Educator opened her heart, home to Larose-Cut Off youth

A talented educator, civic leader and compassionate guide to all young people. Died at age 77 on Tuesday, July 28, 2015.

Few people have touched as many lives as Mary Frances Dunckelman Rabb. As a teacher, she pushed her students to always strive to be the best they could be.

But as a mentor for the young people of the Larose-Cut Off area, she guided many teens through some of their most difficult times.

Mary grew up in Raceland, Louisiana in the 1940s. She was an over-achiever, graduating from Raceland High School as valedictorian. She was the homecoming queen, a cheerleader, the editor of the yearbook, president of the 4-H Club and played volleyball and basketball.

She met her husband, John Hughes Rabb, while studying for her bachelor’s degree at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches. After college, they moved to New Orleans for a year where Mary taught in the Orleans Parish Public School System. Afterward, the couple returned to Northwestern to earn their master’s degrees, and in 1961 began their storied careers in education.

The couple moved to Larose and started teaching at Larose-Cut Off High School. They were a team and took to not only nurturing their student’s minds, but also their souls.

“She took me under her wing and showed me there was more to education and educating kids than books,” said Laura Champagne, who taught at South Lafourche High School with Mary when she was a guidance counselor there. “She was probably the person who believed in me the most. She probably believed in me more than I believed in myself.”

She had that effect on people. She was an expert at motivating people to produce their best work.

She taught geometry to Hank Danos, owner of Danos, the offshore oil service provider. He shared a story with Mary’s son, Gregory, of his days in her classroom.

Hank took a geometry test that he had not studied for. He returned to class the next day expecting a bad grade, but was surprised to not receive a grade at all. But inscribed on the page were the words, “You can do better.”

The next week Hank had another geometry test, but this time he hit the books hard. Mary handed Hank his graded test the following day, but perplexingly, he again did not get a grade.

Only the words, “Much better,” were written at the top of the page.

“She didn’t want him to be satisfied with a grade,” Greg recounted.

“He said he never got a grade, so he just did better and better.”

Although the couple had their own children, Kelly Elizabeth and Gregory, they “raised half the Bayou,” Gregory said.

The Rabb home was a safe haven for the teenagers of the Larose-Cut Off area. Many students would gather there after school. Some were looking for company. But many were looking for guidance. Greg said it was because his parents were great listeners.

Many times, the Rabbs would offer young people a place to stay.

“Many times they gave my bed up for people,” Gregory said. “They would wake me up and I’d get my blanket and pillow. It happened all time.”

But he never resented his parents for that. Robert Brunet was one of those young people taken in by the Rabbs.

Robert first met Mary in her geometry class during his sophomore year in high school.

“She said, ‘we may not learn geometry here, but if I can teach you to think logically, then I will consider that a success,”‘ Robert recounted.

Robert’s life was tumultuous during high school. After a series of deaths in his family, he was left alone during his senior year. He said, like any young person who is left to raise themself, he got into trouble. That was when Mary’s husband, John, stepped in. He asked Mary if the young man could move in with the family, and she said yes.

“They treated me as one of their own and I wasn’t quite accustomed to it,” Robert said.

He received a scholarship to play football at Louisiana Tech University. The couple bought him a car and provided spending money for him. Thanks to their intervention, Robert was guided toward success.

He was drafted by the Washington Redskins during the 1968 NFL draft and was a running back for them for 10 years. Were it not for the Rabbs that may not have happened.

The Rabbs suffered a terrible loss when their daughter Kelly was killed in a car accident in 1977 shortly after graduating high school. Mary was very dignified through the ordeal and became a counselor of sorts for bereaved parents of children of the bayou who had died before their time.

Mary left teaching for a brief foray into retail sales, opening a clothing store in Larose called The Greenhouse.

But the calling to help young people was too strong for her to resist and returned to education in the 1980s. She became the guidance counselor at Larose Cut-Off Junior High School.

In the latter half of her life, Mary was very civically involved. She served on the Board of Directors of the Bayou Civic Club and was instrumental in the construction of the Larose Civic Center. She helped organize the group’s French Food Festival. She also served on the pastoral council for Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church in Larose.

Sen. Norbert “Norby” Chabert, who knew Mary for many years since he served as her paige when she reigned as Queen of the Krewe of Versailles in 1982 and helped the Bayou Civic Club in their endeavor to build the civic center, said she was very tall for a woman from “down the bayou,” but “her sweet demeanor just totally disarm[ed] anybody that would be intimidated by her.”

Mary was also a very devout Catholic. She was a successful evangelist who brought many people into the church. In fact, Greg said, many of the more than 700 people who attended her funeral said that she was the one who convinced them to join the church.

She did it without pressuring people, her daughter-in-law, Mary Kay Comeaux Rabb, said. Mary Kay is also a teacher and often looked to her mother-in-law for guidance.

“I always knew if I was trying to figure out how to a help kid, I would ask Mary,” Mary Kay said.

Mary Frances Dunckelman Rabb and her son, Gregory, step off of a barge in Port Fourchon shortly before her death. Mary devoted her entire life to helping young people towards success. Mary died at age 77 on July 28.

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