Esther Marie Francois, 93, Eunice, died at 11:15 PM Friday, July 24, 2015, at Acadian Medical Center, Eunice, after a short battle with illness. Her funeral service will be at 1:00 PM on Tuesday, July 28, 2015, at Ritchie House of Prayer with Reverend Joey Reed, Pastor, and Reverend Dan L. Rigdon of Plano, Texas, officiating. Visitation will be held at the church from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM on Monday, July 27, 2015, and from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM on Tuesday, July 28, 2015. The interment service will follow at St. Louis Cemetery, Eunice. Memorials may be made to the Ritchie House of Prayer Capital Improvements Fund.

The family wishes to thank the Acadian Medical Center and its medical surgery personnel, as well as Dr. Zeb Stearns and RN Jena Duckworth Miller of Heart of Hospice for the compassionate care provided to her during her last days. We wish you could have had the opportunity to know Mom better. Our thanks to Professional Home Health for counsel and consistent care. Thanks to Dr. David Ware and Dr. Randy Miller for their expertise and kindness. She valued you and your staffs' sensitive delivery of care. Exceptionally noteworthy, we express our heartfelt gratitude to her granddaughter, Mike Genin Dupre, for sharing love and laughter with a special tenderness in daily care over the past year.

Esther was born on September 28, 1921, in Eunice, Louisiana, the first of eleven children born to Artemon 'Bijou' Fruge and Oline Marie Courville Fruge and later Julie LeJeune (Cortez) Fruge. She married Albert Francois.

Surviving are daughters, Faye Delafosse and husband Cliff and Joann Dupre and husband Henry of Eunice; daughter-in-law, Jean Francois of Eunice; sons, Russel Francois and wife Rebecca Rigdon of Bloomingotn, Illinois, and Clinton Francois and wife Elizabeth Boone of Eunice; seventeen grandchildren, Melissa Richard and husband Brian, Mitz Lebouef and husband Troy, Mandy Francois, Mia Brignac and husband Michael, Jarrad Francois and wife Monica, Leah Bellon, Kelly Hogg, Randall Hogg and wife Connie, Candace Fontenot and husband Keith, Lori Moosa and husband Steven, Daxton Dupre and wife Mary, Mike Genin Dupre, Rhett Dupre and wife Miley, Danielle Kim and husband John, Andre Francois and wife Matilde, Damon Francois and wife Laura, and Devin Scott Franois and wife Alicia; thirty great grandchildren; and three great great grandchildren.

She leaves behind sisters, Verna Bourgeois and husband Nelson and Betty Josey and husband Robert; brothers, Artemon 'A.J.' Fruge, Johnny Fruge and wife Charlotte, Joe Claiborne Cortez, and Allen Ray Cortez and wife Elaine. Additionally, she leaves treasured 'in-law families,' her friends, ad neighbors.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; her son, Jessie; brothers, Houston, Atlas, Dudley, and Jimmy; sisters, Rose Mouton, Bonnie Fruge, and Joyce Cortez; and grandchild, Terry Hogg.

Esther was of the sixth generation of Fruges to reside on Prairie Faquetaique resulting from the union of some of this area's first settlers, Pierre Francois Fruge and Catherine de Moullin Duplantier. She was born two and one-half miles east of Eunice on farmland owned by her grandparents, Louis and Marie Courville. Today, a small grove of pecan trees and ruins of her grandparents' house mark the site, located just a stone's throw north of Eunice Manor. As a young girl, she learned English as a second language at public school and completed formal education through grade six. On Sunday mornings she walked from her home to US 190 where she, at age twelve, met family friends who took her to St. Anthony's where she began her life's spiritual journey. On Saturdays she walked with four of her younger siblings, Houston, Atlas, Verna, and A.J., to the church for catechism and made her first communion at age thirteen.

During her early teens her family moved from her grandparents' land to Ritchie to work on Albert Roy's farm. The entire family worked together in the fields of cotton, corn, and food crops. A few years later she met and at the age of seventeen married the love of her life, Albert. He gave her twenty dollars, the equivalent of a month of his salary, to cover the cost of shoes, a dress, gloves, a hat, and her wedding band for their marriage performed by Justice of the Peace Brunson. Coupling love with her husband's Pentecostal faith, they created an enduring foundation for a lifetime together. She required little in life except sacred space to practice her faith, opportunities to be near God's creations And treasured hours with her family and friends.

Mom was our family's humble and gentle leader as well as a role model and real life mentor for sons, daughters, parents, spouses, and friends. We were incredibly blessed to have her for ninety-three years and already miss her kind smile and touch, but celebrate her life, the great example of calm and optimism she always displayed. We celebrate the reunion of our beloved parents. We love you, Mom, and we rejoice that you are finally home!

Quirk and Son Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.