Pixie Gouaux laid to rest

Cars lined both shoulders of Lockport’s Main Street, stretching long in each direction and marking a path to Holy Savior Catholic Church, where hundreds gathered Saturday in the small-town mainstay to celebrate a mass in Susan Gouaux’s name.

Cheeks dampened during the opening procession when Gouaux’s daughters covered her brown casket with its pall in front of an altar still adorned in the rich red of Christmas and again during communion, an intense moment even when a community is not stricken with heartache from a manmade tragedy that claimed one of its most-involved members.

Susan, 61, a mother of six daughters who is known to friends and family as Pixie, was shot to death two weeks ago by her ex-son-in-law Ben Freeman, who went on to kill himself, authorities said.

Freeman also shot and killed Ochsner St. Anne CEO Milton Bourgeois, according to the Lafourche sheriff’s office. Additionally, he strangled his then-wife Denise Freeman, according to the Terrebonne sheriff’s office. 

Pixie’s husband Lafourche Councilman Phillip Gouaux, their daughter Andrea and Bouregois’ wife Anne were injured amid the killing spree, carried out at three locations.

Denise Freeman was laid to rest in her native Mississippi last week. Bourgeois’ arrangements were not made public as of press time on Monday.

Pixie Gouaux’s mass, which lasted approximately 90 minutes, was in line with the Catholic tradition. 

Phillip and Andrea Gouaux, still hospitalized in New Orleans with throat and back wounds, respectively, did not attend the public ceremony.

“Be Not Afraid” and “On Eagle’s Wings,” as performed by Holy Savior’s choir, were the aural bookends. 

The gospel reading was from the Book of Matthew, 25:31, referred to as “The Final Judgment.” Its contents: Those who aid the hungry, who are welcoming to strangers, who clothe the naked and who visit the imprisoned will be awarded eternal life. And those who ignore the needy are ignoring Jesus, himself, and will suffer eternal punishment, as the reading goes.

Eulogies were not given during mass – likely reserved instead for the private burial in the church cemetery that immediately followed – but the Rev. Robert C. Rodgers peppered his homily with remembrances of a woman he described as deeply involved in her community and her parish, a vital contributor to Lockport’s society irrespective of her husband’s elected position.

Pixie, co-founder of the Bayou Lafourche Folklife and Heritage Museum, member of the Women’s Club of Lockport and Lion’s Club, and fundraiser, planner and teacher’s aide at Holy Savior, was sometimes seen in the school’s lounge with her glasses perched atop her head, awash in responsibilities and showing strain, but with no regard to shun other opportunities to give, he said. 

Pixie “liked to shop, sew and make things beautiful,” Rodgers remembered. That she and Phillip had fundamental differences in their passions – Phillip being a hunter and, generally, a man who “wants to live in the swamp” – is a testament to their overarching love for one another, the Gouauxes’ priest said.

Rodgers also harped on the theme that faith should not be abandoned during times of great tragedy. Instead it should serve as a vehicle for resiliency, he said, as it can help shepherd a fragmented psyche through trying times. 

Local officials were scattered throughout the congregation, and few empty spaces remained. 

Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux Bishop Shelton Fabre attended the mass. Fabre mostly observed, though he participated in the blessing of communion and gave a brief address at the mass’ conclusion.

Fabre talked about death. Specifically, he tackled three daunting perceptions of death – which he called fallacies. 

In the end, the bishop surmised, death is not proof that all walk through life alone, it is not a silencer of the spirit and it does not remove someone from existence, he said, acknowledging the mourners with a spread of his arms.

Susan Pixie Gouaux