Editor’s Note: The following article marks the inaugural collaborative effort between the Iberia Chamber of Commerce’s Positively Iberia and the Daily Iberian. Positively Iberia Program Manager Marti Harrell and the Daily Iberian’s Ellen Fucich conducted an interview with Erroll Babineaux and Monique Babineaux Boulet to present a portrait of Kathleen Babineaux Blanco as sister, mother and woman. Positively Iberia airs of KANE-AM and FM every Thursday during Teche Matters at 10 a.m. Look for the monthly collaboration between Positively Iberia and the Daily Iberian to continue in June.

Wednesday marked an auspicious occasion in New Iberia, with the ceremony unveiling the historical marker in Bouligny Plaza that detailed the life and service of Kathleen Babineaux Blanco to Louisiana citizens. Her influence goes deeper than that, especially to those who  remember ‘growing up with the governor.’

Erroll Babineaux is the youngest of Louis and Lucille Fremin Babineaux’s six children … and since Kathleen Babineaux Blanco was the eldest, with nearly 12 years between them he brings an interesting perspective to his “big sister.” When asked about her temperament growing up, he said, “She was calm, likeable and genuine. Even growing up, she was never boisterous but quiet and calm. But when she had something to say you knew she knew what she was talking about.” She was his tutor and his transportation many times. “She was a good driver,” he allowed.

Monique Blanco Boulet is the second of the six children of coach Raymond and Kathleen Blanco (four girls, two boys). She is the CEO of the Acadiana Planning Commission, which serves the public sector in planning and implementation of economic, community and transportation development throughout the Acadiana region. When asked for her most vivid memory of her mother, she said, “She was always inclusive, always managing to keep this large family on track. She gave us unconditional love and joy.”

According to both Erroll and Monique, Kathleen Blanco was an excellent cook. “She and my dad were known for their dinner parties,”  Monique said. Erroll remembers a favorite dish that was carried to potlucks and celebrations, “Definitely her green beans wrapped in bacon with brown sugar.” There was  a bit of a competition between Mamaw (Kathleen’s mother, Lucille) and Mom  (Kathleen) with gumbo. “The little kids got to judge it, but Mom would sometimes put more crabmeat in to push the vote.”

“She loved family reunions,” Monique said. “Holidays were usually stressful for her, mother of six, but she was always in the center of planning family reunions. She was also great at hosting big meals. She and my father would team up — he’d cook ducks and she’d cook gumbo.”

She also loved roses. “My brother Ben was writing a poem before he died about the beauty and the pain a rose brings. It was a beautiful poem that was not quite finished at the time of his death. He was 19 years old.”

Losing Ben shaped Blanco’s life as well. “She very quickly went into taking care of

everyone else when Ben died. I think it was two years before she could mourn herself,” Monique said. “That really speaks to who she was. She thought of everyone else before herself.”

Erroll remembers his sister as a person who could “talk to anyone about anything, and listened to the speaker, not trying to answer, but trying to understand.” Monique added that her “power came from her faith, and she chose to grow her strength from her great challenges. She did not have a measure of wealth when she talked to people, she knew people were people, mothers were mothers, and they all face the same challenges.”

 

The Governance of Power

by Darrell Bourque

For Kathleen Babineaux Blanco

December 15, 1942 – August 18, 2019

 

Power is a woman who looks directly into a camera,

says a defining moment in her life is the loss of a son.

Power is a woman who always writes her own scripts.

Power is a woman who takes 15 years off to raise children,

Karmen, then Monique, Nicole, Ray, Pilar, and beloved Ben.

Power is a woman who cares about the health of others first.

Power is a woman who teaches and then teaches teachers.

She teaches them to build schools first from the inside.

Power is a woman who falls in love with the one Blanco

she knows she’ll spend the rest of her life with, and does.

Power is a woman fearless of foreign tongues and places.

Power is a woman never hedging when it comes to her God,

how she will walk with Him and talk to Him and rest in Him.

Power is a woman who can say “I am a powerful woman,

and I don’t say that because I was governor.” She says,

I’m not powerful because I wield power, then or now,

but because I claim personal power and I claim that power

to define my personal happiness.” She says this to students

at the beginning of a new phase in their lives, a last phase

in hers. She says, “I suggest you give yourself that gift too.”

All power comes from a big-heartedness, and a plan, from

hope and faith. She’s saying, “give yourself that gift too.”