Patricia McDonald Fowler

Pat McDonald Fowler has gone to the eternal Jazz Fest in the sky, Lord, in the sky. She slipped away at home among loved ones on April 25, following a lengthy and heroic battle with cancer. After her diagnosis, in 2011, Pat embraced a defiant attitude and chose to confront her vicious affliction at each new bump and chasm. Her indomitable spirit earned her bonus time here with us to continue enjoying the company of those she loved most, doing the things she loved best. Patricia Eileen McDonald was born at New Orleans Baptist Hospital on Aug. 28, 1953. She was youngest of the six children born to Walter J. and Diane McDonald (née Bagur), of Saint Raphael's Parish. An eighth generation New Orleanian, Pat was fiercely proud of her birthplace and felt a deep connection to the history and culture of her beloved New Orleans. A graduate of St. Joseph Academy (‘71), Pat was drawn to experiences that appealed to her highly artistic nature. She was a creative force whose projects always seemed to flutter somewhere above the intersections of art, culture, and commerce. Over the years, she worked as a versatile designer and retail manager, creating sumptuous displays and interiors, lighting fixtures, and even packaging for some of the city’s iconic food brands. Pat inherited her mother’s painterly nature and made hundreds of paintings, many of which interpret personal and family history, the inner lives of neighborhoods, and the mysteries of life, spiritualism, and mortality. Many familiar with Pat’s gifts as an artist might agree that her oeuvre channels the eternal spirit of New Orleans herself. But the work perhaps closest to Pat’s heart grew out of her lifelong connection to Aunt Sally’s Pralines, which her maternal grandfather, Pierre Bagur, founded in the French Quarter in 1935. As a teenager, Pat began to learn the ropes at Aunt Sally’s under the watchful eye of her beloved daddy, a longtime general manager who helped grow his in-law’s business into the iconic retail destination it is today. In her final professional chapter, Pat was the creative director for Aunt Sally’s. She played an instrumental role in the design and opening of the retail and production facility at 750 St. Charles, which opened in 2013, and more recently, oversaw a major renovation of the historic French Market location at 810 Decatur. For Pat, Aunt Sally’s was a family affair that ran deeper than her own blood ties to the company. As a manager, she took great interest in the wellbeing of her employees and vowed to foster a supportive work environment where each and every individual could feel loved, appreciated, and safe. Pat loved her coworkers, and most of them loved her back. In the 1990s, as she was enjoying a prosperous period as manager of Aunt Sally’s, Pat met the love of her life, an accomplished guitarist with devil-may-care hair named Mark Fowler. The two were married on Twelfth Night in 1996. On one unseasonably lovely and mild night back in January, Pat and Mark gathered on the Magnolia Bridge over Bayou St. John and celebrated their 19th anniversary by renewing their wedding vows in front of a few friends and relatives. In fact, Pat spent much of her life in the neighborhood she loved most: Faubourg St. John. She was an active and outspoken member of the generation of artists, musicians, and other bon vivants who made the neighborhood the charming and creative enclave it is today. While she surely loved Carnival and designing costumes and celebrating on Mardi Gras day in particular, Pat’s favorite holiday was the one held each year in her own backyard: the New Orleans Jazz Fest. She had attended every fest in its forty-something-year history, except for a year or two after her life was upended by illness. Jazz Fest will never be the same without Pat, and this year strong winds and heavy rain fell upon the Fairgrounds the day she departed us for eternal headliners like Professor Longhair and James Booker. Neither will any of our own lives be the same without Pat. She was a loving and devoted wife, sister, aunt, and friend. In addition to her loyal husband, Mark, Pat is survived by all five of her siblings: Walter J. McDonald, Jr., Kathleen Jeanfreau, Sharon Jorgeson, Peggy Cannon, and Mary McDonald, as well as each of their spouses, who loved her as a sister of their own. She was a loving and dedicated aunt to eight nieces and nephews, and always tried to instill in them the belief that there is something very special about the place called New Orleans and that it does indeed flow within each of them, even when you happen to live somewhere thousands of miles away. She especially adored the latest generation of children being born to the family today, and would have loved nothing more than to have them all over someday to paint. The last painting Pat made is a portrait of her newborn grandnephew, in which she depicts him swaddled as a baby butterfly tucked into a bed of blooming camellias. Although stylistically quite different from many of her earlier paintings of family members, the painting is the last piece of the mystical saga the artist was telling us and herself about the greatest joys and mysteries of life through the prism of family —past, present, and future. She loved it so. There will be a memorial gathering for Pat at 750 St. Charles Avenue Thursday May 7 from 5 to 7 p.m. She will be interred with her late mother and father at a family tomb in Lake Lawn Cemetery during a graveside service at 11 a.m. Friday May 8. To view and sign the family guestbook, please visit www.lakelawnmetairie.com.