Sybil Haydel Morial, New Orleans Civil Rights Matriarch, Dies at 91

Through it all, Ms. Morial remained calm, “an inspiration to us all,” Mr. Morial’s executive assistant at City Hall, Anthony Mumphrey, said in an interview. “She was like a wise sister to me. She would speak, and you knew wisdom was coming from her mouth.”

After two terms in office, Mr. Morial died of a heart attack in 1989. Four years later, Ms. Morial was herself urged to run for mayor; pollsters assured her that she would win. Instead, she deferred to her son Marc, then a Louisiana state senator, who went on to serve two terms as mayor.

Sybil Gayle Haydel was born in New Orleans on Nov. 26, 1932, the second of four children of Dr. Clarence Haydel and Eudora (Arnaud) Haydel. Her father was a descendant of Victor Haydel, an enslaved person on the Haydel (now Whitney) Plantation outside New Orleans. Her mother was a schoolteacher.

Sybil attended parochial schools, Xavier University Preparatory School and Xavier University before transferring to Boston University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in 1952 and her master’s in 1955. She taught school first in Newton, Mass., and then in Orleans Parish, from 1959 to 1971. In 1977, she became an administrator at Xavier University. She retired in 2005.

Along with her sons, Marc and Jacques, Ms. Morial is survived by her daughters, Julie Morial, Monique Morial and Cheri Morial Ausberry; seven grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter.

“She was a teacher,” Mr. Mumphrey said, recalling the impact Ms. Morial had on him. “She taught me about class and race relations, and politics, and how to get along in a city that was not always calm.”