Margarita & Manuel Romero

Margarita Romero, 1917-2005
Manuel Romero, 1920-2005

David Cuthbert
Staff writer

Brother and sister Manuel and Margarita Romero had what their friends agree was "an incredible sense of family."

"Their parents, Manuel and Dolores, came from Mexico and established a family grocery on North Claiborne, where all the family worked," said Sara Rooney, Margarita's godchild. "During World War II, they went to work for the Higgins project. Their father was a fine cabinetmaker and was assigned to building the landing craft. Margarita was a secretary and Manuel was a translator for the censorship office. They were very proud of their contribution to the war effort."

Rooney's father, Joseph Guerra, went to Loyola University with Manuel. "We were both taught violin by the same professor," he said. "And later, when Manuel formed his orchestra, which played for all sorts of parties and events, I was part of it. We'd always rehearse at the family home and his mother would put out a big spread."

Margarita worked for a medical clinic as a secretary and translator for Spanish-speaking patients. After it closed, she worked for the Orleans Parish school system.

"She was my secretary for more than 20 years," said Julianna Boudreaux, a retired assistant superintendent, "and became a dear friend. No matter how many hours I worked, she stayed with me. She was so interested in everything and everyone. But family came first. When her sister Guadalupe died, it almost killed her. After we both retired, we would go out for lunch with our former colleagues every six weeks or so."

Manuel taught music in Orleans Parish schools for many years. He married, but when his wife died in 1996, he moved in with Margarita to the second Romero family home on Vicksburg Street in Lakeview, which their father had helped build and which contained furniture he had crafted and antiques he had restored. "It was their sanctuary," Rooney said.

"Manuel was a very private, proud man," said Patricia Peyton, who met the Romeros as a Realtor and became a close friend. "Margarita was very delicate and dignified; both beautiful people. Margarita was lucid right up to the end. Manuel had his moments and then he'd fade away into his thoughts. Sometimes you'd call Margarita for lunch and she'd say, 'No, I have to take care of Manuel.'"

Their friends tried to persuade them to leave as Katrina approached. Peyton got them a hotel room downtown, "but Margarita told me, 'Manuel will not leave and I have to stay with him.'"

"I don't think they believed anything bad could happen to them in their house," Rooney said. "And they wouldn't be separated, they loved each other so."

They died together in the flooded home, "which was good, in a way, horrible as that sounds," Rooney said, "because what would they have done without each other?"

Published in The Times-Picayune