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The Life of Ellie Lucille Christianson

Funeral Services will be held on Saturday, February 15, 2020 at 10:00 A.M. in La Chapelle de Martin & Castille for Ellie Lucille Fortier Christianson, 91, who died on Monday, February 3, 2020 surrounded by her family.

Entombment will be held at Lafayette Memorial Park Mausoleum.

Reverend Msgr. Keith DeRouen, Pastor of Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church, will officiate the services.

Ellie was born September 7, 1928 in New Orleans, LA and had lived in Lafayette since 1970. Her parents were Edwin Leon Fortier I and the former Lucille Marguerite Brown, both of New Orleans. Ellie moved to Chicago, Illinois with her family in 1948 and it was there that she met and married Walter Nels Christianson, originally of Kankakee, Illinois, in 1952. They remained married until Walter's death in 2005.

Survivors include three sons, Erik Nels Christianson and his wife, Donna Benton of Lafayette; Scott Edwin Christianson of Lafayette and Karl Walter Christianson and his wife, Jennifer Gingrich of Boerne, Texas; three granddaughters, Carol Lynne Christianson Young and her husband, Richard of Washington, DC, Christiaan Nicole Christianson Howell and her husband, David of Fayetteville, NC, and Ellie Dzintra Christianson of Boerne, TX; one grandson Ethan Karl Christianson of Boerne, TX; and one great-granddaughter, Emma Noel Howell of Fayetteville, NC; one sister Lucille Fortier Griffin and her husband, Bobby of Ponchatoula; one brother Adrian Fortier of Denham Springs; two sisters-in-law, Dorothy Frosch Fortier of New Orleans and Florence Fortier of Panama City, FL; as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; two brothers, Edwin Leon Fortier II of New Orleans and James Benjamin Fortier of Panama City, FL; one daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Plauche Christianson and one granddaughter, Kerrie Elizabeth Christianson.

Ellie was a graduate of Eleanor McMain High School for Girls in New Orleans and worked for Southern Bell Telephone Company and Kemper Insurance. She devoted the first 22 years of marriage to raising her sons before returning to work, first as an assistant floral designer, and later becoming General Manager and Buyer for three retail stores owned by Gulf Central International - Flowerland, Les Amis Hallmark and Photo Boutique. In 1986 she stopped working to care for Walter until his death from Alzheimer's Disease.

Ellie enjoyed oil painting, photography, sewing, gardening, genealogy, scrap booking and her miniature Victorian Dollhouse that she dedicated to her "Love of Home and Family". She was a member of Chapter 503 of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas, the Louisiana Chapter of the National Society of the Dames of the Court of Honor, and had resigned from the Galvez Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and from the Alfred Mouton Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy upon the onset of Walter's illness.

She was a parishioner of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.

Pallbearers will be Erik Christianson, Scott Christianson, Karl Christianson, Richard Young, David Howell, Ethan Christianson and Ellie's Godson Robert Griffin.

The family requests that visitation be observed in Martin & Castille's DOWNTOWN location on Saturday from 8:00 A.M. until time of services.

Martin & Castille - DOWNTOWN, 330 St. Landry Street Lafayette, LA. 70506 337-234-2311

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2020.02.15
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