Interviewer(s): D. Austin. Cut Off, LA

Affiliation: University of Arizona

We met Joycelyn Renois during our initial baseline study of the offshore oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico when she was working for Windell Curole at the South Lafourche Levee District. Tom McGuire interviewed Joycelyn's husband, Butch, and father-in-law, Emmett Jr. He asked Joycelyn if she would be willing to talk about the industry from a woman's perspective, and she agreed. I met her at her home in Galliano.

Joycelyn Badeau Renois was born and has lived all her life in Galliano, Louisiana. Her grandparents were farmers. During World War II, her father began working on boats and learned welding, and when he returned to Louisiana he got a job with Louisiana Bottle Works. In the 1960s he became part owner in a shipyard, where he spent the rest of his career. Joycelyn went to school in Larose, graduated from high school, and went to college at Nicholls in Thibodaux. She met her husband, Butch, when he was visiting his parents; his mother was from Golden Meadow and his father worked in the oil field and had been transferred to southern Louisiana. Butch got a job with Chevron Oil Company and worked there his entire career. When her son started first grade, Joycelyn went to work in a real estate office to help earn money so she and her husband could buy property. In 1978, she got a job at the South Lafourche Levee District, a position she held until her retirement in 2003.