Jesse Thomas Perry, Jr.
June 10, 1936 – July 17, 2024
On the evening of July 17, 2024, Jesse Thomas Perry, Jr. passed away peacefully at his residence in Houston, Texas at the age of 88. Jesse was born on a small rice farm in Indian Bayou, Louisiana a small farming community about 16 miles southeast of Lafayette and where he spent his childhood. He was a star athlete and an excellent student earning All-State honors in basketball and graduating as Valedictorian at Indian Bayou High School in 1954.
Upon graduation, Jesse accepted a basketball scholarship to McNeese State College where he was a four-year letterman and played on its 1956 NAIA Championship Team. In 1958, he graduated with a B.S. in Geology and received an ROTC commission as a 2nd Lieutenant. Immediately after graduation, Jesse was assigned to the Army Signal Corps and spent his two-year tour in Fort Monmouth, NJ. After his service tour was completed, Jesse returned to Louisiana and was hired as a Mud Engineer by May Brothers, a small drilling mud company in Eunice. He quickly moved up the management ranks and became district manager when his company was bought by International Mineral and Chemical Company (IMCO) and later by Halliburton. He rose within the Halliburton corporation and became the European Operations Manager stationed in England. The Mud Division of Halliburton was sold to Dresser Magcobar and became M-I Drilling Fluids, and Jesse moved back to Houston and retired several years later. He started his own company, which he maintained for several years until his final retirement.
Even in his later years, Jesse continued to play basketball, and when he returned to Houston, began playing with a team at the Houston Club in downtown Houston. In 1996, the Houston Club team won the Olympic Gold Medal in Atlanta.
Those left to mourn his passing are his wife Jan and his two sons Chan and Duane (Lisa), his sister Dorothy Fay Brown and his brothers Gerald and Byron (Carolyn), his grandchildren Jake, Brittany, Brooke and Brina, great grandchildren , and numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents Jesse T. (Bebo), Sr. and Dollie Spell Perry.
There will be a Memorial Service for Jesse at the Forest Park Funeral Home on Westheimer on with a burial at the Indian Bayou Community Church Cemetery on .