Death
Desmond, who was retired, died at Lane Memorial Hospital in Zachary in East Baton Rouge Parish. He was survived by his second wife, Nell Lentz-Desmond; a brother Gerald Desmond of Fremont, California; three children, John Michael Desmond (born ca. 1952) of Baton Rouge, James Russell Desmond (born ca. 1955) of New Orleans, and Margaret Desmond Dahm (born ca. 1960) of Asheville, North Carolina, and four grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his first wife and the mother of his children, the former Ella Blanche Russell of Magnolia in Pike County in southwestern Mississippi, and a sister, Eileen Desmond Kahn (1923–2002) of Wilmington, Delaware. He also had two stepdaughters, Sharon Elizabeth Lentz Moran and Jan Susan Lentz, both of Baton Rouge, and two stepsons, Paul Stephen Lentz (born ca. 1959) of Walker in Livingston Parish, and David Merrill Lentz (born ca. 1962) of Denham Springs, also in Livingston Parish. He had four grandchildren and five step-grandchildren. A mass of Christian burial was celebrated on March 31, 2008, at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church. Interment followed in Resthaven Gardens of Memory on the Old Jefferson Highway in Baton Rouge.
Desmond's death came four months after the death of another Louisiana architect, Hugh G. Parker, Jr., of Monroe and Bastrop. Having overcome childhood polio, Parker (1934–2007), in a 45-year career, designed such structures as the 16-story Wyly Tower at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, the Monroe/West Monroe Convention and Visitors Bureau, the football and baseball stadiums of the University of Louisiana at Monroe, Bastrop City Hall, and numerous churches and school buildings.
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