Charles Von Thibodeaux

Charles Von Thibodeaux was born in June 15, 1945 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the first of three children born to Charles Thibodeaux and Evelyn Elmeria Baptiste. He was baptized into the Roman Catholic Faith and attended St. Luke’s Catholic School for one year. He moved to Long Beach, California with his parents and younger brother Donald Van in 1951. His sister Valerie, someone, who brought a great deal of happiness into his life, was born in 1959. He attended St. Lucy’s Catholic School and graduated from elementary school to St. Anthony’s High School in 1960. School and learning came very easy for Charles. His parents had been told many times by his instructors that Charles would easily become anything he wanted to become if he stayed focused. He started working a part time job at the age of 15 for Paul Ferguson, a friend of his father’s, who opened a machine shop across from where Charles’s father worked. He worked and went to school and at the age of 16 he left Ferguson and went to work for McCoy’s Markets. He worked after school from 4:00pm to 8:00pm. He was very involved in sports lettering in Football, Basketball and Baseball. He transferred from St. Anthony’s to L.B. Polytechnic after his junior year. He graduated from Long Beach Polytechnic High School in 1963 with 18 scholarship offers. Some were to play football but most were to play basketball. He enrolled at Long Beach City College, and while he was most talented in the field of music, having played classical piano for several years, he decided to major in Astronomy, a field that had intrigued him all his young life. He met and married Gwendolyn Faye Magee in February of 1966. He worked as a Grocery Clerk for one year, going through an apprenticeship. He left the grocery business and went to work for the Coca-Cola Bottling Co., in Gardena, California in November 1966. He was promoted five times in the first 5 years he worked there. With Gwen, Charles had two wonderful sons, Charles Sean and Romain Jesus.

Charles loved being a father and realized early that having a family was one of God’s true blessings and one of the things that truly makes this life worth living. After many years of going to night school, Charles finally graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Planetary Astronomy in 1969.

Charles met Betty Thomas in 1975 and they were married in 1977. With Betty he had another son, Jacques Yves, born in July 1980. Charles decided to return to school and earn a degree in Business Administration. He enrolled at Pepperdine University in Los Angeles and received a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management in 1980. He then enrolled in the Master’s Program at Pepperdine and earned a Master’s Degree in Business Administration in 1981. After graduating from Pepperdine with his MBA, Charles left Coca-Cola and started a Transportation Company.

Charles met Jeanne Dorsey and they lived together for 18 years. Jeanne was the one true good thing that had ever happened to him. Jeanne’s mother Maud became ill in Louisiana in April 2000, and Jeanne left California and returned to Louisiana to be with her. She did not return to California and the relationship ended.

In August of 2002, Charles met Sheila Ananeh-Firempong. He liked her from the very start. They grew to care for each other very much and spent most of their free time together. She convinced Charles that he should become a Notary Public and work with her in the Real Estate field, mostly notarizing loan documents. In February 2004, Charles became a commissioned Notary Public for the State of California. With Sheila’s constant encouragement he invested the time to become a Certified Notary Signing Agent. In September of 2007, again with Sheila’s constant encouragement, Charles went back to school to become a Certified Tax Preparer. He graduated from Tax School and became Certified by the State of California. Charles would like for it to be known that Sheila brought out the very best in him.

He had horses named Alaskan Eagle and Schrahada. He loved traveling, the desert, wide open spaces, mountains, and the outdoors. He leaves to cherish his memory three sons, Charles Sean (Tiffany), Romain Jesus, and Jacques Yves, five grandchildren Christopher, Ryann, Aaron, Tyler, and Jourdan, and one great-granddaughter Tru.

Written By Charles Von Thibodeaux