Article Category: People | Pillars | SC32
Anna Wilbert Breaux

Anna Wilbert Breaux

Posted Thursday, Jul 08
Written By Alice Adams
Wilbert Funeral Home | Plaquemine, Louisiana
Southern Calls, Vol. 32, June 2021

Fifth-generation Funeral Director Anna Wilbert Breaux has spent her life learning the funeral profession. As a youngster, her first classes were held around the dinner table when relatives came for Sunday dinner. The building previously housing the funeral home included an apartment for the director’s family.

“My three brothers lived at the funeral home, but I did not,” she said. “I remember it being off the ground, and there was a ramp where cases were rolled into the funeral home. But, as a 4- or 5-year- old kid, I found it a wonderful place to run up and down.”

Her three brothers are licensed but only one, F. Anton Wilbert,  is active in the business.

“I’m the only girl,” she added.

Anna Wilbert Breaux is the only daughter of John W. “Johnny Boy” Wilbert, Jr., who came to work full-time with her father in 1985 and was licensed as a funeral director in 1993. She is the president of Wilbert Funeral Home, LLC, Wilbert Service, Inc. and Wilbert Life Insurance Company; secretary-treasurer of Grace Cemetery Association, Inc., Grace Cemetery Association Perpetual Care Corp. and Wilbert Lands; and a member of Wilbert Rental, LLC and Professional Limousine Service of Louisiana, LLC. Anna is also a certified pre-need counselor and licensed insurance agent.

Her grandfather, John William Wilbert Sr., died in 1971.

“The new funeral home had just been built,” Anna said. “I remember my grandfather not feeling well one day, and then he was dead of a heart attack. He was 74. I also remember my father being upset. He hugged me and I could feel his entire body shaking. That was the first time I had experienced my father’s grief.”

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Southern Calls Volume 32, June 2021 Issue

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