Nursing a Bloody Mary as she stood across the plaza from St. Louis Cathedral, Emily Wright surveyed the hundreds of people who, like her, had converged there, behind police barricades, on Friday morning (March 23) to say their goodbyes to Tom Benson.
Joining her were New Orleans Saints fans who sported jerseys bearing names of favored players, women who used black-and-gold parasols to keep the bright sun out of their eyes, vendors trying to make a living and tourists who had wandered through and decided to linger after patient New Orleanians told them about Benson, the owner of the Saints and Pelicans, who died March 15.