The St. Charles Herald-Guide lost a co-founder, fellow writer and matriarch last Sunday.
Colette Lottinger, 76, passed away at her home, following a four-year battle with cancer.
Lottinger grew up in the Baton Rouge area. She was a graduate of University High School and Louisiana State University. Upon graduation, she became an assistant home demonstration agent in Terrebonne Parish. Eventually, years later, Lottinger, or “Miss Colette” as she was called by many, worked at the Herald- Guide and the Louisiana Sportsman Magazine for more than 30 years. She was co-publisher of the newspaper along with her husband, Allen.
“I met her when I was just starting out in this business,” Lottinger said.
“I was working at the Houma Courier as the managing editor and she was working as a home demonstration agent teaching people how to get the most out of their new homes, life lessons so to speak,” he said. “One day this reporter came into my office to tell me he was going over to take a picture of this pretty girl for a story he was working on. So, I said don’t worry about it, I’ll go take the picture and that was the first time I saw her.”
Lottinger said they dated for about a year until he asked her to marry him.
She accepted his proposal.
Around 1971, Lottinger started his own newspaper, the River Parishes Guide, in Boutte. He started it with his wife, a partner in life and partner in business. She sold advertising for the paper and was very good at it, according to Mr. Lottinger.
“She had a good way with the business customers,” he said.She also wrote a weekly cooking column and even published a cookbook called, “How Sportsmen Cook,” containing a collection of Louisiana recipes for wild fish and game. It was very popular, according to son-in-law Tony Taylor, publisher of the Louisiana Sportsman magazine and CEO of Louisiana Publishing.
During the time she worked at the paper she also found time to serve on the board of numerous organizations, including Social Concerns, a nonprofit group that operates a thrift store and helps underprivileged families in the parish. She was on the board of the St. Charles Historical Association in addition to sitting on the board of directors of the Louisiana Press Association (LPA) from 2003 to 2009.Pamela Mitchell, current executive director of the LPA, remembered her fondly.
“She was a valuable board member and a dear friend,” Mitchell said. “I missed her when she left.”
The mother of six children, five girls and one boy, she never had a concern for herself,” said Craig Cuccia, her son-in-law.
“She had a knack for loving people,” Cuccia said. “She also had a strength, no matter what the obstacle. She taught us to bond together no matter what the high or low, no matter what the positive or negative, and in her final days it showed because everyone was there together for her, all her children and her own brothers and sister, as well, everyone supporting each other; a strong example of love and how much we all mean to each other; how much she meant to all of us.”
Ann Taylor, executive editor of the St. Charles Herald – Guide, further explained her mother’s love and generosity.
“She always wanted to help people,” Taylor said. “My dad and mom found two people sleeping in the yard of a duplex they shared with their son on Esplanade Avenue in New Orleans. It was very cold outside so they woke them up and invited them to come inside the house to take showers and spend the night. Another time, when we were kids, we were travelling in the family van and she had my father pick up hitchhikers coming from a festival, and loaded them all up with us and gave them a ride.”
Cuccia said that, while there were never any strangers as far as Lottinger was concerned, she would do just about anything to comfort another. She never complained about her own ailments.
“Even in the end, unless you knew, you’d never know she was ill,” he said.
A devout catholic, Lottinger was a parishioner of Holy Family Catholic Church in Luling.
On April 26, on Good Shepherd Sunday, at 5:37 a.m. she passed away with her family by her side.
She is survived by her husband, Allen; six children – Ann Taylor, wife of Tony Taylor; Lilla Marie Lottinger; Lisa Cuccia, wife of Craig Cuccia; Lauren Clark, wife of Fred Clark; Allen Lottinger Jr.; Amy Church, wife of Dean Church Jr. and 19 grandchildren.
Colette was the daughter of Al and Lilla May Moreau, both deceased, and sister of Tonsie Beach, Al Moreau Jr., Doug Moreau, Becky Newsham, Margo McCarthy, Jeanne Caldarera, Michele Rathbone, Andre Moreau and Suzanne Moreau (deceased).
Wake and mass for Colette were held at Holy Family Catholic Church in Luling on Wednesday morning.
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