr. Jason, Pete, Lander, and Joanna (Gill) Thomas. In addition to being a prominent primary care doctor, Dr. Jerry was Washington Parish coroner (Louisiana's youngest) and state legislator (serving in the House and Senate) and faculty with the LSU School of Medicine. And he started out as a Bowling Green teacher, a role of which he was especially proud.
Dr. Jerry called me last year, after his diagnosis. We had not really known one another all that long, but he and his lovely wife Lou Ann attended my daughter and son-in-law's wedding in 2018. And after that, he stayed in touch. Dr. Jerry always had something kind to say about my dad. So, he had my ear. Plus, he had a sense of humor. When he wrote to thank me for writing the series of columns, deeming them "spot on," on his Aunt Margie Passman --- the family matriarch --- I mentioned that she talked with me about him, and his achievements. His reply: "Well you have to keep in mind a lot of Thomases like to brag."
Dr. Jerry made significant contributions to Washington Parish --- the Bogue Chitto State Park, Dr. Jerry Thomas By-pass, and Thomas Library --- plus the recently opened early childhood education facility next to the Thomas Clinic. Honoring him last July, I was torn between running his retirement column then or holding it for later. My daughter, a pulmonary/critical care physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, weighed in as did my better half. Run it now --- Dr. Jerry would rather read it. And indeed, he did. I learned from his first cousin --- their mothers were sisters --- Mary Wood that she mailed "The Era-Leader" weekly to him in Florida so he could read my column. Certainly, he wanted to read the newspaper in its entirety, but that is not how it was presented to me nor how I choose to remember it. As Ms. Mary stated, "He loved your articles."
Dr. Jerry had passed my columns on to his cousin Robin Dale Passman (1955-2023), who also succumbed not long after his cousin. The son of the late Margie Thomas Passman and John Robert Passman, the long-time pharmacist was the brother and brother-in-law of John Robert Passman II and Nancy Passman of Franklinton. He was the father of Melissa and Stephen Passman, Ms. Margie's beloved grandchildren. Two short weeks before Robin's death, I had the pleasure of breaking bread with Stephen who sat down with Rodney and me at his Uncle Johnny's milestone birthday bash. Our first, but special, meeting.
Such is often the case, meeting friends later in life --- folks I feel like I've known forever. Corrie Babington Corkern Fowler (1941-2023), known to Franklintonians as "Babs," was the daughter of my parents' good friends James and Corrie Babington Corkern. She grew up in Franklinton way before my time so it wasn't until years later, after she and her husband Jim --- parents to Kevin (Valerie), Jeff (Cathy), Karen (Michael Redd), and Mark --- retired to Franklinton in 1996, that we crossed paths. But more than a decade before, her son Jeff, attending LSU in the early 1980s, spent weekends at his grandparents' home in Babington subdivision. Hailing from out of state, Jeff was without wheels. His grandmother Corrie phoned my mother, and presto --- Jeff, good company and a good friend, rode back to LSU with me on many a Sunday evening. It was many moons before I made his mother's acquaintance.
