The Life of Ruby Fournet
Funeral services will be held on Monday, August 5, 2013, at 10:30 am in the Delhomme Chapel of the Flowers for Ruby Meaux Fournet, 87, who passed away on Friday, August 2, 2013, at her home in Lafayette.
Ruby Meaux Fournet, a lifelong resident of Lafayette, was the daughter of the late Albert and Azena Broussard Meaux of Lafayette.
Ruby was preceded in death by her parents, her husband of 46 years, Paul A. Fournet, two brothers, Floyd S. Meaux Sr. and Charles Meaux (infant); and five sisters, Anna Mae Blackham, Gladys, Paola, Mildred and Regina Meaux (infant).
Ruby is survived by her four children, Annette (Harry) Boussard, Marilynn Fournet Adams (Gary Roy), Catherine (Dan) Hitchcock and Richard (Kim) Fournet; her 16 grandchildren, Michael (Jennifer) Adams, Stephanie Fournet (John Robideaux), Amy (David) LeBlanc, Erin Elizabeth Adams, Zack Fournet Smith (Helen Evans), Sarah (Matt) White, Emily (Scott) Thomas, Amy Broussard Abshire, Laurie Broussard (Cary) Sole, Paul Joseph Broussard, Meaghan Aurore Smith, Anthony (Angelle) Adams, Ben (Simonne) Broussard, Richard Kyle (Candace) Fournet, Katie Hitchcock Villerroel, Sarah Hitchcock (Lyle) Langley; her 16 great-grandchildren, Hannah Robideaux, Luke and Andre LeBlanc, Morgan Adams, Eli, Jackson, Layla and Cooper Fournet, Noah and Joel Broussard, Austin, Abigail and Anna-Grace Adams, Gracie, Sophie and Lilly White. Ruby is also survived by her much loved caregivers, Paula, Ashlee and Mallory Marsh, and Diana and Don Rodriguez.
Born in 1925, Ruby was the last of Albert and Azena Meaux’s eight surviving children. Her first years were spent on the Meaux dairy farm in Broussard until the 1930s when the family built a home on Johnston Street in Lafayette. It was there that Ruby, bound for classes at Mt. Carmel School, met Paul Fournet, a Cathedral School student and the second of ten children, at the school bus stop on what was then the edge of town. Their meeting at the bus stop not only sparked a sweet and enduring love story for Ruby and Paul, it also marked the supportive union of two remarkable families, the Meaux and Fournets, when Ruby and Paul were married in 1946. By 1950, Ruby and Paul had welcomed four children in four years to the little cottage on the Meaux property. By their mid-twenties, Ruby and Paul had survived a decade long depression, a world war in which Paul piloted reconnaisance missions from the Phillipines to Japan, and Ruby’s bout with tuberculosis while pregnant with their first child. With an attitude of hard-won optimism, they faced the second half of the 20th century unaware of the challenges that the autumn of 1950 would bring. The birth of their fourth child, the death of Ruby’s father, and a plane crash that would leave Paul a paraplegic, all occured within three months, yet proved to be the crucible upon which a stronger, more resolute and spiritual young family was formed. With their families at their sides, Ruby and Paul turned adversity into the framework for a lifetime of optimism.
While helping to guide her children through school, marriage and careers and, eventually, with families of their own, Ruby was also instrumental in Paul’s achieving his dream of establishing Paul Fournet Air Service, a full service center for private aviation at Lafayette Regional Airport. During that time, Ruby headed the Our Lady of Fatima Parent’s Club and was a founding member of the Acadiana Duplicate Bridge Club.
Enrolled at, what was then, SLI at the age of 14, World War II would soon curtail Ruby’s formal education. But, she never stopped learning and growing. Witty and quick, nothing got by Ruby. As a parent, she was stern when necessary, infinitely resourceful and gracious to a fault. If there was an art project due, a game to attend, or a speech to prepare, you wanted Ruby in your corner. And she was always there to help. Ruby loved to follow local sports. She followed every Fatima, ULL, LSU and St. Thomas More game of every stripe that she could pickup on her radio.
After her children were on their own, Ruby was able to fully pursue her interest in duplicate bridge. In 2003 Ruby attained Gold Life Master status, one of only two in Louisiana. ¬
While Ruby was always supportive of her children’s musical and artistic endeavors, she didn’t begin painting as a serious hobby until she was over 50 and began singing with the Sound Waves at the age of 70. Yet Ruby’s musical legacy lives on in her children and grandchildren as a common and binding thread connecting their lives to each other’s and back again to hers. Her prolific body of work at the easel, once begun, did not stop, but marched with happy regularity from her den into the homes of so many friends and family members, that had not blindess finally closed the door, she would be painting still. A crowning point in Ruby’s life came just as the door was closing, as she illustrated her daughter’s book of poetry by painting scenes from memory as their stories unfolded in verse beside them.
Pallbearers will be Ruby’s six grandsons, Michael Todd Adams, Zachary Fournet Smith, James Anthony Adams, Paul Joseph Broussard, Benjamin Fournet Broussard and Richard Kyle Fournet.
In lieu of flowers, friends are asked to remember the Ragin’ Cajun Athletic Foundation, 201 Reinhardt Drive, Lafayette, LA 70506, or by contributing to CODIFIL, Le Conseil Pour le Développement du Français en Louisiane, 735 Rue Jefferson, Lafayette, LA 70501 or to Heart of Hospice-Lafayette, 201 W. Vermilion St. Suite 100, Lafayette, LA 70501.
Visitation will be held at Delhomme Funeral Home in Lafayette on Monday, August 5, 2013 from 8:00 am until the time of the service. Msgr. Keith DeRouen, Pastor of Our Lady Queen of Angels in Opelousas, LA, will be the celebrant at a Mass of Christian Burial at 10:30 am in the Delhomme Chapel of the Flowers. Burial will follow immediately at Lafayette Memorial Park Cemetery on Pinhook Road in Lafayette.
Delhomme Funeral Home, 1011 Bertrand Drive, Lafayette, is in charge of funeral arrangements.
