Features & Profiles — Marie Simoneaux

In addition to news, Marie is an experienced features writer. Whether it be profiling victims of crime and their families, covering events or highlighting the work of community members, Marie has been recognized for her ability to bring stories to life. Her work has been recognized in prestigious awards, including the profile she wrote on James Fernandez, a blind man who completed a local marathon.

To view a sample of her work, click on the headlines below.

**45 years after UpStairs Lounge fire, memorial offers something like peace for 1 family**

When Ferris Jerome LeBlanc went missing from his home in California in the early 1970s, his family was heartbroken and confused. Decades later, they learned he was one of 32 men killed in an arson attack at a French Quarter gay bar, the UpStairs Lounge. On Sunday (June 24), three years after discovering his fate, Ferris LeBlanc's sister, Marilyn LeBlanc, was finally able to attend a memorial service for her long-lost brother.

**Local man with disability runs in the Crescent City Classic**

For many, the idea of running a 10k race is daunting enough, but James Fernandez, 53, accomplished it without something most take for granted — his sight.
*(Winner of SPJ Mark of Excellence Award)*

**Hours before New Orleans mass shooting, a neighborhood rallied for end to violence**

Pastor Tyrone Smith left Sampson Park tired but joyous, buzzing from the success of the Stop the Violence rally he helped organize in the Desire area Saturday evening (July 28). Smith went back to his house, turned on the TV and immediately learned 10 people had been shot on South Claiborne Avenue, three suffering fatal wounds.

**Starting with $40 and a suitcase, former inmate built Arabi thrift store to help others**

Maryam Uloho describes her life by "The Four P's": Projects, for the life of the poverty she knew growing up in Dayton, Ohio, Palaces, for the extravagant world she was shown by her husband in Warri, Nigeria. Prison, for the over 10 years she served in the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in St. Gabriel, where she says much of her time was spent in what she described as solitary confinement. And paradise -- for Sister Hearts, the cluttered Arabi thrift store and "de-carceration" program she has built over the past five years, starting with $40 and a suitcase.

**After burned bodies found near his Algiers home, a father worries for his family**

Judah Love woke up to learn two bodies were found burned "beyond recognition" just feet from his Algiers home Monday morning (July 30) and was faced with a task that broke his heart.

lil ricky.jpg — **‘I'll be right back': Widow of man killed on Elysian Fields remembers his last words**

Erica Goins thought nothing of it when her husband stepped out to go to Walmart Sunday afternoon. "I'll be right back," he told her. But he never came back.