- Date Of Birth: June 21, 1939
- Date Of Death: May 1, 2010
- State: Louisiana
Dr. Hector Joseph LeBlanc III, age 70, passed away on May 1, 2010. ‘ Sonny’ loved his birthplace – New Orleans, Louisiana. He and his brothers Roy and Denis were born to Hector J. LeBlanc Jr. and Anna Marion Fenasci LeBlanc. Stories of Dupre Street, St. Rose de Lima Elementary School, St. Aloysius High School, and the “Golden Hawks” baseball team of the N.O.R.D. were big favorites of the whole family.
LSU in Baton Rouge was the source of his undergraduate degree and many lifelong friendships including those from the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. He returned to New Orleans for his life’s next major milestones. He married Barbara Jean Russ from Baton Rouge while attending LSU Medical. After his initial residency years in New York and Kentucky Sonny ended up becoming ‘Poppy’ around this time with the birth of his children, Anne, Adrienne, Russ and Benjamin. Sadly, Benjamin only lived for a few days.
In 1979 Sonny, BJ and his kids moved to Olympia, Wa where he started his second private practice. He loved the work, but didn’t care too much for the business side of things. This led to his acceptance of a civilian position with the U.S. Army as a neurosurgeon at Madigan Army Hospital near Tacoma, Wa. In 1987, at the zenith of his surgery career, Sonny was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Having to argue for his ability to perform surgery was the most debilitating experience he would ever suffer. With incredible support from his family, friends and colleagues, Sonny chose to reinvent himself and his love of medicine by studying neuropathology as the oldest resident at the UW Medical School.
In 1989 Sonny and BJ returned to New Orleans so he could take a position with his alma mater at the LSU Medical Center. He was able to teach and conduct research in the LSUMC Brain Bank he co-founded until he retired.
Sonny’s appetite for life consumed more than medicine. He also loved any music that could elicit a smile or a tear, history that he could store in his enormous memory, a long tennis match where he could rush the net, a fierce extraction of trout using homemade fly fishing equipment, or building elaborate model train settings. The experiences he loved all had much less to do with the context than the people he shared them with. Sonny was a champion at recognizing inherent value in every person he knew or met. If you could make him smile or laugh you instantly won an honored position of being a friend. We are a great crowd of miserable comedians bidding adieu to a stellar performer in life..
Sonny is leaving us to join his mother, father, brother, Denis and son, Benjamin in heaven. His wife, BJ, children Anne, Adrienne, and Russ, and grandchildren Noah, Julian, Aidan, Lilly and Clay are left with many other family members and even more friends who are adopted to be family.
