Elizabeth Blanchard Cochran

Elizabeth Blanchard Cochran, who forged an extraordinary career in emergency medicine as a doctor and professor, embraced the outdoors as a marathoner and white-water kayaker, and lovingly nourished family and friends with her classic culinary training in Paris, died at home in Houston, Texas on Saturday, the 7th of December 2024. She was 64 years of age.

She passed away peacefully surrounded by her adoring family after battling gastric cancer.

Elizabeth was born the 22nd of September 1960 in Shreveport, Louisiana. She graduated from St. Vincent's High School in Shreveport; Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA, and Louisiana State University School of Medicine. She completed residencies in Internal Medicine at the Medical College of Virginia (MCV) and in Emergency Medicine at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C. She worked in Richmond, VA for 10 years in emergency medicine. While in Virginia, she was also served as the Medical Director of a large volunteer EMS organization.

The highlight of her tenure at MCV, was her multiple trips to Vladivostok, Russia where she served as a United States government advisor in emergency care to the Russian government. During her travels in Russia she met her best friend, Marina Pavlova.

In 1999 she moved to Houston to take a position at the University of Texas Health Science Center. In her 25-year career at UT, she taught Emergency Medicine and worked in the emergency rooms at Memorial Hermann at the Texas Medical Center and LBJ General Hospital. She specialized in neurologic emergency research, particularly stroke-related treatment, funded by the National Institutes of Health. She rose to become a full Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston.

Elizabeth met Walter at a party and they never left each other’s side after. They married in 2005 and created a wonderful life together.

Elizabeth’s love for the outdoors began with many summers as a camper, then a counselor, at Camp Fern in Marshall, Texas. Backpacking in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California was a favorite activity of hers. She enjoyed running, having completed the Houston, New Orleans, Paris, and San Diego marathons. She was also an accomplished white-water kayaker. She often took on the Klamath and the Salmon Rivers in California, the Upper Salmon River in Idaho, and paddled the rivers of the South Island of New Zealand.

Elizabeth loved to travel, and she and Walter enjoyed numerous trips together to Europe, Australia, Central and South America, as well as many locations in the US, Canada, and Mexico. They particularly enjoyed skiing in Aspen and Crested Butte. Also, Seaside, Florida was a lifelong favorite spot for family vacations, where she made many memories with her nieces and nephews.

Elizabeth loved her life in Houston. Its vibrant restaurant scene meant that she could often be found in her favorite eateries – once being called on to resuscitate a fellow patron who suffered a heart attack. Thanks to her, he had a full recovery.

Her greatest passion was for cooking and baking. Uncommonly, she was a master of both. She trained at the Culinary Institute of America in New York and Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Her dishes were always perfectly executed and delicious. Her pies were incomparable. Her greatest talent, however, was making the simplest of dishes full of flavor and complexity.

Elizabeth was blessed to have many fabulous family and friends in Houston and throughout the country. One of her great pleasures was entertaining them in her and Walter’s home in the French Quarter in New Orleans – a house that they rebuilt from the ground up with the help of her incredible style and sense of warmth.

Elizabeth is survived by her adoring husband, Walter House Cochran; loving stepdaughter, Maria Christina Cochran; her mother, Zama Blanchard Dexter of Shreveport; her brother, Daniel Scarborough Jones and his wife Robin Norman Jones; her sister, Amanda North Aghdami; and five nieces and nephews, Mary North and Henry Jones, Olivia, Alex, and Charlie Aghdami.

A memorial service is to be conducted at eleven o’clock in the morning on Friday, the 20th of December, at St. Philip Presbyterian Church, 4807 San Felipe Street in Houston.

In lieu of customary remembrances, memorial donations in Elizabeth’s honor may be directed to UTHealth Houston, PO Box 20268, Houston, TX 77025-9998 or by visiting giving.uth.edu/memorial. Dr. Jones is listed on the dropdown and funds will benefit the Emergency Medicine Resident and Fellowship Fund.

We invite you to take a few moments to share fond memories and words of comfort and condolence with her family by selecting the "Add a Memory" icon below.