RSS Feed

Charles Edward Bourgeois, beloved husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, died peacefully at home in Ruston, Louisiana, on March 31, 2023. His life was filled with the love of God, his family, and “he never met a stranger.” Charlie was the youngest of four children, born on September 10, 1941, in Shreveport, Louisiana, to Clydie Mae Smith and Jean (Dutch) Germaine Bourgeois. He is preceded in death by his siblings, Jean Marie Fortenberry and Bobby; James Elmo Bourgeois and Phyllis; and Thomas Wayne Bourgeois; and his parents. Those left to cherish his memory are his loving wife of 60 years, Patricia (Patsy) McLin Bourgeois, his five daughters, Deborah Lynne Bourgeois; Cynthia Bourgeois Geroux and Kelly; Terry Bourgeois Sagrera and Kimble; Lori Bourgeois French and Bob; and Betsy Bourgeois Dehart and Michael; grandchildren Courtney Geroux Wicklund and Lucas; Kaley Geroux Kemp and Carter; Lindsey Elizabeth Sagrera; Christopher Charles Sagrera and fiance’ Jolie Duarte; Harris Edward French, Charlie Elizabeth French, Anna Elizabeth Dehart, Andrew Michael Dehart, and Allie Renae Dehart; great-grandchildren, Catherine Leigh Wicklund and Elizabeth Marie Wicklund; and Charlotte Anne Kemp (August 2023); sisters-in law Marlene Duhon Bourgeois and Mary Elizabeth Bailey; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Charlie grew up in Sulphur, Louisiana. He graduated from Sulphur High School as an all-around athlete, with a three-year football and two-year basketball letterman, and was voted Most Handsome. He attended Louisiana Tech University on a football scholarship from 1959 -1963. He was a four-year letterman on the LA Tech Football Team and served as captain his senior year. This is where his love of the piney hills of North Louisiana began. Upon graduation from Louisiana Tech University, he was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings and received a signing bonus of $400, but unfortunately his professional football career was cut short due to a health issue. His business career began with Amoco Oil Company for twenty-seven years where he was the Territory Sales Manager over nine states. His love for his alma mater made it an easy transition back to Louisiana Tech University as the Alumni Director.  Charlie was instrumental in bringing alumni together. A great joy of his was traveling to a variety of alumni events that were centered around good food, fellowship, and that signature Charlie Bourgeois cadence “Let me tell you a story”! He finished his career with the Louisiana Tech Athletic Department with a focus on professional fundraising and foundation development. He was a proud member of the alumni LA Tech T-Club while fostering relationships with current student athletes. While serving as the President of the Rotary Club of Ruston, he was the recipient of the Paul Harris Fellow Award. As a devoted and lifelong servant, for fifty years at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, he served in multiple ministries including spearheading the capital campaign for the Luffey Catholic Life Center.
Along with instilling the “gift of gab” to his girls, one of his passions was researching family genealogy. This included his discovery of our family name that dates back to the arrival of the first Bourgeois in North America in 1642. Charlie wanted his grandchildren to call Patsy and him, Mamere’ and Papere’, after his grandparents. This was part of his desire to instill a legacy that would continue into future generations. Throughout their marriage, they had a passion of traveling with their lifelong friends throughout the United States and Europe. Charlie also enjoyed duck hunting, fishing, loved to garden, and was an avid photographer.
To say that Charlie was the best “Girl Dad” would be an understatement. He spent many hours coaching and watching basketball, attending dance recitals and debate tournaments, watching his girls cheer, swim, play softball, and of course, the yearly distribution of the thousands of boxes of Girl Scout cookies throughout Lincoln Parish. Along with family vacations, attending Louisiana Tech football or basketball games were a highlight of family time. The traditions continued with his beloved grandchildren. Summer vacations, visiting the zoo, going to sports activities, swimming, and hosting the annual Camp Bourgeois which included Papere’s famous chocolate malts. His love of cooking was from his mother, and he enjoyed sharing his creations through family meals and preparing breakfast for the many slumber parties held at the Bourgeois home.
Charlie was a genius at connecting people and cultivating lifelong relationships - you knew you were loved!
