NEW ORLEANS — Jaquelyn Brechtel “Jackie” Clarkson, a former Louisiana legislator and three-term New Orleans City Council member who was the mother of Academy Award-nominated actor Patricia Clarkson, has died at age 88.
City officials confirmed her death Wednesday. Mayor LaToya Cantrell and City Council President Helena Moreno and members of the Louisiana congressional delegation are among those who praised Clarkson, noting her support of the New Orleans Recreation Department and her preservation efforts for the city’s French Quarter and the Algiers neighborhood where she was born.
Clarkson was was elected to her first term on the council in 1990, according to a recap of her career in The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate. She represented the city’s District C, including the French Quarter and Algiers, for a single term before losing a closely fought race to Troy Carter, now a member of Congress. Clarkson then served two terms in the state House of Representatives and reclaimed the District C seat in 2002, when Carter unsuccessfully ran for mayor.
She lost a 2006 race for an at-large seat on the council, but she succeeded the next year in a special election for an at-large seat that opened after a resignation. She was re-elected three years later and retired from politics in 2014.
“Jackie Clarkson was a proud daughter of Algiers, an outspoken supporter of our nation’s armed forces and veterans, and a Louisiana political legend,” Carter said in a news release. “She was a trail blazer during her service as one of the first women on the New Orleans City Council and Louisiana House of Representatives, and continued her activism even after she left office by supporting the National World War II Museum and the New Orleans Opera.”
Funeral arrangements were pending.
