Changes

Lancaster died in his sleep in his Metairie home of a heart attack just over a month short of his 75th birthday. His obituary indicates that he had "a keen intellect, a larger than life personality, an incredible sense of humor, a hallmark laugh, and a love of good times with family and friends". He and his late wife, Edith "Patches" Shannon Lancaster, had two surviving children,  Edith Helen "Dee Dee" Lancaster and Charles D. Lancaster, III, and one grandson. His funeral mass was held on August 24, 2018, at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. in New Orleans.<ref name=obit/>

Lancaster died in his sleep in his Metairie home of a heart attack just over a month short of his 75th birthday. His obituary indicates that he had "a keen intellect, a larger than life personality, an incredible sense of humor, a hallmark laugh, and a love of good times with family and friends". He and his late wife, Edith "Patches" Shannon Lancaster, had two surviving children,  Edith Helen "Dee Dee" Lancaster and Charles D. Lancaster, III, and one grandson. His funeral mass was held on August 24, 2018, at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. in New Orleans.<ref name=obit/>

[[Steve Scalise]], the current Majority Whip in the [[United States House of Representatives and the victim of a shooting by a deranged Democrat in 2017, was a protégé of Lancaster:  "Charlie took me under his wing when I got elected to the Louisiana Legislature in 1995, and he helped teach me how to build coalitions and get things done."<ref name=jpope>{{cite web|url=https://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/08/charles_lancaster_republican_s.html|title=Charles Lancaster, former GOP state lawmaker from Metairie dies at 74|publisher=''The New Orleans Times-Picayune''|date=August 18, 2018|author=John Pope|accessdate=August 22, 2018}}</ref>  Similarly, former state Representative Charles "Chuck" Cusimano, II,  a justice of the peace in Jefferson Parish and a former legislator said that Lancaster "probably did more for the Republican Party over the past thirty-five years than anyone else in the state."<ref name=jpope/>

[[Steve Scalise]], the Minority Whip of the [[United States House of Representatives]] and the victim of a shooting by a deranged Democrat in 2017, was a protégé of Lancaster:  "Charlie took me under his wing when I got elected to the Louisiana Legislature in 1995, and he helped teach me how to build coalitions and get things done."<ref name=jpope>{{cite web|url=https://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/08/charles_lancaster_republican_s.html|title=Charles Lancaster, former GOP state lawmaker from Metairie dies at 74|publisher=''The New Orleans Times-Picayune''|date=August 18, 2018|author=John Pope|accessdate=August 22, 2018}}</ref>  Similarly, former state Representative Charles "Chuck" Cusimano, II,  a justice of the peace in Jefferson Parish and a former legislator said that Lancaster "probably did more for the Republican Party over the past thirty-five years than anyone else in the state."<ref name=jpope/>

Another former House colleague, Quentin Dastugue, who switched affiliation from Democrat to Republican at Lancaster's behest, called his friend "the most political animal I knew. He lived and breathed it, especially Republican politics. ... He could burn your ears off. He'd debate any subject."<ref name=jpope/> Similarly, former state Representative Garey Forster, a Republican from New Orleans said, "There wasn't a major issue that Charlie didn't have an opinion about. He always had an opinion about everything" but was never mean-spirited in debate.<ref name=jpope/> According to his obituary, Lancaster as a legislator "valued relationships and respect over partisanship."

Another former House colleague, Quentin Dastugue, who switched affiliation from Democrat to Republican at Lancaster's behest, called his friend "the most political animal I knew. He lived and breathed it, especially Republican politics. ... He could burn your ears off. He'd debate any subject."<ref name=jpope/> Similarly, former state Representative Garey Forster, a Republican from New Orleans said, "There wasn't a major issue that Charlie didn't have an opinion about. He always had an opinion about everything" but was never mean-spirited in debate.<ref name=jpope/> According to his obituary, Lancaster as a legislator "valued relationships and respect over partisanship."