Even after Hurricane Katrina ended her political career and as cancer ate away her strength, former Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco still described her life as “charmed.” With strength in her faith and her family, the state’s first elected female governor time and again refused to wallow in disappointment or disaster. Blanco called it an “honor and blessing” to lead Louisiana through the fury and destruction of Katrina. A pioneering woman in Louisiana politics, Blanco died Sunday in hospice care in Lafayette.
