Services Saturday for Tampico's founder

Maria Carmen Izaguirre of Morgan City, whose life journey led to the dance floor, the silver screen and the Tampico’s restaurants she founded, died Thursday, six days short of her 107th birthday.
Visitation will be 5-9 p.m. Friday at Hargrave Funeral Home, with a rosary at 8:30 p.m. Visitation will resume at 8 a.m. Saturday with a 10:30 a.m. rosary.
The Mass of Christian Burial will be at noon at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, followed by burial at Morgan City Cemetery.
Izaguirre, a native of Tampico in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, came first to the United States in Utah, where she opened a restaurant.
By the 1970s, she had moved to Morgan City and opened the first of what would be a string of restaurants in Bayou Vista, New Iberia and Lafayette.
“Carmen came to this country with a dream — to create a better life, and to fill a need with something deeply personal: her food,” her family wrote in her obituary. “With passion and determination, she built a culinary empire that not only fed the community but inspired countless others.”
She had also performed in regional competitions as a professional dancer and appeared in a few films.
Among her survivors are a son, Jose Luis Arias and wife, Guadalupe; a brother, Constancio Izaguirre and his wife, Elida; 12 grandchildren; 22 great-grandchildren, 18 great-great-grandchildren, and six great-great-great-grandchildren, and numerous godchildren, nieces and nephews.