correspondent for Maine Libre, Philippe Emonnet died
He was a figure of Saint-Calais, that’s for sure. His life was Saint-Calais.
Friday September 30, 2022, Philippe Emonnet passed away, at the age of 68. A correspondent for “Le Maine Libre” for forty-two years, he made it a point of honor to write an article about his town every day.
Michel Lettelier-Canu, former mayor of the city from 1995 to 2014, knows him well. We even knew each other forever, we played football together.
The former student of the school of Evaillé, passed by the Jules-Ferry college then the normal school of teachers had known several: essayist in the quality laboratory of Arjowiggins then surveyor in the same firm as Michel Letellier.
“Appreciated by all”
Born in Saint-Calais, raised in Saint-Calais with his two brothers, Patrick and Xavier, and two sisters, Maryline and Laurence, the man who cultivated discretion and modesty was appreciated by all
. Like his two sisters and his wife, Philippe painted. His city, requested: Les Halles, the old courthouse, the theatre… And his friend, Manu Dibango. His oils had notably been the subject of an exhibition with those of his sisters and his wife Florence, in September 2018 during the Saint-Calais apple turnover festival, of which he did not miss an edition.
He was a very loyal person.
Continues Michel Letellier. First, he wrote very well. Then his articles reflected very well what had happened
judges the former elected official. He was available, discreet but efficient
, adds Yvan Peltier, from the Anille Braye omnisports club. He was approachable, understanding. Someone good, what
, concludes Thierry Ozan of the Anille Braye football club, of which Philippe was first a player, then a volunteer manager before handing over and continuing as a volunteer at the refreshment bar.
Correspondent since 1980
His first article dated November 28, 1980. I had just been recruited as a correspondent in a few towns in the former canton of Saint-Calais and I had met a couple from La Chapelle-Huon who had just taken a big trip around the world on a very small budget.
, he told Jean-Benoit Gayet, journalist at “Maine Libre”, in 2018. I was impressed, proud and delighted that I could be given so much space in a newspaper
. With a color photo on the front page, as a bonus.
If he had little taste for accidents, he was the victim of them on June 8, 2015, when his house caught fire in the city center. A rude blow, but he had then also rub shoulders with solidarity
.
In 2018, in 36 years of correspondence, he had already exceeded the bar of 60,000 articles with photos. A few thousand had been added afterwards… All carefully arranged in notebooks, the memory of encounters, whether a minister or a homeless
he liked to summarize. First of all, it was meet the human
. And he lived it intensely
, with pleasure
. Painted people as he painted his city: with a fair stroke.
A final tribute will be paid to Philippe Emonnet on Thursday, October 6, 2022, at 4:15 p.m., at the Mulsanne crematorium, in Ruaudin.