Charles Léon Boucher

Charles Léon Boucher, 84, left his earthly body on Monday, October 7, 2024. He was born Joseph John Paul Léon Boucher on October 31, 1939, in a small farmhouse 3 1/2 miles outside of the small town of St. Agapit, Quebec, Canada. He was the third child of six, and the first son for father, Alcide and mother, Blanche (Moffett) Boucher. The family had over one hundred acres of farmland raising approximately one hundred pigs, fifteen dairy cattle, one hundred chickens, and many rabbits. The family sold butter, cream, eggs, pork, and rabbits. They had no running water or electricity, and no automobile most of the years on the farm. They finally got electricity and running water the last two years living on the farm. While on the farm, Léon (as he was referred to by his family) made many of the toys for his siblings, including ice-skates, skis, wagons and doll houses.

Winters in St. Agapit were extremely harsh with temperatures reaching as low as 50° below zero and snow several feet high. Due to snow and freezing temperatures, farmers had to keep all the animals in the barn during the winter. Being the firstborn son, Léon was responsible for feeding the animals twice a day, milking cows and clearing manure out of the barn. He would rise with his father and sisters between 4:00 and 4:30 AM and work until 6:30 AM, then he would go to the house to eat breakfast and go to school.

In 1944, during World War II, Léon started school at the age of five in a one room schoolhouse. There were nine students in the school, grades one through seven. He and his siblings walked to school every day - even in the snow. He attended school until he was fourteen years old. During the summer months when out of school, he and his siblings picked wild strawberries, raspberries and blueberries for his mother to can for the winter months. Before the first frost they would pick vegetables from the garden and put them away so they had food for the winter.

The family bought their first automobile (a 1928 Durand) when Léon was around nine years old. After the war was over, his father bought an army tank to work on the farm. Unfamiliar with driving a tank, Léon drove it through the garage by accident. In 1955, the family moved to town. In 1956, Léon started working in the sawmill with his friend, Philip Normand, at $1/day. 

Speaking very little English, Léon came to the United States with his buddy, Freddie, crossing the border at Detroit, Michigan on September 13, 1958. They went to work in Florida for one season picking oranges, grapefruit and tangerines. In 1961, he went to work for a restaurant in Tampa. Before he left, he was managing several restaurants and catering trucks. He and Freddie decided to find work on the West Coast because the Cuban immigrant workers were taking all the jobs in Florida, working for half the price.

One night in September 1961, while on their way to California and during Hurricane Carla, he and Freddie were hit and run by another car outside Houston, Texas. They had no insurance, and the only place they could find to stay was an Alcoholics Anonymous shelter that fed them until they got jobs with the Morgan Company in Pearland, Texas. Léon worked on the water pump assembly line and then became foreman of the assembly line in 1962. He left the Morgan Company and went to work for Texas American Mercury Company, loading and unloading burners to make mercury. After the doctor told him he had too much mercury in his body, he went back to work for the Morgan Company until the company went bankrupt in 1967. He then began work for Montgomery Ward as a mechanic.

On Thursday, November 12, 1964, Léon or “Charlie” (as nicknamed by his buddies) met Jeanne Plante while she was ice-skating with her cousin, Diana at a skating rink on Kirby Drive in Houston, Texas. Charles and Jeanne were married April 2, 1965, and spent fifty-three years together until her passing in 2018. They had two children, Denise and Marc. In 1968, he went to work for his father-in-law (Bill Plante) at Preco Equipment Company in Houston, Texas. He began working part-time building components for large diesel engines. Without any formal education, he soon became the head machinist, managing the machine shop in the same location for forty-seven years. Over those forty-seven years, Charlie traveled to at least thirty-nine different countries building and machining parts, as well as repairing large diesel marine and locomotive engines with the parts he machined. His intelligence and self-taught ingenuity earned him great respect from other machinists and businessmen. His machinist buddies described how Charlie machined things no one else thought of, making things easier and more efficient, and he was in fact able to machine a part on a manual lathe or mill as fast or faster than another on a CNC.

Not only was Charlie a brilliant machinist, but also an exceptional mechanic, and really, just a jack-of-all-trades. Never was a repairman needed for cars, trucks, appliances, etc., nor an electrician, plumber or carpenter when Charlie or “Dad” was around. Charlie LOVED his work and working. His hobby WAS working – whether that be in the machine shop, at home in the garage, cutting trees in the woods, building a fire, or helping Denise build fence, build a barn, work on tractors and equipment, work in her shop or feed horses and cows – he cherished every minute of it. His favorite past-time when not working was to sit by a fire with a Miller Lite in hand.

Charlie drove the family on many vacations with the 5th wheel camper, traveling more times than can be counted to Canada, Disneyworld, Galveston and several trail rides. There were always nieces, nephews, exchange students and/or neighborhood kids in tow. Some of his fondest memories were taking all the neighborhood kids to Baskin Robbins, or a ride down the beach in the back of the truck, or in one of the many trailers he built to pull behind his buggy. 

Fiercely protected and undeniably adored by his daughter Denise, the last six years of Charlie’s life after Jeanne’s passing were filled with adventure and precious times. Denise and Morris celebrated Dad’s birthday every year, took him to his favorite Olive Garden and Cracker Barrel restaurants on regular occasion, grilled him many steak and baked potato dinners on his own “custom” stainless pit, took him to the dirt track and drag races, to many old car shows, on a road trip to Arkansas and then to Branson, fishing at the lake house where he caught the first fish Denise could remember, hunting in Sanderson where he got to watch his daughter drop a mule deer while he was sitting right behind her, to Christmas parties and parades, to firework shows on New Year’s Eve and July 4th, on a wonderful visit to St. Agapit in Canada where he was able to see all his siblings in good health at the “Sugar Shack”, his family’s maple tree farm . . . and lastly, on January 1, 2024, a road trip down memory lane with Denise to Houston to see the homes he and his family lived in, to his beloved machine shop where they are still using his part drawings to this day (which made him SO proud), and to one of his favorite Italian food hangouts, Spanky’s.

Charles was preceded in death by his parents, Alcide and Blanche; his wife, Jeanne; and youngest brother, Régis. He is survived by sisters, Yvette, Lucie and Diane of Canada; brother, Dorila of Canada; daughter, Denise Ballard (Morris Surface) of Bedias; son, Jean Marc (Joni); three grandchildren, Luc, Emily and Marc Allen of Katy; and two Japanese exchange student bonus daughters, Yukari and Yaoko of Japan.

Denise (and, on behalf of her dad) would like to thank the following special people for showing such compassion and kindness in helping care for her father in the last years of his life: cousin, Diana, Dora A., Michelle G., Keisha C., Melissa P., Deb L., Cindy D., Cindy G., Jack G. and Tashonda R.

A private burial will be held on Thursday, October 10th at 11:00 a.m. arranged by Madisonville Funeral Home.

Final arrangements for Charles Boucher are under the compassionate care and direction of Madisonville Funeral Home, Madisonville, Texas.