Visitation will be Wednesday, April 5, at the Luffey Catholic Life Center of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, 813 Carey Avenue in Ruston 9 a.m. – 11 a.m. The Mass of Christian Burial begins at 11 a.m. officiated by Reverend Kevin Mues and Reverend Mr. John Serio with burial following at Kilpatrick’s Memorial Gardens. Pallbearers will be sons-in-law Kelly Geroux, Kimble Sagrera, Bob French,
Michael Dehart and grandsons Christopher Sagrera, Harris French, and Andrew Dehart. Honorary pallbearers will be Hudson Akin, Jerry Callender, Bruce Cowan, Bill Cox, James Davison, Randy Ewing,
Dr. Robert Flournoy, Charles Fuller, Jerry Gallagher, Dr. Hoye Grafton, Dr. James Green,
Dr. Marvin Green, Jerry Griffin, Dr. Darryl Johnson, Dr. J. V. Jones, Jedd Lewis, Luke Lewis, Rodney Manning, Johnny Maxwell, Ron McNabb, Wayne Parker, Keith Prince, Dr. Dan Reneau, Dr. Phil Rice, Pete Thiels, Don Tippit, Leo Sanford, Mickey Slaughter, and A. L. Williams.
In lieu of flowers, the family request memorials to be made to St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church or the Louisiana Tech University Alumni Foundation.

According to Sheriff Mike Couvillon, the Vermilion Municipal and Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force, along with the Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Office K-9 and Criminal Interdiction Unit made the following arrests for narcotics-related offenses within the parish.
• Rory Robinson, 36, of Kaplan, was arrested in Kaplan and charged with Possession of Schedule II, (Methamphetamine) and Possession of Schedule III, (Buprenorphine).
• Ashley Duhon, 35, of Erath, was arrested in Abbeville and charged with Possession of Schedule II, (Methamphetamine), Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and Possession of Schedule I, (Marijuana)
• Kendrick Baudoin Jr., 20, of Abbeville, was arrested in Maurice and charged with Possession with Intent to Distribute Schedule I, (Marijuana) and resisting an officer.
• Agents concluded a lengthy investigation in Kaplan that led to the arrest of Tillman Simon, 66. As a result of the investigation, a search warrant was granted, and Simon was found to be in possession of suspected illegal narcotics. Simon was charged with Possession with Intent to Distribute Schedule II, (Methamphetamine), Possession with Intent to Distribute Schedule I, (MDMA), and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia
Sheriff Couvillon would like to thank the Mayors, and their council, of Abbeville, Kaplan, Maurice and Erath, along with their Chiefs of Police, for their support of the Vermilion Municipal and Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force. Sheriff Couvillon also applauds the concerned citizens of Vermilion Parish for their awareness and assistance in helping the Task Force in fighting the war on illegal drugs. He encourages all citizens with information in regards to illegal drug activities to contact the Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Office or the Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Unit at 337-740-4501 or E-mail the Task Force anonymously at taskforce@vpso.net and your e-mail will be held in the “strictest of confidence” and replied to in a very timely manner.
More information on reporting drug activities can be seen on our Web Site at www.vpso.net. Click on Narcotics and fill out the TURN IN A PUSHER information.

You have probably heard that you shouldn’t burn your bridges behind you. This is true in some situations, but not all. When you burn your bridges, you limit your options. What situations warrant this action and which ones do not?
In your relationships with others, you don’t want to burn your bridges. Life takes many unexpected and unpredictable twists and turns. You never know whom you will need to interact with in the future.
Although there are some individuals you want nothing to do with, hopefully they are few and far between. For the others, it’s not in your best interest to permanently sever a relationship. Although you may not like someone or you may have different philosophical beliefs, you can still maintain a cordial relationship that doesn’t cause any bitterness.
You can be pleasant, polite, and congenial. You do not have to give someone a piece of your mind. Your paths could cross again at any time. A person from your past could wind up as a neighbor, coworker, boss, employee, or friend of a friend. People may forget a lot of events but a distasteful experience tends to be burned into one’s mind.
Since you never know who you will run into in the future, or in what capacity, it behooves you to leave off with people on good terms. Always be courteous and speak with a smile. A mean and insulting attitude never works in your favor.
When should you limit your options by burning your bridges? For an example, consider the story of a general and his army, who some hundreds of years ago, arrived by ship at the coast of the enemy.
