The Tremé community laid to rest one of its pillars on Monday, July 20. Armand Louis Charbonnet, the co-owner of the family’s 132-year old funeral business, died on July 9 at 84.
In keeping with the traditions of the New Orleans jazz funeral, which Charbonnet helped maintain his entire life, his send off was replete with music, dancing, and sadness but remained an ultimately joyful and dignified ritual befitting a man who helped so many others through their times of loss.
Following a mass at St. Raymond/St. Leo the Great church in Gentilly, his flag-draped casket was solemnly loaded into a flower-bedecked hearse, the “coupe de fleur,” as the Original Royal Players Brass Band played a poignant dirge; a song so slow it seemed as if only the trumpeter was playing. A lone crow barked it’s lonely call in the distance.
With only a smattering of onlookers amid dozens of limousines emblazoned with the funeral home’s crest, the brief ceremony after the religious service was a moment of private mourning prior to the very public display that followed.
The cortege made the short drive to the center of the Tremé community and re-assembled at the funeral home on N. Claiborne Avenue. The body was transferred from a bronze to a wooden coffin, in keeping with cemetery rules in this city of tombs and crypts, and placed on the back of a horse-drawn hearse.
Another all-star brass band made up of young sons and elders of Tremé and led by trumpeter James Andrews struck up a series of hymns, “Bye and Bye” and “I’ll Fly Away” among them, as the procession made its way out Claiborne to Esplanade Avenue en route to St. Louis #3 cemetery.
The sadness quickly morphed to joy and celebration in keeping with the wishes of the deceased. The band played a long medley of uptempo, buck-jumping tunes without a break for the length of Esplanade Avenue. Gina Charbonnet, one of his daughters, climbed onto the coffin and danced. Her sisters, Cheri Charbonnet Hirsh and Courtney Charbonnet, climbed up to join her for their father’s last parade.
Their cousin, Kim Charbonnet, sprinkled the casket with beer in a raucous display before taking the reins and guiding the horses down the home stretch. At one point the assembled began chanting his first name in tune with the music.
After a brief pause to regroup, the Original Royal Players, joined by some the other brass band musicians, took over the music, ensuring the celebration ended with a certain dignity afforded to a man who’s life work was the homegoing of others.
The final blocks to the gates of the cemetery were a slow, half-step walk as the band played another dirge. The musicians separated for the final notes and the hearse, followed by the long cortege, passed between them towards his final interment in the family tomb.
Photos: Christopher Porché West
