Elaine Lohr Minvielle Voelker

Elaine Lohr Minvielle Voelker died February 16, 2016 in New Orleans after a brief illness. Elaine was born on February 22, 1927 on Congress Street in the 9th Ward between St. Claude Avenue and the Mississippi River, the daughter of George J. Lohr and Inez L. Ferriot. Growing up, Elaine attended George Washington Elementary and graduated from Francis T. Nicholls High School. During World War II Elaine worked as a clerk at the Port of Embarkation on Poland Avenue. Her teenage sweetheart and future husband, the late Damon P. Minvielle Sr., an Army Air Corps pilot in the south Pacific, asked if he could write her while overseas. Elaine agreed and after Damon’s return they were married at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in April 1948. They opened St. Roch Cleaners that same year and within a few years started a family in Chalmette, then moving with their three sons to the New Orleans Lake Vista area in 1964. Elaine was active in the Holy Cross High School community during the 1960’s, having been twice elected as president of the Parents Club, and to which later her generosity founded the Damon P. Minvielle Sr. scholarship for music. Damon Sr. died in 1970 and having three sons, in college, high school, and elementary school, Elaine followed her passion for reading and worked as a librarian for Orleans Parish. She received a degree in Library Science and later worked at Delgado College until she retired. Elaine married the late Richard L. Voelker in 1988. Elaine loved spending time with and adored her grandchildren and great grandchildren. She loved cooking, which she learned from her mother in the back kitchen of her shotgun house on Congress Street. Her hand-written recipe book is cherished, as was she, by her family and is often borrowed, and frequently discussed because that little bit of devil in her would sometimes leave out an ingredient. Elaine traveled Europe often with her friends, Kathleen, and Mary Ellen. She and Richard shared their love of travel and visited such far off places as China and Mongolia. After Richard’s death Elaine continued her travels overseas with her sons, daughter-in-laws and grandchildren well into her eighties. Elaine truly retired in 2012 and settled down in Vista Shores Assisted Living where she reunited with longtime friends and made many new friends. Elaine is survived by her sister Judy, three sons: Damon, David (Lucia), and Darren (Alison), three grandchildren: Nicholas (Jessica), Michael (Mary Catherine), and Leslie (Jason), four great-grandchildren, Caroline, Harper, Eli, and Cameron, four nieces and a nephew, and fifteen great nieces and nephews. Her family would like to thank the staff, her friends, at Vista Shores Assisted Living. Elaine was a great supporter of St. Jude Children’s Hospital. In lieu of flowers please consider a donation to help continue the great work they do. Relatives and friends are invited to attend the Funeral Mass in the Chapel of Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. New Orleans, on Tuesday, February 23, 2016 at 11:00 am. Visitation will begin at 9:00am until Mass time. Interment will follow in Metairie Cemetery. To view and sign the family guestbook, please visit www.lakelawnmetairie.com .