Charles Hequet

Biography

Charles Hequet lost both parents while he was still a child. Born on July 20, 1927, he was seven when Jules Hequet died in 1934 and eight when Leontine Vertefoix died in 1935. His daughter's later account describes time in orphanages before René and Dorine raised him in Kankakee, Illinois.

He served in the United States Army during the Second World War. He married Lois Annette Brandt; their children were Ronald, Nancy and Danielle. His burial record at Dallas–Fort Worth National Cemetery preserves the Army service, while the family account supplies most of the detail about his subsequent working life.

According to that account, Charles worked at Kroehler until the plant closed when he was about thirty-three. He then managed a Western Tire and Auto store and worked for Color Tile in Joliet, southwest of Chicago. In 1970 his career took him to Fort Worth, Texas, as a real-estate executive. Later moves included St. Louis, Missouri, and San Diego, California, before a return to Fort Worth. He retired at sixty-two.

His daughter remembered a Cubs supporter who enjoyed golf and joking.

Charles died on July 22, 2015, two days after his eighty-eighth birthday. His grave is in Section 18A of Dallas–Fort Worth National Cemetery.

The fuller family names are Ronald L. Hequet, Nancy Ann Hequet Ekstrom and Danielle Hequet Gray. Nancy’s account explicitly connects the 1970 corporate real-estate work with Color Tile.