N.O. judge Clare Jupiter dies

29th May 2018   ·   0 Comments

Orleans Parish Civil District Court Judge Clare Jupiter, who took a leave of absence about four months ago after suffering a stroke January 7, died Friday, May 18. She was 65.

Jupiter was first elected to her Division E seat in 2011, winning an election held after Madeline Landrieu left that post to join the state 4th Circuit Court of Appeal. It was Jupiter’s first run for elected office.

She won a second term unopposed in 2014. The term doesn’t expire until the end of 2020, and a special election will need to be held for voters to determine who will complete it, The Advocate reported.

A little more than three years ago, Jupiter suffered what one source described as a heart attack in her chambers.

She recovered and returned to work, but fell ill again in January, suffering a stroke.

The stroke left her in a coma for two months, but Judge Jupiter, an athlete who had swum a mile at least five times a week, came out of it, her husband, Pat Bryant, told Nola.com/The Times-Picayune.

“She worked hard to regain what she had lost to the point that she could move all of her limbs and had been accepted into rehab,” Bryant said. “She took her recovery very seriously.”

Retired Jefferson Parish Judge Melvin Zeno was tapped to temporarily fill in for Jupiter and has been handling her duties at the Loyola Avenue courthouse ever since, The Advocate reported.

Jupiter was born in Chicago and raised in New Orleans. Before she became a judge, she was perhaps best known as a private attorney representing the Orleans Parish School Board.

She earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and her law degree from Duke University.

Prior to pursuing a law degree, Jupiter worked for a stint in the mid-1970s as a reporter for The States-Item.

“She was more mature than the rest of us, a grown-up with a sense of fairness and balance,” Dean Baquet, a fellow States-Item reporter who went on to become executive editor of The New York Times, told Nola.com/The Times-Picayune. “I suspect it made her a very good judge.”

Civil District Judge Robin Giarrusso, a longtime friend, described her colleague as a “consummate professional.”

“She was calm. She was patient,” Giarrusso told Nola.com/The Times-Picayune. “At the same time, she was determined and very smart. I never saw her lose her temper…She had a calming influence on all of us.”

Although Judge Jupiter “could cut to the very essence of the issue, she was so kind and so thoughtful,” Giarrusso added. “We’re going to miss her at the courthouse.”

Jupiter was married and had two children. Her survivors include her husband, veteran civil rights activist Pat Bryant and her brother, New Orleans Traffic Court Judge Steven Jupiter; a son, Kwame Bryant of New Orleans; a daughter, Nia Bryant of New Orleans; six brothers, Eric, Danny and Jerome Jupiter, all of New Orleans, David Jupiter of Albuquerque, N.M., Carl Jupiter of Houston and Omodare Jupiter of St. Croix; four sisters, Gayle Jupiter of Albuquerque; Ann Jupiter-Mitchell of Washington; Jill Jupiter-Jones of Silver Spring, Md., and Jane Bell of New Orleans; her mother, Ramona Felton Jupiter of New Orleans; and two grandchildren.

Funeral services were held for Judge Jupiter were held on Friday, May 25 at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church. D.W. Rhodes Funeral Home were in charge of the arrangements.

This article originally published in the May 28, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.