Margie Owen Hanna

A memorial gathering will be held on Thursday, June 11, 2009 at Delhomme Funeral Home of Lafayette for Margie Owen Hanna, 85, who passed away on June 5, 2009 at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital from a massive stroke. Mrs. Hanna, a retired Lafayette High School English teacher, was born on September 22, 1923, near Holly Springs, AR, and lived most of her youth in El Dorado, graduating there from public high school in 1941. During the years of World War II, she was employed in the newspaper dailies in Conway and El Dorado and at a Waco, TX radio station. During the same time, she attended Central Junior College in Conway and then Baylor University in Waco, TX, where she received undergraduate degrees in both Speech and English. She received her Masters Degree in Speech from Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. She taught Speech at Louisiana College for 2 1/2 years before marrying James Ray Hanna, who was on the music faculty at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, whom she met when both were Masters students at Northwestern. They were married during the Christmas holiday of 1949. After substituting for two semesters at USL and one semester at Lafayette High as a speech teacher, she enrolled at USL to become certified in Speech & English. When both her children were in elementary school, she taught English at Cecilia High School for one year, before being hired by the Lafayette Parish School Board to teach at Lafayette High in 1959. She retired in 1982, after serving as supervising teacher for USL for almost twenty years and chairwoman of the LHS English Department for ten years. During her teaching career, she continued her education at Indiana University, LSU and USL to earn over thirty hours above her Masters degree. After retirement, Mrs. Hanna enjoyed traveling, going to classical music concerts and being active in the First United Methodist Church. She had especially enjoyed being a volunteer visitor at Oakwood Nursing Center, where she had made friends with many of the residents. She is survived by her son, James Ford Hanna and his wife, Debbie Campbell Hanna, of Baton Rouge, and grandson, Blake Hanna of Northridge, CA; her daughter, Elizabeth (Betsy) Owen Hanna Lott (widow of the late Hulon Lott, MD) of Baton Rouge and grandson, Simon Jesse Lott II, of New Orleans; sisters, Melva Melton and Mary Jo Crosley, brother-in-law George Crosley, all of El Dorado, AR; and many loving relatives. Margie Hanna was preceded in death by her husband, James Ray Hanna; her father and mother, Ray & Ola Owen; her brother Phil Owen and sister-in-law, Mariexa Owen. The memorial gathering will be held on Thursday from 12:00-2:00 pm. Memorial donations may be given to Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, 412 Travis Street, Lafayette, LA 70503, ph 337-232-4277. Personal condolences may be sent to the Hanna family at www.delhommefuneralhome.com. Delhomme Funeral Home, 1011 Bertrand Drive, Lafayette, is in charge of the funeral arrangements.

Margie Owen Hanna

September 23, 1923 - June 5, 2009