Gertrude Robichaux

Jennings

Gertrude Trahan Robichaux, born in Biloxi, Mississippi, and a longtime resident of Jennings, Louisiana, died on October 29, 2021, in Northern Virginia. She was 96 years of age.

One of 10 children, Gertrude was the eldest of the four girls and said having a big family helped provide built-in playmates. French was her first language because it was what her parents, Honoré J. Trahan, and Violet Gaudet Trahan, spoke when she was a child. Growing up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Gertrude was fond of seafood, and was the ultimate storyteller during her advanced years. Her husband called her the “Pied Piper” because wherever she went on walks in her neighborhood, children would follow.

During World War II, Gertrude was part of the civilian war effort as a telephone operator at Keesler Army Airfield (now Keesler Air Force Base). Following World War II, Louis and Gertrude were married and part of a professional photography enterprise in Chattanooga, Tennessee, when their first child, Theo, was born. They relocated to Lafayette, Louisiana, where both daughter Karen and son Damon came along.

Gertrude helped her husband achieve a higher education at Southwestern Louisiana Institute (later USL, now UL) for his bachelor’s degree with the Montgomery GI Bill. Gertrude and Louis raised their young family in Lafayette and later moved to Jennings, Louisiana, when Louis was offered a teaching position. Gertrude was active in the local Catholic Daughters of America chapter, baking angel-food cakes for patients in area nursing homes. She made her own clothes and sewed clothing for her entire family. A serious competitor at the Jefferson Davis Parish Fair, Gertrude’s talents in sewing, baking, and canning were recognized with the highest number of prizes and ribbons for many years.

Following many years as a cardiac patient resulting from heart damage caused by the 1957-58 influenza pandemic, Gertrude had a successful heart transplant in 1997, at age 72, at Methodist Memorial Hospital in Houston, Texas. She told President Bill Clinton later that year that she had seen only one other president before him – President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was riding in an open car on the beach in Biloxi, Mississippi, on April 29, 1937. She and her husband met and conversed with President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore at a gala in Washington, D.C. The couple enjoyed travel throughout the United States during retirement.

Following the death of her husband, Gertrude resided for several years in Jennings and then moved to Northern Virginia, where she lived with her son and daughter-in-law.  She was preceded in death by her son Damon in 1982, husband Louis T. Robichaux in 2008, and daughter Karen Robichaux Bailey in 2018.

Gertrude is survived by three sons: Theo (Dianne) of Scott, Louisiana, Chris (Clara C. Pizaña) of Falls Church, Virginia, and Chet (Linda) of Broussard, Louisiana, 10 grandchildren, and 16 great grandchildren. She also is survived by two sisters, Lillian Jenkins of Gulf Shores, Alabama, and Beatrice O’Meara of Houston, Texas, and a brother, Sydney J. Trahan, of Biloxi, Mississippi. The Robichaux family wishes to thank the many healthcare professionals in Houston, Texas, Northern Virginia, and Washington, D.C. for their loving care of Gertrude, especially during the past 25 years.

The Robichauxs were congregants of Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic Church.  Respects may be offered on Thursday, November 11, 2021, 4:30 p.m. at Miguez Funeral Home, 114 East Shankland Avenue, Jennings, Louisiana 70546. A Holy Rosary is scheduled for 6 p.m. that evening following visitation. Holy Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. on Friday, November 12, 2021, at Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic Church, 710 State Street, Jennings, Louisiana 70546, with burial following at Calvary Cemetery, Roberts Avenue, Jennings.