Geraldine Carmouche got the nickname “Puggy” before she could talk, and she kept it over her 58 years, when her banter would fill a room and earn her a wide circle of friends, family members said Thursday, hours after learning Carmouche was crushed to death late Wednesday by a Carnival float as it rolled down Magazine Street.

“She was a normal person, a fun-loving person. She knew everybody. She was there for the parade, like everybody else,” said Anthony Turner Jr., her 81-year-old father.

All afternoon Thursday, friends and family kept stopping by the family’s tidy home in the Broadmoor neighborhood, where snapshots of Carmouche filled a kitchen table. They milled about, stunned over the bizarre death of a woman known for giggles, smiles and a gift for gab.

“I didn’t want to be around her, she talked so much,” her father joked.

The phone rang. It was another well-wisher offering condolences and seeking answers.

“She got killed on the spot,” Turner offered into the phone. “The float thing last night, yeah.”

Carmouche’s death occurred about 9 p.m. at Magazine and Valence streets, where the Mystic Krewe of Nyx had begun rolling along the Uptown parade route. Witnesses described her trying to cross over the middle of Float No. 21, a hitched tandem double-decker dubbed “Come Away With Me,” adorned with hot-air balloons and flowers.

An initial police account said Carmouche had been trying to “reach for beads” when the back half of the float rolled over her. One witness told WWL-TV that it appeared she’d tripped in doing so.

Richard Anderson, 42, was visiting from the Monroe area and saw her crossing Magazine Street from the lake side to the river side, he said.

A horrific scene unfolded amid the usual revelry as emergency crews stepped in to shield the grisly sight of Carmouche’s body with a screen that became soaked in her blood. Police wrapped the intersection in crime tape.

Shawn Morris, a Harvey resident, described coming across a “gruesome” and “horrible” scene as he meandered down Magazine Street to scope out the reason for the parade's delay.

One woman posted on Facebook that she was part of the group that Carmouche had joined on the parade route.

“She was so happy running after the floats and all. She had joked around with the police officers, and everyone around her, just enjoying herself,” the woman wrote. “She had labeled everyone who she came into contact with, as a relative.”

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The fatal accident reverberated across the city, casting a pall over the final onslaught of parades leading up to Mardi Gras next week.

City officials halted the all-woman Nyx parade there at Magazine and Valence and sent the final two dozen floats — more than half the procession — back to the barn while the front units proceeded on the Uptown route.

It was the first such parade fatality since 2008, when an Endymion parade rider was struck by his three-sectioned float as the parade was starting to disband outside the Superdome. The man had ridden on the middle section and got off before the float stopped moving, police said.

In 1981, a 3-year-old girl was crushed to death by a float on Mardi Gras, according to a news account.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell issued a safety reminder to paradegoers, while advising that police are enforcing "crowd setback standards" that include a rule that ladders must be unlinked and at least 6 feet from the curb.

"We both mourn the loss of life during what is supposed to be our time to celebrate our life and culture here, and continue to be mindful of all safety practices during the Carnival season," Cantrell said in an email. "Please exercise caution during parades and elsewhere on the streets."

In a statement, Nyx Captain Julie Lea described the krewe as “devastated” by the fatal accident and said Carmouche was related to two members.

Lea said the krewe supported the city’s decision to cancel the back half of the parade because of “a unique and tragic set of circumstances.”

“As we continue to process what happened Wednesday night, we ask that you continue to keep the family and friends of Geraldine Carmouche in your prayers,” the statement read.

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By 7:45 a.m. Thursday, several bouquets, candles and beads had been placed in the rain at the intersection where Carmouche died.

Her presence at the parade, celebrating her city, was no surprise to friends and family.

Carmouche grew up in the Magnolia public housing development in Central City long before it was razed and replaced with a less dense version. She loved attending second-lines and other celebrations.

However, nearly two decades ago, her lone child, Warnell Carmouche, a bellman at a French Quarter hotel, was gunned down on Magnolia Street. More recently, she’d been living in the 7th Ward, separated from her husband and working various jobs, her father said.

A spokeswoman for the Mercedez-Benz Superdome confirmed that Carmouche worked there part-time in guest services. Orleans Parish Clerk of Criminal Court Arthur Morrell said Carmouche was a commissioner for a polling precinct in the city. Family members said she often sat for the elderly.

But on Wednesday night, she had joined up with a group of folks at Magazine and Valence streets to revel in the start to the heart of the Carnival parade season.

“She knew ‘em. They had been together earlier in the day,” her father said of the group.

Carmouche’s stepmother, Lola “Lil Mama” Turner, 74, said she was on the parade route, too, posted several blocks away at Louisiana and St. Charles avenues, when the revelry stopped.

“They told us the parade was canceled. We looked at the news. I just said, ‘Lord, have mercy,’” she said.

It wasn’t until Thursday morning that her family learned it was Carmouche who had been struck by Float No. 21, they said.

“Live, love and have fun” is how a sister-in-law, Jaronda Brown, described Carmouche’s attitude toward life.

She recalled Carmouche as a prayerful person, ever eager to help. “If there was something out of order, she’d try to fix it,” Brown said. “She loved peace.”

Family members said they harbored no ill will toward anyone in the wake of the shocking death.

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“I’m not hostile toward no one. It was a freak accident,” Turner said.

“Imagine how the driver feels. My heart goes out to him,” Brown added. “It’s a forgiving thing.”