Growing up he was my best friend. By this photo my "best man."  My entire young adulthood was Mark - aka "Veazey" - along with Bennie and Alfred. There are stories too numerous to tell and many best conveyed orally!  But my memories of Mark are clear and vivid.

Mark was inquisitive. He probed and prodded and yes, sometimes provoked to get to the bottom of things – at least as he saw it. But he did so always with a wry, impish, smile and a generous, playful manner. Mark balanced a keen intellect with a generous heart.

Mark was determined. Some might call it hard-headed. I call it grit and steel will. If there was any type of challenge facing Mark, my money would be on Mark. And I would rarely be let down. Whatever (or whoever!) confronted him did so at their risk as he inevitably would find a way to work harder, move quicker, think smarter than whatever faced him.

Mark was loyal; fiercely loyal. Loyal to his beloved New Orleans, loyal to his friends, and especially to his family. I remember one late night at The Maple Leaf, amidst all other world problems we were solving, Veazey settled on a definition of friendship and loyalty that I have never forgotten and always keep with me: “assume the best.” Mark always assumed the best of those people, places, and things he cared about. One could not have a better champion in life than Mark.

But most of all, Mark was loving. And there was no expression of love more dear to him than family. His biggest point of pride was in being a son and a brother, a husband and a father. Mark’s children were a particular point of never-ending pride and passion.

I pray God has given Mark rest. But in that Godly rest I suspect Mark is busy in Heaven redefining peace – telling a story here, playing a joke there, and otherwise stirring pots, pushing boundaries – but always with his impish grin and a twinkled eye.


Mark and I became natural friends when we first got together and cut up in the back of Mr. Milam’s civics class at East Jefferson High School; we were both accomplished smart alecks by that time and were quite simpatico. We hung out with our fellow teen-age “podnas” in those brief years in Harahan and went on to begin our college careers together at LSU. Mark was the brainy one and pursued higher ambitions and accomplishments in the arcane world of economics, the knowledge of which he certainly applied to his ongoing partnership with his father in their growing appliance parts business & empire.

We kept in touch over the years as we each enjoyed and struggled with whatever life threw at us; finding mates, raising a family, doing business and aging; with all of its distractions, trials and pleasures. He’s one of those people I was happy to share much of my life and I’m sorry to see him go. Denelle and I wish to convey our heartfelt condolences to the family.

We loved serving with Mark at Celebration Church.  Cindy and I, as well as the many people he served with, will miss Mark dearly.  We will continue praying for his family. 

OBITUARY

Mark Veazey

August 16, 1955 – October 11, 2019

Leitz-Eagan Funeral Home

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