Yvonne McKeithen

Funeral services for Mildred Yvonne McKeithen will be held at 11:00 AM, Saturday, August 15, 2026, from the sanctuary of Columbia Methodist Church, Columbia, Louisiana. Interment will follow at Hogan Cemetery, Columbia. The family will receive visitors at the church prior to the service on Saturday, from 9:00 AM until 11:00.

Mildred Yvonne May McKeithen passed away peacefully on August 7, 2026, at her daughter’s home with her children and grandchildren at her side. She was 80 years old.

Yvonne was born June 29, 1946, to Marion May and Odessa Stamper of Caldwell Parish, and was the youngest of seven children. She attended Grayson High School and then the consolidated Caldwell Parish High School her senior year, where she was homecoming queen, cheerleader, and proved to be a generational basketball talent, leaving a legacy as the school’s star athlete on the girls’ basketball team, culminating in her scoring 34 points in the state championship game and garnering all-state honors (for the second time) during a perfect 39–0 season her senior year. Her accomplishments would become a lasting part of Caldwell Parish High School history, with her No. 14 jersey being retired and Yvonne later being inducted into the school’s Sports Hall of Fame. It was at Caldwell Parish High School that she met her future husband Walter Fox McKeithen, whom she married in 1965.

Yvonne attended Louisiana State University, earning a degree in education, and then returned to Caldwell Parish High School as a teacher and basketball coach. She and Fox settled into married life in Columbia, raising their four children before his political career eventually brought the family to the Baton Rouge area.

A longtime resident of Denham Springs, Yvonne served nearly 20 years as the Head Librarian of Denham Springs Junior High School before her retirement. She also ran a small antiques business in the Denham Springs Downtown Antique Village. Every piece in her collection came with a backstory that she could recall in remarkable detail, demonstrating her passion for her “finds” and their history.

Yvonne’s life reflected the values and things she held most dearly: family, loyalty, unconditional love, resilience, and a “winning spirit” (which often manifested itself in the form of thinly disguised gloating as she beat her children or husband at anything and everything, always followed by a feigned “I’m sorry”). Her legacy lives on through the family she cherished and the many students, athletes, and friends whose lives she touched.

She is survived by her children Marjorie McKeithen Schlesinger (Scott), Marianne McKeithen Fontenot (Andre), Rebecca Ann McKeithen, and John Jesse McKeithen (Christie); grandchildren James Ford Murray Garon and Jesse Fox McKeithen Garon; her sisters, Gloria May Herrington (Lowery) and Louise May Powers (Earl); and numerous nieces, nephews, relatives, and friends.

She was preceded in death by her beloved husband Walter Fox McKeithen, her parents Marion May and Odessa Stamper May, her brothers Waylon May (Mary), Eugene May (Charlene), and Everette May (Pat), and her sister Nelda May Griggs (Harold).

Pallbearers: John Jesse McKeithen, James Ford Murray Garon, Jesse Fox McKeithen Garon, Scott Schlesinger, and Andre’ Fontenot

Honorary Pallbearers: Earl Powers and Louis May