Harold G. "Boops" Bienvenu, Jr.

St. Martinville - A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated December 7, 2019 at 10:30 AM at the St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church in St. Martinville, LA for Harold George Bienvenu, Jr., better known as “Boops”, age 86, who died on November 26, 2019 at Park Place Surgical Center after a lengthy illness. Rev. Ed Degeyter will be the Celebrant. Visitation will be at Pellerin’s Funeral Home, 112 Market Street, St. Martinville, LA on Friday, December 6, 2019 from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm and Saturday December 7, 2019 from 8:00 am until 10:15 am. Entombment will be in St. Michael Cemetery, 611 Bridge Street, St. Martinville, LA. The Men’s Rosary Group will pray the Rosary on Friday, December 6 at 7:00pm. Pall Bearers will be Dr. Hal G. Bienvenu III, Edward Bienvenu, Benjamin Bienvenu, John McSherry, Todd Bienvenu, and Matt Dawson. Honorary Pall Bearers will be Gerard Fournet, Dr. Edward Lamperez, Jack Webb, Dr. Burt Bujard, Carol Gravois, Rene Broussard, Dr. Gerald Halphen, George Broussard, and the St. Peter’s College Class of 1951. Sydni Bienvenu and Audri Bienvenu will serve as Gift Bearers. Readers will be Karen Bordelon and Cynthia McSherry. Music will include organ by Pat Melancon, bagpipes by Michael Barny and songs by Jeanne Gondron. Boops was born on July 26, 1933, in his grandmother’s home at the corner of East Hamilton and Main Street, St. Martinville, LA to Harold George Bienvenu, Sr. and Margaret Hunter Bienvenu. The oldest of three children, he attended Our Lady of Mercy elementary school in St. Martinville and graduated in 1951 from St. Peter’s College in New Iberia, LA, then attended LSU for two years. He graduated from Southwestern Louisiana Institute in Lafayette with a Business Administration degree. For 55 years Boops managed the P.A. Bienvenu Insurance Agency that his grandfather founded in 1903, the first insurance agency in St. Martin Parish, always treating his clients with kindness and compassion. He is survived by his loving wife, Sylvia Ann Segura Bienvenu, his sister Catharine Fitch/Killen and her husband Dr. Richard Killen, PHD., his sister-in-law Vilma Sanchez Bienvenu, his sons Dr. Harold G. Bienvenu III, Edward Bienvenu, and Benjamin Bienvenu and wife Sunni, and daughters Christina “Tina” Bienvenu Dawson and Cynthia Marie Bienvenu McSherry and her husband John; grandsons Todd Bienvenu, Kyle Bienvenu, and Matt Dawson and his wife Catherine Granddaughters include Lise Bienvenu and husband Benoit Matival, Karen Dawson Bordelon and husband Eric, Rebecca Dawson and fiancé Devin Martin, Danielle Bienvenu and fiancé Mahesh Gilbile, Nicole Bienvenu, Tatiana Bienvenu, Sydni Bienvenu, and Audri Bienvenu; and great-grandsons Alex Martin and Luke Bordelon. He was preceded in death by his parents Harold George Bienvenu, Sr. and Margaret Catharine Hunter, his brother John Hunter Bienvenu, son-in-law Brent R. Dawson, daughter-in-law Jennifer Frederick Bienvenu, and his grandson Nicholas Jacob Bienvenu. He was best known as “Boops”, the Staunch Scotsman who could stay with an objective, a plan, a wish, or a request to the end and beyond. He was a true and steady friend to all, never forgetting those who had shared his path through life, faithful to the end to all of them. Boops was a modern day woodsman, a discoverer of hidden places, of secret animal dwellings and plants that many folks never know about. Even in his last years, he could “talk” to the animals, with hoots to the owls in his back yard that made them fly up to look around for what they seemed to think were other owls. He was a master duck caller who almost never failed to entice the ducks to come in. As a very young man he had already discovered most of the secrets of the Atchafalaya Basin and the coastal marshes and brulées, paddling the pirogues he had built for these demanding terrains, and finding game in places most never imagined to look. The family table was always heavily laden with wild game, as common to his family as hamburgers would be to others. As a star football player, his determination never wavered, as evidenced by his recognition as the 1950 Daily Advertiser All–Star Football Award for the End position on the District Eleven Man Team and the football scholarship to LSU that he won. Boops was a member of the famous Tuesday Night Cookout Gang, who met regularly, usually in Longfellow-Evangeline State Park, to cook the game that members had killed and share friendship and tales of catch and capture, each trying to outdo the others’ stories. It would be difficult to find a better storyteller than Boops. He was renowned for his ability to embellish any story line, turning it into a tall tale as his children can vouch for, remembering the nights he told stories of St. George and the Dragon, Prince Valiant, and Sampoose, as well as clever originals they never tired of. He even entertained friends, nurses and caretakers with his vivid tales. He and his wife enjoyed traveling, taking, among other trips, three month-long trips to Europe where they discovered together many hidden places of beauty and wonder. Boops also was an avid snow-skier, taking yearly ski trips to the Rocky Mountains with his wife, children and close friends Johnny, Elaine, Ed and Janie. But most of all, he was a true and steady husband, father and friend. He will be dearly missed. The family wishes to offer their profound thanks to the doctors, nurses and staff at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital and the AMG Specialty Hospital at Park Place Surgical Center who took such expert and loving care of him. And we especially thank our dear friend Arlene Theriot for her tireless compassion and help and two angels of mercy, Felicia Lewis and Jacqueline McZeal. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Boops’ memory to Catholic High School, 1301 DeLaSalle Drive, New Iberia, LA 70560. Pellerin Funeral Home, 112 New Market St., St. Martinville, (337-394-9121) is in charge of arrangements.