Marie Eason Rutledge

On November 15, 2024 the life of our dear proud icon in the Shreveport-Bossier City area comes to an end. She was a great lady! Not only was she beautiful and elegant on your first encounter with her, but she was a kind, gracious, and caring individual always willing to lend a helping hand to help guide someone in the right direction for the right reasons and circumstances. She was the example of what a true “Southern Lady” should be… and she was that!

Marie Eason Rutledge was born in Fisher, La to Eules Eason and Florence Manasco Eason on September 19, 1926. She was an only child and grew up very strong and independent. After a failed marriage and a young son to take care of she ventured out to Shreveport to find a job.

She started working at the Telephone Company and continued to work there until her retirement after 31 years and one month.

In her early 20’s at a Telephone Company beauty pageant she met her future husband William Hugh “Bill” Rutledge, a radio announcer for Shreveport’s KENT. They were married in 1952, started their life together and settled in their new home in Bossier City. Their first and only child, a daughter, was born three years later.

In 1961, Marie and Bill ventured out to start a new restaurant which they named The Double “R” Barbeque Smokehouse in Bossier. She divided her time between the phone company and being co-owner with her husband “Colonel” Bill as he was called, and she was his “ Southern Belle”! The restaurant took off and became a hit.

Marie and Bill continued their appreciation of the “Old South” and started traveling across the United States picking up treasures of historical architecture in such places as Savannah, Charleston, Richmond, and many, many, more places. She took on yet another mantle--historical restoration. She acquired several residential homes and began working to transform them into perfect doll houses for rental purposes. And she even changed their own cottage residence into something unbelievable and reminiscent of a southern plantation home. Her ideas were spectacular and she was told by so many people that she should have been a builder, or at the very least, an interior designer.

After Bill passed away suddenly in 1975 Marie kept going with her three positions, Telephone, BBQ and restorations and added another hat as landlady for her rental properties. What a business woman she had become...in many directions!

Many years later, she became acquainted with fellow restauranteur "Giovanni" John LoBue, whom many will remember as the owner of The Piccadilly Italian Restaurant on Louisiana Avenue in Shreveport.

They became close friends and companions for forty years. They were both very creative who became "partners in projects"! He helped Marie to complete her dreams of having a beautiful, one of a kind residence, and public areas for people to appreciate and enjoy.

Many years ago she was asked to serve on the Bossier City Clean City Committee. Mayor George Dement praised her and said that Bossier deserved many more like her to take care of our city. In the year 2000, the Master Gardeners of Louisiana asked her to be one of the showcase gardens for her beautiful English Garden across the street from her home filled with flowers and fruit trees surrounding giant columns that appeared to look like the ruins of a plantation in South Louisiana. It was all spectacular!

Then as a follow up in the same year at Christmastime, she was asked to showcase her home filled with all the antiquity and work that she had put into it through the years for the "Christmas Tour of Homes".

She was a Scarlett O'Hara, a Steel Magnolia and a true Lady of the South all rolled up into one....and we were all better people who knew her and allowed her into our lives in some way!

Marie was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, "William Hugh "Bill" Rutledge and her close friend and companion through her later years, Giovanni John LoBue. And, of course, many friends, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews.

May they always cherish her memory and the marks she made on their lives. Her son, Ronnie Clifton Turner (Flora Jane); her grandchildren, Robbin Cristine Turner Brown (David) and Richard Chane Turner and her great grandchildren, Taylor Wade Jones, Emily Chane Turner and Gracie Leeann Turner. And especially her daughter, Marie Antoinette "Annette" Rutledge Littlejohn (Joe).

A private family graveside service was held for Marie on November 22, 2024 and was officiated by Rev. Msgr. Earl V. Provenza at Forest Park Cemetery on St. Vincent Ave.

It was said many times in Marie's life that she was one of God's favorites! May she always remain that way in Heaven helping Him keep everything beautiful and in the right order for everyone!