Priscilla “Jo” Morgan Goudeau, 77 , Marksville

A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered for Priscilla “Jo” Morgan Goudeau on Wednesday, May 29, 2024 at 10:30 a.m. at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Marksville. Burial will follow in St. Joseph Cemetery #2 in Marksville under the direction of Melancon Funeral Home, Bunkie.
The family requests that visitation be observed at Kilpatrick’s Rose-Neath Funeral Home - 334 Acton Road - Marksville on Wednesday, May 29, 2024 from 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
Mrs. Goudeau, age 77, of Marksville, passed away peacefully on May 24, 2024 at Rapides Regional Medical Center. Jo was born in Alexandria in 1946. She married Glenn Goudeau, of Cottonport, on May 11, 1974, at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral in Alexandria, and settled in Marksville for the remainder of her life.
Jo’s first passion was always dance. In high school, she and her sister, Gret, taught at the famed Marilyn Clark Dance School in Alexandria. As a young entrepreneur, she bought the Madilyn Clark Dance School, where she also continued to teach for two years until graduating high school. She earned a B.S. degree in Education from the University of Houston, and also graduated from McMahon Court Reporting College in Houston, Texas. Court reporting was a passion she pursued for 20 years. A known perfectionist, she took great pride in the importance of perfection in court reporting. Jo often stayed up all night to finish a deposition needed by an attorney the next day, with the help of her beloved pot of hot black coffee. She left the field only after it became necessary to focus on the daily care of her elderly parents in Alexandria, and two young sons in Marksville.
Despite a busy professional life, Jo was an active volunteer and leader in community organizations. In January 1976, Jo was a founding member of Le Theatre Des Bon Temps, a non-profit focused on theater productions. As a skilled dancer, she also choreographed many of the plays for La Theatre Des Bon Temps throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s. Some of them include Godspell, South Pacific, Fiddler on the Roof, and Jesus Christ Superstar. Many of the dance routines she taught to the young amateur actors with little (or no) dance experience are legendary among many Avoyelleans, including the Jewish Bottle Dance in “Fiddler on the Roof” and the famous tap dances in “Puttin on the Ritz.”
Dance was not her only talent however, as her strong work ethic and ambition for community improvement served her well in various associations, such as the Avoyelles Arts Council and Marksville Garden Club, for which she served as President. After her diagnosis of remitting multiple sclerosis in 1984, she never wavered in her commitment to lead an active life. In her last years, she could be seen regularly at local physical therapy centers working out, walking up and down her street, and doing household chores to retain her strength in order to keep up with her beloved grandchildren. Each one had a special place in her heart.
But Jo was not all work and no play. Until the last days of her life, she loved dining out with her husband, vacationing with friends, and going out to dance. But it was the camaraderie of being with friends, and the chance to make new friends, that she truly enjoyed. She would talk to anyone who would talk to her, and even those who at first wouldn’t! It was common for her to meet new lifelong friends while traveling. After a fun night out, she would often stay up to the wee hours of the morning with anyone willing to stay up with her to talk, laugh, share stories, or play cards. Only days before her passing, she relished the camaraderie of lifelong friends and family at her 50th wedding anniversary party, where she dined, danced, and talked late into the evening.
Jo will be most remembered and missed, however, for her kindness. She gave kindness to everyone, in every sense of the word “all”.
Jo was predeceased by her parents, William Earl Morgan and Geneva Bernard Morgan; and her sister Gret Morgan McKenzie.

Those left to cherish her memory include her husband of fifty years, Glenn Goudeau of Marksville; her two sons, Beau Goudeau of Lafayette and Jacques Goudeau (Melissa Smith Goudeau) of Marksville and her four grandchildren, Andre and Henri Goudeau of Lafayette and Remy and Jolie Goudeau of Marksville.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be mailed to the “Fox Theater,” PO Box 335, Marksville, LA 71351; or online at http://www.marksvillefox.com/donate.