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The people Cleveland “Chris” Towns left behind say the tragic circumstances of his May 5 death have left a void not just in their lives but also in the world as a whole.
They describe the 63-year-old Towns as a renaissance man equally adept at carving decoy ducks as he was at helping a struggling New Orleans get back on its feet after Hurricane Katrina, and a purveyor of good will who, even on the night he died, was on the road because he was helping a woman in need of a ride.
He died as a result of injuries suffered when he swerved off of a dark La. Highway 24 in Bourg, to avoid a golf cart driven by South Terrebonne High School student, Katelyn Duplantis, and another vehicle that was coming toward him in the opposite lane.
Even after death, relatives and friends noted, Towns was a giver.
Organ donations aided the sight of four people, said his widow, Laura Browning.
She received a letter last week confirming that his donated orthopedic tissues “created 51 grafts used in reconstructive surgery, spinal fusions and oral surgery.”
A total of 36 grafts from that group were done in 14 states as well as in Korea.
His life, Browning and others who knew him say, is one clearly worth celebrating.
The two had met when Towns was doing contracting work in the aftermath of Katrina, for NOAA. They became fast friends – best friends is how Browning describes it – and as they moved closer to marrying each other they married both of their worlds, Browning with her horticulture, Towns with his duck-carving.
Friends were shared along with their lives, and the long-planned wedding was held as a home affair in Montegut.
“It was the most beautiful event,” said planner D’Ann Bergeron. “You saw the love there. A lot of family, a close-knit group of people.”
His death came weeks after the wedding, leaving many who had witnessed it stunned and saddened. Towns had been busy doing contracting work for the US Army Corps of Engineers at that point, but still made time for family and friends.
The ducks Towns crafted and painted had an uncanny realism to them, said other master carvers like Curt Fabre.
And he was always willing to share his knowledge with others, including youngsters in Montegut, where the New Orleans native found himself very much at home.
“He was a friend and a mentor,” said Kedrick Green, one of many younger people Towns took under his wing, sharing business acumen and life lessons. “Chris, no matter who you were, he showed you that you were family. He had a big, caring heart and I never ever saw him get mad. He was the point leader, the leader of an entire Corps project and he showed me every bit of what that project consisted of, right down to where the gates were being built at. I feel like he is still here even though I can’t see him.”
Leah Chase, proprietor of the legendary Dookie Chase Restaurant in New Orleans, is among the people who have counted him as a friend, long before the flooding caused by Katrina. More than 30 years before the storm.
“I loved Chris Towns,” Chase said in a telephone interview. “That was one good man. Chris was always ready to help me. He would bring me my sausages from LaPlace when he passed through. He was just a good-hearted person. He came in here for lunch but when he did he always brought something. For me this was a terrible loss.”
Family members said that on the night he died Towns had been at PJ’s Lounge, in the company of a nephew he often spent time with.
A woman at the bar, Stacy Porche, needed a ride to Houma but nobody there was sober enough to drive, according to a nephew, Tony Rodriguez.
Towns, he said, volunteered.
Rodriguez, who was not at the bar himself, said he received his version of events from other family members.
Porche could not be reached for comment or confirmation.
Like others who were touched by Towns, Rodriguez had nothing but good things to say about him.
“That was just like Chris, reaching out to help someone else,” said Rodriguez, noting that Towns’ last conscious act – turning off of the highway onto the bank of Bayou Terrebonne – was also a selfless act, that may have saved several lives.
One of his daughters, Crystal Towns Allred, remembers her father as a great teacher who spent his life building nonprofit organizations but always had time for his children.
“I can hear him all the time saying the things he said, talking about the things that happened,” she said. “He knew how to make everything better. Whatever the things are that would happen he knew how to make them better.”
It is because of her father’s altruism that Allred struggles with the thought of how the criminal justice system should treat the young woman allegedly responsible for his life being lost.
“I think she should honor the life she took and honor the things he was about so that his life is not forgotten,” Allred said. “But she didn’t know my dad.”
