“He loved his tradition, he loved his country, and he loved me,” says a longtime friend and fellow Mardi Gras Indian.

Isaac “Ike” Edward Jr., the oldest of New Orleans' Mardi Gras Indians, died last week in Houma, a city where he found refuge after Hurricane Katrina flooded his home in 2005.

“Houma was home to him,” Cherice Harrison-Nelson, a friend and fellow Mardi Gras Indian, said today in an interview. “It was his new home. He loved to fish, so there were plenty of fishing spots there. He had cousins there, he had friends there that just made him feel welcome.”

Edward died Wednesday at a Houma nursing home. He was 94.

Relatives and friends of the family are invited to the funeral, scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at D.W. Rhodes Funeral Home, 3933 Washington Ave. in New Orleans. Visitation starts at noon, and a traditional Mardi Gras Indian procession will follow, with burial in Mt. Olivet Cemetery.

Largely blocked from traditional Carnival festivities, inner-city black New Orleans residents began forming their own “Indian” groups in the 1800s, presumably to honor Native Americans who helped shelter escaping slaves.

Edward first started parading, or masking, with the Creole Wild West tribe, one of the first groups, in 1936, when he was 13. He became entranced by the elaborate costumes and their meticulous beadwork and colorful feathers.

“It was a wonderful experience,” he told The Courier in a 2009 interview. “They were so beautiful. I begun to make the suits. I made suits and never stopped.“

Historically, each member made his own suit and would gather in groups of 10 or 12 to work on them, often putting in hundreds of hours combined. The first design he created was a butterfly, Edward said, and it remained his favorite.

After serving with the Army Air Corps in Italy and the Philippines during World War II, Edward worked 38 years as a longshoreman. He was among the founding members of the White Eagles gang in 1948, which served as the root for many of today’s parading groups.

With major changes in cadence, song and dress after that group was founded, Edward served as link to the past, said Harrison-Nelson, curator of the Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame and Big Queen of the Guardians of the Flame, one of today’s prominent groups.

Edward was selected for the Mardi Gras chiefs’ highest honor, the Crystal Feather, in 2003, and is a Hall of Fame inductee. He hadn’t masked since the early 1950s but contributed through his beading and sewing for friends and family until a month before his death, Harrison-Nelson said.

In March, Edward was honored in Houma as the oldest active Mardi Gras Indian. Mardi Gras Indians from throughout south Louisiana gathered at a park on Lee Avenue to honor him, most dressed head to toe in suits they had worked on all year.

At the celebration, he said he had watched the tradition change over the years.

“The Indians now are not like they used to be,” Edward said. “Some of them come out too late. See, 6 in the morning, we were out on the streets until dawn.”

In December, Edward started to become sick and moved to Donaldsonville to live with his cousin, but he regularly went back to Houma.

Edward was a kind and generous person who always seemed to know what could make someone happy. He served as a mentor to many, including Harrison-Nelson, who said she considered him a father after her biological father had died.

“He was a gentle man and a gentleman,” Harrison-Nelson said. “He was adamant about children knowing about this tradition and that it is a place to share love and create beauty.”

Until the day he died, Edward embraced what it meant to be a Mardi Gras Indian, and even now, the dancing won’t end. Just days before his death, he was planning his funeral, making sure the Mardi Gras Indians would dance in what Harrison-Nelson said will be a celebration of life. A state representative will speak, pallbearers will wear their Mardi Gras Indian costumes, and Edward will be honored for serving his country in World War II.

“He loved his country,” Harrison-Nelson said. “He loved his tradition, he loved his country, and he loved me.”

-- Staff Writer Garrett Ohlmeyer can be reached at (985) 850-1149 or garrett.ohlmeyer@houmatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter @GOhlmeyer.