Arthur LaCroix
Charter Member - Army Air Corps
1917 - 2004
Lt. Col. Ret. Arthur J. La Croix Jr., 87, of Cheyenne died Dec. 2.
He was born April 16, 1917, in Chicago Heights, Ill., to Arthur J. La Croix Sr. and Rachel La Croix.
He worked as a time and motion engineer in an iron smelting factory, owned a ceramics company and was an engineer for Montgomery Wards.
He joined the Army Air Force on April 15, 1944, and was discharged Feb. 21, 1958. He joined the National Guard on Feb. 22, 1958, and retired Nov. 1, 1968. He was one of the first men to fly into an eye of a hurricane.
He flew in Japan, Korean and Porto Rican Theaters, and he served as an aide to four-star Gen. Eugene Partridge in Japan in 1953-54.
He was a member of Holy Trinity Catholic Church and Knights of Columbus, and he was a lifetime member of the Eagles Lodge and the American Legion.
He became a Wyoming real estate broker in 1959 and owned ALCO Realty until November 2004.
He served as chairman of the board of Wyoming Real Estate Commission. He was a past president of the board of Realtors and was Realtor of the Year in 1977. He was honored by the Cheyenne board of Realtors on his 80th birthday in 1997.
He married his first wife, Virginia Lee Kelt, in Chicago on March 26, 1936.
Mr. La Croix is survived by his wife, Verna M. La Croix, whom he married May 15, 1981; five children, Saundra Sue Bothwell of Irving, Texas, Arthur "Jay" La Croix III of Thornton, Colo., Virginia Lee Barkell of Pine Bluffs and Sean Andre La Croix and Patrick Wallace La Croix, both of Cheyenne; two stepchildren, Jacqueline Irene Gallo of Cheyenne and Richard D. Amberson of Aurora, Colo.; 17 grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; and three great-great-grandchildren.
Funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m. Monday at Holy Trinity Catholic Church with the Monsignor William Delany officiating.
Friends may contribute to the National Parkinson Foundation or the American Heart Association.
