She's one of just three women to ever be voted into the New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame.
If it weren't for her, there is a chance there wouldn't even be a New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame.
It would perhaps be the San Antonio (or some other city) Saints Hall of Fame, had it not been for the efforts of former Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco, who died Sunday from complications of ocular melanoma.
The news of her death came just two months before she was to be inducted into the team's Hall of Fame in October.
Her last public appearance was in June at the Saints' facility in Metairie, when she was announced as one of the inductees in this year's class, along with Reggie Bush and Marques Colston.
Bush and Colston, both rookies in 2006, got a chance to play in New Orleans because of Blanco.
She played a pivotal role in the team returning to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. It was her strong lobbying of the state legislature to fund repairs to the Superdome that enabled the team to return in 2006. It wasn't the most popular decision during a time when folks all over Louisiana were trying to get their lives back to normal.
"I am not sure if there would be a New Orleans Saints if it wasn't for her," said Ken Trahan, general manager of the Saints Hall of Fame Museum and chairman of the selection committee. "If she doesn't step out in faith and go to bat for funding in fixing this state-owned building in the face of adversity when people around the state didn't like that idea at all, then would the Saints have come back here? I don't know if any of us know the answer to that."
Saints coach Sean Payton, who also arrived in New Orleans in 2006, spoke about Blanco after Wednesday's practice. News of Blanco's death broke during the Saints' preseason road game Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers.
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"I know she was very instrumental in all the things that had to take place relative to the recovery," Payton said. "The last time she was here was to go into the Saints Hall of Fame, so it is was great that they were able to honor her prior to her passing."
Blanco called her induction "the highlight of her life," which is saying a lot considering she broke the glass ceiling in Louisiana politics by becoming the first woman elected governor. It was what she did three years after being elected that earned her spot in the Hall of Fame.
"She did it not because she liked football, but because she thought it was important for the city of New Orleans and the region and the economy to recover," Trahan said. "She took heat for it and a lot of people didn't get it. But she was just a good person and I wish more people were like her in trying to work with others and putting differences aside for the greater good."
Blanco joins former WWL reporter Angela Hill and former longtime Saints booster club president Marie Knutson as the only women in the Hall of Fame. She's the first woman in 21 years to be inducted since Hill and Knutson were enshrined in back-to-back years in 1996 and 1997.
Saints owner Gayle Benson, who will likely join the trio in the Saints Hall of Fame someday, called Blanco a "a great leader for our state during very trying times."
The city of New Orleans needed the Dome during Katrina. But Blanco knew the city needed it after Katrina, too.
"Every time I looked at the Superdome and the roof, it was a symbol of despair," Blanco said in June. "I thought ‘If we drive around every single day, looking at the symbol of despair, we’re all in despair.' I knew we had to change that image and make it a beacon. … I knew the value was greater than just a building. This city and region and Saints fans everywhere really needed to have something to rally around."
Because of her vision, she's headed into the Hall of Fame.
And because of her vision, that Hall of Fame is inside the Dome, where the Saints still play.
A lot of people who crossed paths with former Gov. Kathleen Blanco have stories to tell, many of them about what a regular a person she was, h…