Helen Joyce Delarue, 76, Orange

Helen Joyce Delarue, age 76, of Orange, Texas, passed away on Thursday, July 27th, 2023, in Beaumont, Texas. Visitation of family and friends will be held from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 1st, 2023 at Dorman Funeral Home in Orange, Texas. The service to celebrate Helen’s life will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, August 2nd, 2023 at Dorman Funeral Home in Orange. Rite of committal and interment will begin at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 2nd, 2023 at Kitchen’s Cemetery in Zavalla, Texas. 

Helen was born on July 24, 1947 in Zavalla, Texas to Helen (Fridley) and George Davis – the first born of twelve children. Anyone that knew Helen knew that she marched to the beat of her own drum. For instance, one of her son – Isaac’s – favorite stories to tell about her was one day when he received a call from one of her neighbors asking if she was okay. When Isaac asked why she might not be okay, the neighbor replied “because I’m standing on the front porch drinking my coffee and she’s in her front yard in her nightgown trying to tase a squirrel.”

Believing it may be time to have the nursing home conversation, Isaac called his mother to access her mental state. When he asked her what she was doing, she proudly replied that she had just gotten a new taser and was excited to test it out. When Isaac asked if she thought her nightgown might not be the best choice of outfit for this trial, she replied, “it’s my yard, my taser, and I really don’t care what anybody else thinks about what I’m doing or wearing.” That statement alone epitomized how she lived her life and Isaac knew that it was not time to contact a nursing home. Helen was simply being Helen.

Helen is preceded in death by her beloved husband, Homer E. Delarue, Sr., Isaac’s father, Robert Mims, parents, George Davis and Helen Fridley Davis – as well as two brothers, Larry Davis and John Walter Davis, and a sister, Deborah Ann Davis.

Those left to cherish Helen’s memory are her son, Isaac Mims, Isaac’s husband and Helen’s son-in-law, Lance Magana, brothers Louis Davis, Pete Davis, Michael Davis, Joe Davis, Donald Wayne Davis, sisters Florence Marie Cox, Mary Ellen Swiney, and Rosalyn Ann Davis. Additionally, on her in-law’s side of the family, Lance’s parents, Fabian (“Junior”) and Lena Magana, Lance’s two brothers, Fabian (“Toots”) Magana and his wife Heather Magana, David Magana and his wife Monique Magana, Lance’s sister, Donna Lynn Magana Metz and her wife Catherine Metz. Additionally, a plethora of in-laws from the Mims family – whom she never ceased to love – and an abundance of nieces and nephews on both the Davis and Magana sides of her family that she loved so so dearly. Finally, her friends – some for over four decades that became family: Frances Daniels, Christine Mathews, Kevin Milligan, Spider Milligan, Ronda Whatley, Mark Standridge, and Christine Vermeulen.

Honoring Helen as pallbearers are Joe Davis, Pete Davis, Donald Wayne Davis, Branden Swiney, Cameron Swiney, Robert Earl Cox, and Spider Milligan.

Honorary pallbearers are Louis Davis, Michael Davis, Kevin Milligan, Mark Standridge, and Ronnie Lucas.