Obituary

Taken too soon from family and friends, Paula Kreilkamp Assaf departed this world on September 14, 2025.

She was born on December 23, 1946, in Rochester, Minnesota, the third of eight children of Dr. Bernard L. Kreilkamp and Renee Rosenberger. She was blessed to have been born into a musical family, where Paula and her sisters learned to sing in harmony with Renee accompanying on piano. The sisters were active in entertaining local Catholic groups at social functions in Twin Falls, Idaho.

Paula met her future husband David Assaf III on a blind date at Loyola University while she was studying music therapy. They were engaged for a year and a half while she volunteered with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Omak, Washington on the Colville Reservation, and David, who was drafted, served in the Air Force and Air National Guard. They were married at St. Dominic Catholic Church in New Orleans on July 12, 1969. En route to Colorado for their honeymoon, they watched the moon landing, fittingly!

The young couple settled in Baton Rouge, where Paula immediately joined a local choir and found volunteer work at a local Catholic orphanage, where she played guitar and sang for the children. In 1971 they were blessed with their first child, David IV. Over the next two decades, they welcomed Bernard, Megan, William, and Rachel. Somehow, she managed, with a cooperative husband/babysitter, to be active in musical theater at Baton Rouge Little Theater (aka Theatre Baton Rouge), and was awarded Best Actress in a Musical for "Nunsense" in 2000 and Best Supporting Actress in a Musical in 2012 for "Something's Afoot". She also participated in the Baton Rouge Music Club Chorus, traveling to local nursing homes to perform short musical productions that she scripted.

Paula was equally accomplished in voice and guitar accompaniment, which made her a valuable resource to local parishes. She was invited to be the cantor and accompanist for the weekly Diocesan Mass, pre-recorded at the Catholic Life Center in Baton Rouge for several years. She also traveled to St. Gabriel to cantor and play for their Saturday vigil Masses, and Sunday mornings she made the trek across the river to do the same at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Maringouin. On top of all this, she started the children's liturgy program at the 9:30 Mass, began the youth group choir for the 6:00pm Sunday Mass, and ran the preschool music program for several years, all at St. Thomas More in Baton Rouge. Eventually, these musical activities transitioned into filling the family need for a full-time nanny for her local grandchild. When the nanny gig ran its course, and all her chicks and grand-chicks fled the nest, Paula and her husband joined a prison ministry, coordinating and performing the music for monthly Masses at St. Tammany Parish Jail, with support from St. Peter Parish and St. Joseph Abbey, and joined by Father Peter from the Abbey.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Paula welcomed her blind father-in-law, whose house was inundated in Lakeview. Her fondest memory of this time was early morning rosaries on the patio surrounded by flowers and birdsong. Later, she traveled to Seattle to be with her parents in their nursing home, where she supplemented their diets with chocolate confections and provided her father with his favorite breakfast, soft-boiled eggs on crackers. Once again, many rosaries were prayed together. After her father Bernard passed away, she invited her mother Renee, who was suffering with dementia and felt lost without her husband, to come live in Baton Rouge with her and David. Eventually, Renee would move with them to Covington, where they enjoyed going to flower shows and attending children's ballet and story time at the library, because she loved being around babies and children. Every morning Renee expected a fire in the hearth – no matter the season! – and coffee and biscotti until breakfast was ready. It was a team effort, but Paula and David loved every minute.

Paula was preceded in death by her parents and her sister Mary Cowan. She leaves behind her beloved husband of 56 years, David Assaf III; children, David Assaf IV (Sydney), Bernard Assaf (Stacy), Megan Assaf (Joe), William Assaf (Christine), and Rachel Aylsworth (Jason); and eight grandchildren, Simon Assaf, Timothy Assaf, Kirby Assaf, Nathan Assaf, Elizabeth Assaf, Noah Assaf, Lauren Assaf, and baby Julian Aylsworth from Boston, whom she was blessed to hold before she went home to her Lord.

In lieu of flowers, Paula and David request donations to St. Joseph Abbey (https://www.saintjosephabbey.com/donate) and Jefferson Performing Arts Society (https://www.jpas.org/donate).

Relatives and friends are invited to attend the memorial service on Saturday, October 4, 2025, from 10:30 AM until 12:30 AM at Mary Queen of Peace Catholic Church, 1501 West Causeway Approach, Mandeville, Louisiana, with Words of Remembrance beginning at 12:30 PM and Mass at 1:00 PM. Interment will follow in St. Joseph Abbey Cemetery, 75376 River Road, St. Benedict, Louisiana.