Ted Quant’s speech at the grave site of Brenda Quant on March 4th, 2022

On the gravestone, there is a dash between the date of birth and the date of death. Our lives are contained in that dash. All of us are going to die one day, but while we are alive we can fill the dash with meaning. Brenda filled that dash with love and purpose and goodness. She was a joy to know and made people feel welcomed and loved. Many people remember Brenda for the gift of love expressed as gumbo. While it had many ingredients, the main ingredient was love. The themes running through Brenda’s life choices are very much the themes of her early Catholic school education. They are the themes of Matthew 25:40 “... Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” And Micah 6:8, “and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” And Proverbs 14:31 "He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker, but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor.” Jesus said, “by your fruit they will know you.” By such measure, the tree that was Brenda’s life nourished all who knew knew her and many more were fed but never knew her. Her love was abundant and expressed in action.

But the fruit does not fall far from the tree. Brenda’s mother and father were the roots of this tree and of her Brother Joseph Jr., who became a priest. Brenda’s father built the house she grew up in. 20 years after his death when Brenda was a young child, whenever her father’s name was mentioned, men removed their hats and spoke of him with reverence. His name is in the cornerstone of the Baptist church he helped to build. That is where he insured that the children would have a safe place to see movies and enjoy children’s programs safe from the bigotry of segregation.

He was taken from his young wife and children when he drowned in a fishing accident. Brenda’s mother Laura, a saint, raised Brenda and Sonny on a maids salary and the help of her sisters and brothers who lived nearby.

Brenda was socially conscious and aware at a young age. She joined the NAACP youth group and protested for civil rights. She felt injustice when it happened to her or to someone else and she wanted to change that.

As a teacher, she was an example to her students, a vision of what is possible no matter how humble the circumstance. Brenda asked her mother about how she endured her house being the center of gravity for Brenda and Sonny’s friends. She said she knew you were all safe under her roof. Her son, Joseph Jr., became a Catholic priest and Brenda a teacher.

Brenda had other jobs, including working for the Hunger Coalition and advocating for food programs and going from parish to parish getting breakfast programs into schools. And when President Reagan began cutting all the poverty programs, Brenda and Barbara Major and Annie Smart and others, called for and organized the Louisiana Survival Coalition to fight for programs to help the poor in Louisiana and nationally.

She became an advocate for the children the State of Louisiana sent to Texas institutions and lost track of them. The Gary W children were denied the resources and support they were entitled to. Brenda and her friend Ursula worked with the special master in case to get these children and families their legal rights and resources. When Brenda’s best friend Ursula and her husband DJ Markey had their first child their lives changed from the normal dreams they had to how to help their son who was autistic. They had been told to put Dwayne in an institution and forget about him. But instead it became their life’s work to learn about autism and what could be done to give their son a chance to be a self actualized person with his own dreams, skills and potential. They learned about Positive Behavior Support and were determined to make it accessible in real-life family situations. Brenda worked with them in creating a training program for parents of children with disabilities and in advocacy in schools to ensure children with disabilities were given appropriate and inclusive educational opportunities. Brenda was a founding member of the Equal Rights Congress. Participating in demonstrations and organizing chapters throughout the South. She observed that in different cities the organization had newsletters and newspapers. She advocated for them to unite and make one newspaper that carried the stories from all the chapters. It became the Southern Advocate, voice of the Equal Rights Congress.

She organized the New Orleans portion of the Texas Farm Workers March to Washington in the summer of 1977. She with her friend Ursula and others secured housing, food, speaking engagements, rallies and activities of for the children while they were in New Orleans.On our anniversary, we went to support the striking immigrant workers who were beingabused on a strawberry farm in Amite Louisianna. As a result of the organizing efforts in support of

these workers, the human trafficking was exposed and the farmer was convicted of his crimes. Brenda also helped her cousin Jackie to raise her kids, Shawn and Kisha. They lived with us for many years. One day Shawn asked Brenda about what her life was like in segregation days. This led to Brenda writing the stories from the back of the bus. Written for a child but with layers of meaning for adults. At the age of 70, Brenda went back to school to get a Masters Degree in Creative Non-fiction. She graduated “with distinction” and won many of the awards for her writing.

She did all of these things while always being the “best thing that ever happened to me.” That was my song for Brenda. That and the Makings of You. She will always be the best thing that ever happened to me and the love of my life.