Dean O (O'Dea) Frost Obituary
Dean Frost passed away quietly on August 9, 2023, at Encore Health & Rehabilitation in Crowley, Louisiana, after a short time in hospice care. She is survived by her son, Luther J. Frost, Jr. , of Lafayette, LA, and her daughter, Adrianne Frost, of New York, NY.
Dean was born on July 21, 1938 in Abbeville, LA as Dean Eleanor Lillian O’Dea to Winnie and Earl O’Dea. She graduated with honors from Abbeville High School and continued to the University of Southwestern Louisiana, where she joined Kappa Delta. She consistently won top honors in debate, eventually graduating early, gaining a bachelor’s in Elementary Education. Dean taught elementary school in Louisiana.
A loving and devoted mother of two, she gave birth to her son, Luther Jacob Frost, Jr. in 1961, in Baton Rouge, LA. In 1967, Dean and her family moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where she gave birth to her daughter, Adrianne Frost.
In Lincoln, Dean taught at Irving Junior High and worked at the Nebraska State Department of Education. She played bridge with her friends and attended church regularly.
In 1977 Dean and her family moved back to Louisiana and settled in Lafayette, where she began teaching at Comeaux High School. The next year, she began working at The State Department of Louisiana in Baton Rouge, commuting every day. At the same time, she began studying for her Masters Degree in Secondary Education at LSU. A brilliant woman, she gained her Masters Degree in under two years. Until she retired, Dean worked at The State Department of Education. She also had a side business writing grants for schools in Louisiana and Texas.
Dean loved to travel and loved to cook and loved to laugh. She visited her son in Europe when he lived there in the 1980’s. She would visit friends all over the country and took a cruise with her best friend, Donnie Butcher. Since 1995, she visited her daughter in New York City frequently. She loved Wheel of Fortune; it was her favorite program. Dean loved to make crawfish etouffee, red beans and rice and gumbo. She passed the recipes down to her children. She even taught her yankee son-in-law how to make a roux over the phone. Dean loved Nebraska, LSU, and New Orleans Saints football.
She loved penguins. She had a collection of statues, pictures, stuffed animals, pins, necklaces and shirts. They made her incredible happy. They were her spirit animal.
Dean Frost spent her last few years being taken well care of at Encore in Crowley. She died peacefully in her bed. She was preceded in death by her parents, her older brother William O'Dea Sr., her paternal grandparents, William J O'Dea and Georgia Aurelia Bullard, as well as her maternal grandparents Eliasin Trahan and Eleanor Girouard.
She loved her children more than anything in the world. They were the light of her life. She will be missed.
