Jeanne St. Andre

Funeral Service for Mrs. Dortha Jeanne St. Andre will be held at 10 am on Friday, November 2, 2018, at Blanchard-St. Denis Funeral Home. Burial will follow at Memory Lawn Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 5 pm until 9 pm on Thursday, November 1, 2018, at Blanchard-St. Denis Funeral Home. Our precious wife and mother passed from this life and went to Heaven on October 30, 2018.  She was born Dortha Jeanne Gregg, November 26, 1927, in DeQueen, Arkansas, to Daniel and Mary Gregg. She lived in DeQueen until she visited a brother, Raymond Gregg,  (now deceased) in Natchitoches, where she met, what she called, her life’s partner Dwight St. Andre, in October 1950.  Their first date was on November 6, 1950, and on April 22, 1951, they were married!  A short courtship that has lasted 67 years, 6 months. The Lord blessed her and Dwight with three precious children.  Dan, Dave, and Dianne. Dan married Beth Todtenbier, Dave married Sharon Rushing, Dianne is married to Kevin Bricker.  Jeanne has 8 grandchildren: Heather, Cassie, Jennifer, Dustin, April, Allie, Christopher and Aimee…. and 21 great-grandchildren. One of the greats is already in heaven -- Jude Harrison Childers (Lee and Cassie’s son) Jeanne raised her children as she followed Dwight in Military and Ministry, living in 10 different states and two foreign countries.  Not an easy task making sure each move provided her family with a “home”. She has been in 49 of the 50 states, missing Hawall. She has traveled in 9 foreign countries, living in two of them (France and Germany). She has ridden a motorcycle across the U.S. and Canada, through the Yukon and into Alaska. She has camped out in Nova Scotia, the Yukon, the Grand Canyon, and in the Black Hills. She has swam in the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Mediterranean, and Rolling Forks River, DeQueen Arkansas…She has been to the top of Pike’s Peak, walked across the bridge of the Royal Gorge and landed on an iceberg in Alaska.  She caught a ”record size” king mackerel fishing off the coast of Florida. And during all of this, she has been a military wife for 20 years, and a Pastor’s wife for 37 years.  She has been a Sunday school teacher, choir member and a church librarian all of the 57 years. She has been an appointed Home Missionary of the Southern Baptist Convention.  She helped start churches in West Kansas, where she served as a missionary, and two churches in Europe; one in Paris, France and one in Stuttgart, Germany. She lived life to the fullest until her health gave way to a disease known as Huntington’s. It is made up of four major diseases:  Alzheimer’s, Lou Gehrig, MS, and Parkinson.  Through it all, she managed to be the same person she was when she met and married.  Our loss has been heaven’s gain. We wish to thank Doctors Otis and Meg Barnum, the nursing staff at Natchitoches Regional Medical Center, Hospice of Natchitoches, special sitters and friends Mrs. Cheryl Dixon and Mrs. Chione Sanders for their love and companionship.  Both are considered “members” of the family. Pallbearers are grandsons Dustin St. Andre and Chris Norman, son-n-law Kevin Bricker and grandsons-in-law, Bryan Robinson, Michael Tolbert,  Lee Childers, Luke Lary,  and Adam McGuirt. In lieu of flowers, please make your donations to Huntington’s Research, St. Judes Hospital, or any charity of your choice.