Cecilia Lee Bland

Cecilia Lee Bland passed from this life at 3:18 pm on July 17, 2025, at the age of 81 while living in Albuquerque, NM.

Born February 28, 1944, in Norfolk, Virginia, parents were Cecil Emmett Bland, Jr., and Nannie Omega McKinney Bland. In 1944, Cecil was in the Army training in Pennsylvania and Nan was living there, too. When Nannie got pregnant, her twin, Fannie Tatem who was living in Norfolk said come have the baby with family. Fannie was married to Wilton Tatem, who worked in Norfolk. Cecilia was named after a long line of Cecil Blands: her father Cecil Emmett Bland, Jr., her grandfather Cecil Emmett Bland, Sr., and her great-grandfather, Cecil Legere Bland.

After the Second World War, Cecilia came home with her parents to Shreveport, Louisiana, where all her grandparents and great-grandparents lived. Nan and Cecil and Cecilia lived on Lakeshore Drive in a home owned by Cecil Legere Bland, better known as Papa. Papa owned several properties as a realtor/landlord.

Cecilia also lived on Ratcliff Drive in Shreveport where she started school (Queensborough Elementary). However, she didn’t complete first grade there, because Cecil was called back into active duty for the Korean War. He was a lieutenant in Maryland working in providing supplies. Then, after a while, Nan drove Cecilia and her sister, Donna, across the country to Maryland, where they were all reunited as a family. Cecil’s Army position kept him in the United States. He was stationed in Alabama, probably to the Anniston Ordinance Depot within Talladega Forest in Alabama and all the family lived in base housing.

By third grade, Cecilia was back in Shreveport, moving to Little Rock, Arkansas, for fourth grade. Cecil had taken a job at Channel 11 TV in Little Rock. Then the family moved to Cammack Village near Little Rock and Cecilia went to Thomas Jefferson Elementary for fifth grade.

Then in 1957, Cecil took a job in Sulphur, Louisiana, running a radio station named KIKS there. Cecilia and family lived in Maplewood, LA, and she attended Maplewood Junior High School. Cecil and Nan built a house over in Sulphur and moved in during the summer before Cecilia’s sophomore year at Sulphur High School. Cecilia’s first job was at the Southwest Builder Newspaper, where her mother, Nan Bland, worked. Cecilia graduated from Sulphur High School as salutatorian in 1962 and went to Monroe, Louisiana, attending Northeast Louisiana State College (now University of Louisiana in Monroe) with a full scholarship to study Sociology. At the end of her freshman year, she changed her major to Pharmacy graduating in 1968.

She worked as a pharmacist at Ochsner Foundation Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana, for 17 years. She then went to East Jefferson General Hospital as Director of Pharmacy Services and stayed there for 10 years. She moved to Touro Infirmary as Director of Pharmacy Services in 1998. When Cecil, her father, became ill in 2004, she moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, and worked there. Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, and she stayed in Shreveport, Louisiana. She worked in Shreveport as a staff pharmacist for Cardinal Health for one year. After her father’s death in 2007, she moved back to New Orleans, worked as a staff pharmacist for Walgreens until 2009 when she transferred to Regency Hospital in Covington for 4 years. Her last employment was at PAM Health Specialty Hospital in Hammond, as a Director of Pharmacy Services, retiring in 2016.

Cecilia was active with Landmark Education, now called Landmark Worldwide, starting in 1988. She was an introduction leader for six years from 1989 to 1995 and then she was a seminar leader from 2002 to 2004. She shared this training with her father, mother and sister making a difference for the whole family.

Cecilia married Michael Bordelon in 1973, and they divorced in 1986. She began her life with Lawrence Haydel in 1991 and lived with him until his death in 2018. She moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, from New Orleans in 2022, to be near to her sister.

Cecilia’s only sibling is her sister Donna K. Berry (Karl Gilbert) and her nieces and nephews Brian Lee Berry (Julie); Marlene K. Avery; Rachel M. Heyduck (Steve): and M. Craig Berry (Aubrey). Cecilia’s grandnieces and grandnephews are Robbie Heyduck, Jacob Berry, Bailey Berry, Caitlin Berry, Eliza Heyduck, John Berry, Nolan Berry, Adeline Berry, Liam Heyduck, Harris Avery, Courtney Berry, and Brayden Berry.

Her memorial service will be in Shreveport on November 15, 2025, at Kilpatrick Rose-Neath Funeral Home chapel at 1:00 pm on that Saturday. Address is 1815 Marshall St., Shreveport, LA 71101. Burial will be held at Greenwood Cemetery,130 Stoner Ave. in Shreveport for the interment.