Once his men had all come ashore, he had their empty vessels burned. With the fleet engulfed in flames, he told his men that if they wanted to return home they would have to be victorious because retreat was no longer an option.
To attain goals, you have to limit your lines of retreat. People who succeed incorporate a mindset that giving up and turning back is not acceptable. Forward is the only direction offering possibilities. You can change course if something doesn’t work as planned, but always want to move towards your objective.
When someone says they will give something a try, the implication is that they can always turn back. Success requires laser like focus. A goal is reached because the bridges of retreat have been eliminated.
Determination shouldn’t be confused with recklessness. People who are reckless will act on a whim without thought or planning. They demolish bridges because of carelessness, not as part of an intentional strategy. They will abandon a journey at the first obstacle. They are flippant and quick to blame others for their failures.
Giving something your all is more than an all or nothing attitude. A person, who gambles his or her life savings at a casino, hoping for a big win, is behaving destructively. If all of the money is lost, there isn’t much room to adjust investment strategy and move forward.
When you burn a bridge, it must be for motivation, to help propel you toward a positive goal. It can be destroyed only after a lot of thought and as part of an intentional design. Burn a bridge that is a pathway to defeat. Don’t burn a bridge that will provide you with options going forward.
Identify your bridges carefully. Separate those you want to preserve from those you should burn. Don’t burn any bridges that may be needed in the future. Get rid of bridges that will serve as an excuse to abandon your dreams.

As the country prepares to enter a third year of painful inflation, Americans are pessimistic about the state of the economy and bracing for a recession. Families are planning for their futures in the face of uncertainty and ever-increasing prices. Against this backdrop, big insurance companies, left-wing Biden administration bureaucrats and crony capitalist regulators are working hand-in-hand to target a major financial planning tool. If successful, this effort will further enrich the big insurers at the expense of retirees, families, and people who have suffered a tragic loss.
As part of its endless expansion of the administrative state’s fight against free enterprise, the Biden Treasury department revealed a plan last year to penalize life insurance companies that offer affordable options to Americans planning for the future. These new rules, predictably, don’t apply to everyone – just some smaller companies competing against insurance giants like MetLife. The Biden administration is attempting to pick winners and losers in the life insurance marketplace, effectively telling Americans which plans they can and cannot choose to plan for their own financial security.
They are doing it through legal gymnastics by enlisting the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), a non-profit agency whose members are the top insurance regulators from each state. The NAIC is not a government body, but it effectively acts as one. When the NAIC makes a policy recommendation to its members, it is generally adopted by insurance commissioners with the weight of law, even though state legislatures were never involved. NAIC’s revolving door is crony capitalism at its finest. Regulators and insurance industry insiders go to work for NAIC, then churn back to insurance companies and state agencies where they play by the rules they wrote.
At their last meeting in March, NAIC insiders discussed a 50% increase in capital charges on plans offered by certain companies, particularly companies owned by private equity investors. Biden administration bureaucrats and NAIC insiders have tagged these plans as high risk, even though they carry an A rating from analysts like Barrons and should be treated the same as other similar offerings. The big winners in this arrangement are, unsurprisingly, the major insurance companies whose competitors would effectively face a massive cash penalty under the new regulation.
More than half of Americans have a life insurance policy. More people would certainly choose to purchase them if they had more options and lower prices: nearly 70 percent of people who hold these plans say they feel financially secure but less than half of those without a life insurance plan feel the same. For seniors, life insurance and annuities can play a central role in retirement planning and preparing for the loss of a loved one later in life. For families experiencing the sudden death of an income earner – particularly a primary earner – life insurance can be the only thing keeping them afloat while they come to terms with their loss.
That makes the new penalties on life insurance an attack on seniors, retirees, and families. These plans are not a luxury, they are an essential financial planning tool that helps people pay their bills in a time of need. If costs go up, available offerings go down, just as they did in Europe when regulators tried this very move. The result was predictable and just what the Biden administration wants – those plans disappear from the market.
Insurance commissioners themselves are the last line of defense against this attack. The NAIC does not hold the power of law. Insurance commissioners, who are often appointed by and accountable to governors, have a responsibility to reject the proposed penalties and the crony capitalism that allows big insurers to line their pockets while seniors and families face higher costs and less security. The borderline collusion between big insurers, unelected bureaucrats, and regulators is bad for consumers and bad for the country. It must be stopped.