Goldie Gardner Gulledge

Goldie Gardner Gulledge, 1914-2005
Maria Montoya
Staff writer

CORRECTION APPENDED

Home was everything to Goldie Gardner Gulledge. She didn't care for formalities or fancy things. She took pride in such simple things as her German chocolate cake or the hem she put on a hand-sewn dress.

"One time her grandson Paul, who is an airline steward, met Dolly Parton on a flight and they got to talking about good homemade chicken and dumplings, and Dolly said she hadn't had some real Arkansas dumplings in a good while," said Robert "Sonny" Gulledge Jr., the son of Robert Joel and Goldie Gulledge. "My mother was from Whelen Springs, Ark., and there was nobody who could make dumplings like her. So, Paul told Dolly he would bring her some, and the story goes that Dolly loved Mama's cooking just as much as we did."

Goldie's goodies were famous among her children, Robert Jr. and Bobbie Nell Chaisson, and her 12 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren. Holidays were spent for the most part in Whelen Springs and Luling, where the Gulledges worked, tended to a large garden and raised their kids. Dad ran a service station. Goldie stayed home when her children were young, but once they were off to school she worked at the St. Charles Parish clerk of court's office until 1975.

The couple married in 1935. On Christmas Eve, Robert drove Goldie, who was on winter break from Peabody College (now Vanderbilt University) in Nashville, Tenn., straight from the train depot to the office of the justice of the peace. When they got there, he proposed. They honeymooned at her folks' house.

"She worked hard every day of her life," said Chaisson of her mother, who had a green thumb when it came to growing vegetables and roses. "If it wasn't the garden or work, then she would be sewing or cooking for us."

Goldie attended the First Baptist Church of Luling and for many years taught Sunday school. Her grandson Paul Chaisson said he has tried to instill in his own five children his grandmother's virtue.

"I'll never forget the first time I heard my grandmother curse," Paul said. "It makes me laugh to this day, how she said, 'Oh, foot!' I wish everyone could learn how to curse like my grandmother."

Goldie was also a traveler and would join family members on trips to Europe and throughout the United States. In her 70s, she went white-water rafting with Chaisson's family. But no matter how much she enjoyed the journey, she was always glad to get back home to Luling.

"We'd sit in her back yard by a giant oak tree and watch the birds, talking about everyday things," Robert Jr. said. "What I'll miss the most about her is the gentility of being with her in our home."

Not long after her husband died on Nov. 29, 2001, Goldie began to battle Alzheimer's disease and severe arthritis in her knees. This past summer, at 91, she moved from her home to an assisted living care center and then to Canon Hospice. During Hurricane Katrina, Canon residents were evacuated to St. Charles General Hospital, which subsequently lost power and ran out of food and supplies. Two days after the storm passed, her body was found on the fourth floor of the hospital.

"She was just the kind of Grandma we all hope and pray to have," Paul said. "Mawmaw was a totally selfless woman who maximized every resource God made available to her."

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CORRECTION / CLARIFICATION
Death described incorrectly: A Living section story Friday about the death of Goldie Gardner Gulledge in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina incorrectly reported the condition under which Gulledge's body was recovered. Gulledge, a patient at Canon Hospice who was suffering from a terminal illness, was evacuated to St. Charles General Hospital during the storm, and was under the continuous care of Canon employees until she died from her illness, said Canon's president, Dr. Shiva Akula. Gulledge's family was notified immediately of her death by e-mail, Akula said, and her body was later turned over to the Orleans Parish coroner's office, then taken to St. Gabriel. (12/7/2005)

Published in The Times-Picayune