WATCH: The ABC News original documentary 'Prejudice & Pride: Fire at the UpStairs Lounge,' now streaming on /features and the ABC News app. We pestered public and private officials. In this family’s desperate search for Ferris, a World War II veteran whose mysterious disappearance had long troubled those who cared for him, a painful story that had been locked in the past suddenly burst into the present. There was Ricky Everett, who refused to let his loss diminish his faith, believing that God “laid a blanket” over him, sparing him for no less a purpose than to carry the message that “He loves us just as much as anybody else.” And there was Marilyn LeBlanc-Downey, who was left to wonder what had become of her brother Ferris LeBlanc until 2015, and has been working, alongside her son Skip Bailey and his wife Lori, to bring Ferris’ discarded remains home to California ever since. There was Stewart Butler, who, according to The UpStairs Lounge Arson by Clayton Delery-Edwards, was inspired by the fire to enter a life of activism, organizing local efforts within the then-nascent gay liberation movement. Patrons of the UpStairs Lounge are pictured in an undated handout photo.īut we also discovered stories of another kind, stories of resilience in the face of tragedy, the quality that has come to define post-Katrina New Orleans and its inhabitants.
