Joseph Roy DeRouen

March 29, 1928 - January 14, 2018

Joseph Roy DeRouen, 89, passed away on Sunday, January 14, 2018 at Harbor Hospice in Beaumont, Texas. He is reunited in death with his wife, Patsy DeRouen, brother, J.C. DeRouen, sister, Sadie Harper and parents, Wilfred and Irma DeRouen. We presume he is currently catching them up over coffee on everything they have missed down here after passing through the Pearly Gates.

Roy was born on March 29, 1928 in Avery Island, Louisiana. He served is the U.S. Air Force 24th Weather Squadron as a meteorologist and French-to-English translator during the Korean Conflict, rising to the rank of sergeant. He loved dancing, camping at Hen House Ridge, drinking coffee with his buddies at Bruce's, playing hallway hockey with great-grandchildren (it's a long story) and generally any activity that allowed him to spend time with friends and family. Always the outdoorsman, he loved fishing on Sabine Lake and Dam B and hunting at his lease in Zavala, and his family loved eating the results of his labor.

He excelled at carpentry, at one point even making a guitar that he taught himself to play and put his skills to good use in the carpentry department of Gulf/Chevron, retiring after 32 years of service. He was always willing to share his love of woodworking with his son-in-laws, whom he considered the son he never had. He was also a self-taught painter; his painting decorated the walls of his home.

Roy is survived by his daughters, Karen Scalco and her husband, Anthony, Vicki Norris and her husband, Randy, and Trudy Blanchard and her husband, Ricky all of Groves, TX; grandchildren, Stephanie Logerot and her husband, Mason of Austin, TX, Nicholas Scalco of Austin, TX, Hayley Norris and her lifelong partner, Chase Warren of Homer, AK, Heath Norris of Lakewood, CO and Trisha and Trent Blanchard of Groves, TX; great-grandchildren, Ryan and Henry Logerot of Austin, TX; brother, Charles DeRouen and his wife, Karen of Jasper, TX and sister, Sherry Thibodeaux and her husband, Art of Hemphill, TX.

A 2 PM funeral service will be held on Thursday, January 18, 2018 at Clayton Thompson Funeral Home in Groves, with a gathering of family and friends from 12 PM until service time. Celebrant will be Rev. J. C. Coon. Entombment will follow at Greenlawn Memorial Park in Groves.

Honoring Roy as pallbearers will be Anthony Scalco, Nicholas Scalco, Randy Norris, Heath Norris, Ricky Blanchard and Trent Blanchard. Honorary pallbearers will be Robert Marshall and Jerry LeBlanc.