Deaths Elsewhere

EWE press secretary, journalism prof
BATON ROUGE – Services for retired journalism professor and former gubernatorial press secretary Dr. Jesse Dale Thorn will be Tuesday. He died May 8 at age 71.
He was a capitol bureau reporter for the Monroe Morning World, then became an editor at the newspaper before becoming Congressman Edwin Edwards’ press secretary, a post he also held when Edwards was first elected governor and held through most of EWE’s first two terms.
Leaving the Edwards administration, he became associate commissioner for higher education under the Board of Regents. HE was later vice president of academic affairs at Northwestern State and then taught journalism and became professor in residence at LSU.
Survivors include a brother.
Arrangements are by Ott and Lee, Brandon, Miss.

Oil-gas distributor
GUEYDAN – Services for oil and gasoline distributor Thomas Fontenot will be Wednesday. He died May 8 at age 89.
He was a U.S. Marine Corp veteran of World War II’s Pacific and China theaters. He was owner of Gayle Oil, first an Amoco distributor and most recently a Mobile and Citgo distributor before selling it in 2007 and remaining in the commercial real estate business. He was chairman of the board of the Bank of Gueydan.
Survivors include three daughters.
Arrangements are by Matthews and Son.

Livestock company owner
AMITE – Services for livestock company owner Adele Dyer were FRiday. She died May 7 at age 94.
She was a Womens Air Corps veteran of World War II’s Africa and Italy campaigns. She and her late husband James operated a livestock company here for 40 years following the war.
Survivors include two sons and a daughter.

Sweet potato expert
BATON ROUGE – Services for sweet potato expert Dr. Teme Hernandez were Saturday. He died May 5 at age 94.
He was a Counterintelligence Corps veteran of World War II. He was the first director of the Sweet Potato Research Center in Chase. He worked almost 30 years at the LSU Dept. of Horticulture. During that time he developed or co-developed eight sweet potato cultivars, including Acadian, Jasper, Centennial and Travis; tomato cultivars include Creole and the cabbage variety Improved Allyear. He was an authored and internationally recognized sweet potato expert.
Survivors include a son and three daughters.

Boy Scout exec
BATON ROUGE – Services for Boy Scout executive Eric Howell were Friday. He died May 6 at age 52.
He was professional Boy Scout for more than 30 years and was Scout Executive/CEO of BSA, Baton Rouge.
Survivors include his wife April.