Harvey Gilbert Honsinger

He was born on January 14, 1934 and grew up in Mont Belvieu, Texas, also known as Barber’s Hill, a community first settled by his ancestors before the Texas Revolution. After graduating from the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Radio and Television in 1958, he worked briefly at KLFY-TV, Channel 10, in Lafayette before coming to work at KPLC-TV, Channel 7, in Lake Charles as a Director in 1959 and later as Production Manager and Production-Sales Liaison.

At KPLC for nearly 20 years, Honsinger is perhaps best remembered as being the off-camera “Harvey” to whom local talk show host and personality Lee Janot would talk during her program and as the rotund and fatherly Santa Claus in KPLC Christmas programming during the 1970’s who would not only ask children what they wanted for Christmas, but also whether they did their homework, performed their chores, and obeyed their parents. His daughter and grandson now work at KPLC, one of only two instances of three generations of one family to work at the station.

In the late 70’s he went to work for the Louisiana Department of Corrections, Division of Probation of Parole, where he served as a Probation and Parole Agent, later supervisor, and eventually as the District-Administrator/Manager of the Lake Charles District. He retired from the Department after twenty-five years of service in March 2002.

He enjoyed hunting, westerns novels and films, the History of Texas and western firearms, and writing. An avid member of the Bayou Writers’ Group, he was a prize-winning short story writer and the author of a published western novel, Fire Hair.

Honsinger is preceded in death by his parents, Harvey Paul Honsinger and Vera Barber Honsinger of Mont Belvieu, Texas. He is survived by his beloved wife of more than fifty-three years, Judith Arceneaux Honsinger, two children, Harvey Paul Honsinger of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and Kathlene Honsinger Deaville, of Lake Charles, and two grandchildren, Patrick Austin Deaville and Sarah Grace Honsinger.

A memorial service will be held at Hixson Funeral Home in Lake Charles at 6 PM Sunday with a burial to be held at the Mont Belvieu Methodist Cemetery, Mont Belvieu, Texas at 2 PM Monday. Visitation 4 – 8 PM Sunday at Hixson Funeral Home in Lake Charles. Words of comfort may be shared with the family and www.hixsonfuneralhomes.com