Normandale "Jack" Paul Mouton

“Jack” Normandale Paul Mouton, was known for most of his youth and young adult life to his family and friends as “Jackie.” Ma Gen always said it was because he was born on Jackson Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, but it would seem that the popularity of Jackie Robinson was a likely factor. Jackie was born 27 July 1930 to Geneva Hadley and O’Rell Paul Mouton. His father’s family owned a dairy in Lafayette where he spent a significant part of his earliest childhood, later joining his mother who lived with her many brothers with Jackie’s grandmother. His step-father Frank “Pops” Granger and mother moved the family, that now included younger brothers Frank, Jr., 81, and Marvin, now deceased, to Brooklyn, New York where his Aunt Verlina, his mother’s sister, resided.

The early ‘40s was a time that Jack remembered as a thrilling time of a growing and thriving Black New York Community in contrast to the Depression-era southern community that he, nevertheless, always remembered fondly as well. His family moved to California during the onset of World War II where Pops worked as a welder in the Richmond shipyards and, after living South of Market, his mother bought a home on Webster Street in San Francisco. Jack went to Mission High School where he ran track, worked as a printer’s assistant, and, at 17, met Sedonia Butler, now deceased, at a Young Socialists League dance. He continued on to SFCity College where, abruptly drafted into the Korean War, he and Sedonia married. While in Korea when his first daughter Regina Geneva, 69, was born, he sent back skillful drawings of Sedonia from high school pictures as well as wood carvings, small art objects, and a beautiful kimono.

Jack and Sedonia were soon blessed with two additional daughters, Michelle Paula, 68, and Andree Marie, 67, and bought a home on 17th Avenue, close to Sedonia’s sister Carrie Vinnette, 98; Carrie’s husband and beloved father-figure Alfred “Fritz” Vinette, now deceased; and their daughter Renee Evelyn French, 77, all with whom Sedonia had lived while attending SF State University and courting her future husband. Jack worked for the SF Treasury Department’s Mint while rearing his children, moonlighting frequently at a printer’s during summers and holidays, in order to supplement the income from both his and Sedonia’s work primarily as a social worker.

Jack was blessed with sons Brian Mouton, 50, of Oakland, CA, and Lyle Mouton, 43, of Santa Rosa, and he was a popular uncle to the children of his wife’s seven sisters, known for his warm center-stage personality, drives to Ocean beach with his daughter’s cousins, and love of sports, the arts, and music. He enjoyed painting, dominoes, playing tennis and thrifting, junking and antiquing, purchasing broken toys, among other household objects, that he refurbished, repainted and shared with his many grand-chidren, Demian Mouton, 50; Amilca Mouton Fuentes Smith, now deceased; Maya Mouton McChristy, 42; Nayo Mouton Fuentes, 38; Malea Mouton Fuentes Kone, 38; and Zahur Mouton McCoy, 25. He enjoyed thrifting, shopping and cooking throughout his life. No memories of Jack would be complete without mentioning his surviving nephews and nieces who appreciated Uncle Jackie’s gentle, generous and playful enthusiasm for life: Renee French, Herman Moore, 75; Alice Alexander, 74; Laverne Cochran DuBose, 73; Lamonte Oliver Foggy, 68, Joan Foggy, 66, Bruce Foggy, 60, and surviving cousins in Chichago, IL.

The daughters, grand-children and great-grandchildren: Azul Mouton Fuentes Smith, 18; Luna Fuentes Barron, 11, Sidiq Mouton Fuentes Kone, 8, and Zainab Mouton Fuentes Kone, 4, welcome their brothers and uncles Brian and Lyle to take part in Jack’s memorial service as a way of connecting again with many of Jack’s surviving family members who recognize the healing opportunities in our beloved father’s peaceful passing. In lieu of flowers, cards, personal stories, and notes of commemoration are gratefully accepted and may be sent to the following email addresses: [email protected]; [email protected], and [email protected].