​Seeing red: The woman who led the post-Katrina charge

A portrait of Ruthie Frierson by artist Saegan Swanson of Where Y'Art, as commissioned by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune for its "300 for 300" celebration of New Orleans' tricentennial. (NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

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By Contributing writer NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
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The Times-Picayune is marking the tricentennial of New Orleans with its ongoing 300 for 300 project, running through 2018 and highlighting 300 people who have made New Orleans New Orleans, featuring original artwork commissioned by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune with Where Y'Art gallery.

Today: Ruthie Frierson.

The icon: Ruthie Frierson.
The legacy: Ruthie Frierson was always an enthusiastic New Orleanian, as a successful real estate agent and as a volunteer engaged in myriad causes to improve the city she loves. But Hurricane Katrina's devastation presented a challenge of a different magnitude. After seeing that a move to reform Louisiana's fractured network of levee boards was languishing in Baton Rouge, Frierson set up a group to make change happen. In addition to holding legislators' feet to the fire on that issue -- and pushing for one Orleans Parish assessor's office while they were at it -- Frierson's Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans embodied what would become a post-Katrina wave of activism, fighting the good fight and inspiring others to follow suit.
The artist: Saegan Swanson.
The quote: "I went from mourning to rage to hope through action. It brought a renewed sense of hope at a time of total despair." -- Ruthie Frierson, on her emotional journey after Hurricane Katrina

TRI-via

• The women in Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans adopted their own easy-to-spot brand: red blazers and, occasionally, scarves, accented with lapel buttons bearing the group's name and a big "1.".
• A lifelong New Orleanian, Frierson graduated from the Louise S. McGehee School and Newcomb College. She taught history at Riverdale High School for three years.
• She has been a real estate agent with Prudential Gardner Realtors.
• Her activity with Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans was part of a lifelong pattern of volunteering. For instance, when she was in high school, Frierson volunteered at Crippled Children's Hospital (now Children's Hospital) and visited the elderly with the Little Sisters of the Poor.
• As an adult, Frierson served on the boards of McGehee and Isidore Newman schools, the Metropolitan Council on Aging, Longue Vue House and Gardens, and the Hermann-Grima Historic House. She also led the Junior League, the Louisiana Nature and Science Center board and the New Orleans Town Gardeners.
• For organizing Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans, Frierson received The Times-Picayune Loving Cup for 2006.
• Although the Legislature approved bills to reform the levee districts and consolidate the New Orleans assessorships, each change required a constitutional amendment that voters would have to approve. They did. The constitutional amendment to change the levee boards passed with 81 percent of the vote, and 78 percent of the voters approved the amendment to reduce the number of New Orleans' assessors.

By John Pope, contributing writer
Source: The Times-Picayune archives