Billy Pat Rosseau

Billy Pat Rosseau
USA-Ret
93 of Emporia, departed this life surrounded by his family after an extended illness at his home near Purdy, Virginia. He is survived by his wife of 68 years Evelyn Wiley Rosseau and their children, daughters Brenda Rosseau , Pam Reilly and husband Joe of Williamsburg, son William Patrick Rosseau of Emporia, and grandsons Holden Rosseau of Greenville, NC and Brandon Rosseau of Jarratt, Virginia. His parents and siblings predeceased him by many years.

Born in Richlands, Virginia, November 18, 1922 to Charles Baltzell and Olivia Hurt Rosseau the youngest of their five children, Bill grew up in the Williamsburg area, his father an early employee of the Restoration. He graduated from Matthew Whaley High School and attended the Apprentice School training as a shipwright in Newport News during the early years of WWII. Joining the Army Air Corps in 1943, he trained as a flight engineer on the B-17 Flying Fortress returning to the Pennisula to finish his apprenticeship at the end of the war. There he met his future wife Evelyn, a nursing student at Riverside Hospital. They married in December of 1947 and moved to Williamsburg where he attended the College of William and Mary. Serving in the National Guard he re-entered the Army in 1950 and was deployed to Korea in 1952. Billy remained in the Army serving in the Ordinance Corps on the Sergeant Missile Project in White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, Fort Sill, Oklahoma and in Germany. He retired as a Chief Warrant Officer - 4 in August of 1968. Billy and his family moved to his wife’s childhood home outside of Emporia, Virginia building a home for his family. There he took up farming - a life-long dream and golf - a life-long passion. He loved the outdoors, his family, his country and his church. A member and former presiding elder of Aberdour Presbyterian Church his smile and gentle spirit will be missed.

Services will be held at Owen Funeral Home, Jarratt, Virginia, 2 p.m. Tuesday, March 29th . Visitation with the family will be one hour prior to the service. Interment will follow at Aberdour Presbyterian Church Cemetery. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made to Aberdour Presbyterian Church, 702 Allen Rd., Jarratt, Virginia 23867.