1927
Leroy
2016
Leroy Fontenot
February 7, 1927 — May 30, 2016
LeRoy Fontenot passed on from this earthly life Memorial Day, May 30, 2016. His passing was peaceful, attended by his family, and none of it cost too much; all things that would have made him happy. Born in Big Lake on February 4, 1927, he attended school until the eighth grade when Depression era hardship led him from the classroom to the farm to help support his family. Even though he was initially precluded from military enlistment, he was drafted into the United States Army Infantry in 1947, serving his country in post-WWII Germany, Switzerland and Japan before his discharge in 1950. He then began work on the Southern Pacific railroad, remaining with them until his retirement in 1988. Always a proponent of the vulnerable, he extensively served with the United Transportation Union, establishing better conditions for fellow railroad workers.
Some of LeRoy’s most beloved things on earth, besides his penny-pinching wife, included: eating soft serve ice cream from McDonalds, watching the Mari-Gras parades go by near his home, speaking in Cajun French when he was tired or sick, pretending to eat his grandchildren’s toes, swinging them on his old tire swing and most importantly spending time on his farm.
A perennial steward of the land, he spent his retirement establishing first one farm and then a second when the first proved too small. It was at these farms that his grandchildren came to know their Pop, a man able to lift anything, build anything, fix anything, repurpose anything, no matter how old, but better than all love his family continually more than they had yet known. He was a man of all seasons and knew how to get any person or animal out of trouble. It is at these farms that his legacy continues as his younger survivors go there to experience, in much the same way as previous generations, a life conformed to stewardship, service, and love.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Natalie Murbelle Poole, infant daughter, Sondra Gail, and parents Jules Lonnie Fontenot from Ville Platte, LA, and Ezilda Duhon Fontenot from Jennings, LA, as well as all eleven of his siblings: Mary Granger, Claude, Beatrice Hebert, Bessie Duhon, Eloise Hebert, Rosalie Hebert, Wilbert, Bobby, Betty Peterson, Jimmie, and J.A. He is survived by his sons Thomas and wife Elly Harahap of Jakarta, Indonesia, Charles and wife Linda Bourne of Lake Charles, and Carl of Houston, TX; grandchildren Matthew and wife Christine Rather of Houston, TX, Joshua and wife Uun Hudayah of Houston, TX, Eric and wife Cara Gradney of Lake Charles, Sara Blankenship and husband Ross of Lake Charles, Lisa of New York City, Tyler of Houston, TX, Jennifer of New Haven, CT, and Austin of Houston, TX; and great-grandchildren Katelyn, Madison, Jackson, Kinley Blankenship, Edward “Ward,” Collin Blankenship, and John Daniel.
Funeral services will be held 1pm on Friday, June 3rd at Johnson’s Funeral Home in Lake Charles. Visitation will take place 5pm to 8pm on Thursday evening as well as 10am to 1pm on Friday, also at Johnson’s. He will be interred alongside wife Natalie at Grand Lake Cemetery in Grand Lake, LA.
As per LeRoy’s wishes all of his grandchildren will continue to act crazy and make jokes as they carry him to his final resting place.
C’est tout fini. Au Revoir.
Some of LeRoy’s most beloved things on earth, besides his penny-pinching wife, included: eating soft serve ice cream from McDonalds, watching the Mari-Gras parades go by near his home, speaking in Cajun French when he was tired or sick, pretending to eat his grandchildren’s toes, swinging them on his old tire swing and most importantly spending time on his farm.
A perennial steward of the land, he spent his retirement establishing first one farm and then a second when the first proved too small. It was at these farms that his grandchildren came to know their Pop, a man able to lift anything, build anything, fix anything, repurpose anything, no matter how old, but better than all love his family continually more than they had yet known. He was a man of all seasons and knew how to get any person or animal out of trouble. It is at these farms that his legacy continues as his younger survivors go there to experience, in much the same way as previous generations, a life conformed to stewardship, service, and love.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Natalie Murbelle Poole, infant daughter, Sondra Gail, and parents Jules Lonnie Fontenot from Ville Platte, LA, and Ezilda Duhon Fontenot from Jennings, LA, as well as all eleven of his siblings: Mary Granger, Claude, Beatrice Hebert, Bessie Duhon, Eloise Hebert, Rosalie Hebert, Wilbert, Bobby, Betty Peterson, Jimmie, and J.A. He is survived by his sons Thomas and wife Elly Harahap of Jakarta, Indonesia, Charles and wife Linda Bourne of Lake Charles, and Carl of Houston, TX; grandchildren Matthew and wife Christine Rather of Houston, TX, Joshua and wife Uun Hudayah of Houston, TX, Eric and wife Cara Gradney of Lake Charles, Sara Blankenship and husband Ross of Lake Charles, Lisa of New York City, Tyler of Houston, TX, Jennifer of New Haven, CT, and Austin of Houston, TX; and great-grandchildren Katelyn, Madison, Jackson, Kinley Blankenship, Edward “Ward,” Collin Blankenship, and John Daniel.
Funeral services will be held 1pm on Friday, June 3rd at Johnson’s Funeral Home in Lake Charles. Visitation will take place 5pm to 8pm on Thursday evening as well as 10am to 1pm on Friday, also at Johnson’s. He will be interred alongside wife Natalie at Grand Lake Cemetery in Grand Lake, LA.
As per LeRoy’s wishes all of his grandchildren will continue to act crazy and make jokes as they carry him to his final resting place.
C’est tout fini. Au Revoir.
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