LEO ROUSSEAU

The following bio was taken from page 377 of the book entitled "Rusk County History" compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Claudia Schuster

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

Leo Rousseau served in the Army during World War II. One of the things remembered most was our having to move so often to a different town or state. Hunting a place to live was very difficult, and finding a job from which an employer would agree to release me on short notice was a problem, as we did not know where the army would send Leo. Sometimes I could go with Leo, at others I would have to move home until he was settled. In California, I worked in an overseas army supply place.

At times it was almost impossible to find living quarters. We were in Charleston, South Carolina at the time troops were being sent overseas from there. The only place we could find was one room with twin beds. We shared this room with another couple. We would put our luggage and chairs between the bed and the wall to make a larger bed. When we were in Columbia, South Carolina, we slept on a couch in the living room and had to get up and put everything away before the other people in the house got up. There were so many experiences like this, some sad and some happy.

Leo has worked for International Harvester Store, Crim Truck and Tractor Company since 1947, and I have worked there since 1951.

Our son, a veteran of Vietnam War, took his basic training at Fort Polk, Louisiana, then was sent to study the Vietnamese language at El Paso, Texas for nine months and then was sent to Bancroft for a year. He attended Kilgore Junior College for two years and then to North Texas University in Denton, where he received his Master’s Degree in marketing.

We have lived in Rusk County all of our lives with the exception of the years when Leo was in the Army. Then we lived in South Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, and California. Submitted by Maurine Rousseau