Roy LeBoeuf

Bonnie LeBoeuf cradles the hand of her cancer-stricken husband, Roy LeBoeuf, in the living room of their West Park Avenue home.
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HOUMA -- Roy LeBoeuf was born and raised here and today spends much of his time resting in the West Park Avenue home he built in 1960 when the road was nothing more than a dirt path on the outskirts of the developed city.

"That was back in the years when everything was growing up," said the 66-year-old man from a hospital bed that now consumes most of his living room.

For the past two weeks, LeBoeuf has been bed-ridden.

Cancer has spread throughout his body, most recently infecting his brain.
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Despite cancer's debilitating effect on his health and alertness, Roy LeBoeuf can easily draw up the past.

He remembers a long and illustrious life spanning six decades, all played out in Terrebonne Parish, and all rooted in the rich culture of the region.When LeBoeuf began attending public school, he didn't understand English since Cajun French was the only language spoken in his family.

"It's what my parents spoke," said LeBoeuf, who continues to speak both Cajun French and English fluently."I didn't know a word of English when I first started school."

LeBoeuf's formal education ended in the eighth grade, but he later earned his GED from Terrebonne High.After he stopped attending public school on a regular basis, LeBoeuf began working in the meat department at the former Conrad's Supermarket, and that teenage job launched a storied work history that has earned Roy the nickname "Jack of all Trades."

The job LeBoeuf held the longest was a 20-year stint as a Houma Police officer, which he maintained from 1964 to 1984.

Prior to joining the force, LeBoeuf worked at Stanley Furniture and daily walked to the Houma police station to determine what it would take for him to become an officer.

"I kept going up there and they finally said they would give me a chance," he said.

LeBoeuf described his duties on the force as answering complaints.Though he took several promotional tests and passed, he remained a first-class patrolman up until his 1984 retirement.

Like he has all his life, LeBoeuf spent his retirement working.Soon after leaving the police force, the family man went into business for himself by repairing rod and reels for local fisherman from his garage.

Most clients were recreational fisherman who played on their boats over the weekend -- doctors, lawyers, businessmen -- LeBoeuf served them all.The self-taught rod-and-reel repairman advertised his makeshift, homegrown business through word of mouth.

"I don't want to brag, but I got to be pretty good," he said."I worked on some expensive reels."

LeBoeuf continued to tinker with fishing poles from a workstation at his house for nearly a decade.He briefly retired before taking his last job at Terrebonne Ford.

Throughout the years, LeBoeuf has been active in various local organizations and events.For many years he was the game chairman for the Holy Rosary Fair at the namesake Catholic church in Houma.He volunteered for coastal rescue for a decade, which meant spending the weekends on a boat and maneuvering through the parish's myriad waterways to assist people in distress and boaters who ran out of gas.