Marie Therese Killgore

Marie Therese Killgore died in Lafayette on August 27, 2026. She was 74. Born in Lafayette on November 8, 1951, with Cajun French roots that shaped the table more than the flag. She learned early that a day is something you finish, not something you wait for. She fed students who forgot to eat and faculty who forgot manners. A bent soup ladle was her scepter. Colleagues still mention a soup ladle bent from decades. She married Etienne in 1977. They kept a house that stayed modest when the neighborhood did not. They raised a son and a daughter through public schools and ordinary weather. After Etienne died in 2019, she kept the routines that still made sense: the walk, the garden, the Sunday call. Neighbors remember coffee offered before questions. She liked early mornings before the heat or the noise. She died in Lafayette, among streets she never needed to explain. The garden will come up next spring without being told.