Hope G Mouton

She was born on May 9, 1922, in Labadieville, Louisiana at the home of her grandparents, Jack and Odoska Hebert Leche, on a sugar cane plantation called Sans Nom. Her parents, Manuel and Orphreda Leche Garcie, lived in New Orleans where her father worked in the family business piloting river boats on the Mississippi River and the bayous of south Louisiana. She was the second of four daughters named Faith, Hope, Joy, and Love.

When the girls were 2, 4, 6, and 8, their father died of an aneurysm and soon after, their mother moved them back home to Sans Nom where the girls grew up in the rambling frame overseer's house with the long porch across the front and aunts and uncles on both sides of the family close by.

After they graduated from high school, Hope and Faith attended Soule Business School in New Orleans. When she finished her training, Hope got a job with the Highway Department in Baton Rouge. She moved into a boarding house close by the state capitol and on her first day there, she caught the eye of a handsome, flirtatious young man who also lived there. She ignored his advances for most of a year but he finally won her over and on June 28, 1942, she married Millard Mouton who everyone called Mout.

Their first son, Michael, was born in Baton Rouge. After a few years, the family moved to Mout's home town of Vinton, Louisiana where he helped his step-father run his gas station and Desoto and International Harvester dealership. Their daughter, Marcia, was born in Orange, Texas, the nearest hospital at the time. When the chemical industry began building in the area, Mout went to work constructing the Davison Chemical Company plant where he worked until his retirement in 1980. Their third child, Van, was born in Orange.

Hope and Mout were married for 55 years until his death in 1997. They loved to fish and dance and in later years, to travel; trips that were usually Hope's idea but later became Mout's stories. In the 1970's, they and several couples of friends pulled boats to lakes in Mexico where they fished for bass and explored the countryside. Hope began studying Spanish which she dearly loved. She grew up speaking French and said that it helped. She made several trips to Europe, experiences she treasured for the rest of her life.

Hope's other loves were painting, which she studied and enjoyed all her life, and antiquing, picking up special finds wherever she went. She could tell you where she got each piece and what she paid. She was an early visitor to the Round Top Antiques Show and spread the word among her friends until there were regular trips every year. Her home in Vinton was a showplace of her comfortable style and interesting collections including the things she and Mout made by hand.

After her children were grown, Hope went to work, first as an assistant to the Principal of Vinton Junior High School, then as the director of the Vinton office of the Gulf Assistance Program, a branch of Lyndon Johnson's War On Poverty. Finally, she worked at City Hall in Vinton, retiring in 1983.

In 2009, ill health made it necessary for Hope to move to Austin, Texas, to be closer to her children but Vinton was always home.

Hope is survived by children Mike (Alice) Mouton, Marcia Ball (Gordon Fowler), and Van Mouton; grandchildren Kristi (Sean) Sullivan, Catherine (Brad, deceased) Tidd, Luke (Shannon) Ball, Matthew Mouton, and Vania Mouton; great-grandchildren Haley, Michael, and Sarah Tidd, Brian and John Sullivan, Lincoln and Hudson Ball, and Brooklynn Gianfrancesco; niece Sandy (Tommy) McCullough and Sandy's children Kellie (Andrew Hicks) and Roger Murphree.

The family wishes to thank the staff at the Summit in Westlake Hills, Robert Gower, caregivers Ann Harper and Carol Corcoran, Dalmacio Cespedes, and all of Hope's faithful, thoughtful friends especially Nancy McKesson, Sherry Lynch, Cleavie Fontenot, Earline LeBlanc, and the many dear friends in Vinton who wrote, called, and visited her during her time away from home. It meant so much to her.

Visitation will be held in Hixson Funeral Home of Vinton 5 - 9pm Monday, July 21st with a rosary at 6pm. Visitation will resume in the funeral home Tuesday at 8 am. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held in St. Joseph Catholic Church at 10 am on Tuesday. Interment will follow in Consolata Cemetery in Lake Charles. Pallbearers are David Paul LeBlanc, B.B. Lloyd, George Fruge, Donna LeBlanc, Roger Murphree, and Matt Mouton; and honorary pallbearer, Ronnie Duos.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the American Heart Association or a charity of your choice. Words of comfort may be shared with the family at www.hixsonfuneralhomes.com