Chawanna “Shaune” Turner Alicea
September 25, 1972 ~ December 11, 2021
KAPLAN — A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:00 AM on Monday, December 20, 2021 at St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Catholic Church honoring the life of Chawanna Oranna Turner Alicea. She will be laid to rest at St. Paul Cemetery with Reverend Mark Miley officiating the services.
Chawanna Oranna Turner Alicea was the only child of Bertha and Oran Turner, born on September 25, 1972, in Lafayette, Louisiana. After graduating high school, Shaune attended Southern University in Baton Rouge and the University of Louisiana in Lafayette. In 1991, Shaune moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, and worked at the at RTC Southern Transit where she later met best friend and husband, Juan Alicea Esteras. In 2008, they moved to New Jersey for a new beginning. Shaune began working at Wakefern Food Corporation in 2012, in the logistics’ department where she found her New Jersey family and later transferred to Asset Protection, working as a Closed Circuit TV Operator. Everyone fell in love with Shaune’s southern accent and spicy flare to tell it like it is. Her laughter was infectious and would fill up a room. Shaune loved to spend time traveling and trying new foods with her mother.
Shaune had a talent of throwing down in the kitchen like her grandmother. Folks, loved her Cajun cooking and encouraged Shaune to sell her signature gumbo. In 2020, Shaune decided it was time to put her dreams first and start a catering business called Cajun Cravings, LLC. The fire was lit under Shaune, as she started networking with community organizations and businesses to get her Cajun cuisine into stores. In late 2020, Shaune was diagnosed with a rare aggressive cancer, but that wouldn’t stop her. She continued to work full time while maintaining weekly treatments and on weekends created new dishes for vendors to sample. Before Shaune’s battle began, she asked her mother to come and they bonded together every step of the way. Shaune beat the first round of cancer and rang her bell at the end of March 2021, CANCER FREE! However, in June 2021, the cancer came back in a different area. Shaune being a private person like her mother, she didn’t share it with many. On the morning of December 11, 2021, at the age of 49, Shaune passed away in her sleep with her mother by her side.
Shaune leaves behind her loving mother, Bertha Turner; her husband, Juan Alicea Esteras; and a host of aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.
Shaune is preceded in death by her father, Oran J. Turner; her grandparents, Everett Sr. and Mary Turner; and grandparents, Noah Sr. and Dorothy B. Williams; three aunts, Betty Lou Chambers “Nanny”, Catherine Floyd, Eleanor Marie Walker; four uncles, Louise Hebert, Noah Williams, Jr., Joseph Navarre Williams, and Willie J. Williams. Shaune is no longer in pain and her body is healed. If you listen silently, you can hear Shaune’s laughter and see her smiling.
The family requests that visiting hours be observed at St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Catholic Church, 910 N. Frederick Ave., on Monday, December 20, 2021 from 9:00 AM until the time of the services at 10:00 AM with a repass being held from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM.
All funeral arrangements are being conducted by Vincent Funeral Home of Kaplan, (337) 643-7276 [Service Information 225-5276]. Condolences may be sent to the Alicea family at www.vincentfuneralhome.net.