Emily Pommier Duke was born on December 8, 1921, in Mamou, LA, and died on Christmas Day, 2014 in Bogalusa at the home of her eldest son.
She was proud to have received her GED as an adult working mother who maintained a home which she help build at 920 North Fifth Street in the Duplechin Addition, being the third house to be added in 1954. She was a homemaker until she became office manager for Naquin Furniture Store and then later at a floor covering store. She was a daughter of Flores Pommier and Omerice Fontenot Pommier.
Survivors include two sons, Merlin Duke and his wife Eleanor Watson Duke of Bogalusa, LA. -- they have two sons, David Merlin Duke, who is an assistant district attorney and city prosecutor in Bogalusa and is Damon Watson Duke, who is a videographer for Charter Media and is married to Nikki Stewart Duke. She has only one great-grandchild, Finn Gabriel Duke, 2 years old who celebrated Christmas Eve by posing for photos on her lap. They live in Madisonville, LA.
Her youngest son, Clarence Nolan Duke, a meteorologist in Kansas City, MO, is married to homemaker Karyl Peterson Duke, and they are the parents of two children, Emily Lorraine Duke, a student at a Southern Baptist seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and one son, Andrew Jackson Duke, a recent high school graduate. She has one full surviving brother, Johnny Pommier (Betty) formerly of Mamou, now of Opelousas, and one surviving half-sister, Joyce Guillory Powell (Burton) of Eunice. She has two surviving step-sisters, Berna Guillory and Bernice Guillory McGee, both of Mamou.
Deceased siblings are Clement Pommier and Ruby Pommier Flores.
Deceased half-siblings are Burleigh Guillory, Yourick Guillory, Jr., Louis George Guillory, and Rodney Guillory.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Clarence Shockley Duke from Newton County, Miss.i and her middle son, Charles Edward Duke, who was married to Barbara Ann Brown of Elton and the father of one daughter, Trischa Ann Duke, a college professor of English at the University of Chicago, and Brandon Charles Duke of the construction industry in Baton Rouge.
Her body will be at Quirk and Son Funeral Home in Eunice with the Rev. Tim Moffett, pastor of the First Baptist Church, conducting services at 2:00 PM on Monday, December 29, 2014.
Visitation begins at 10 AM.
