Arvis Larry Wiley
Arvis Wiley of Jamestown, Louisiana, passed away in his home on Kepler Lake Tuesday, November 16, 2021, at the age of 100, comforted by family and friends.
Arvis was born May 5, 1921, in Bayou Scie, Louisiana, to hard-working farming parents, James Larry Wiley and Mary Effie Cooper Wiley. He was the second of five boys and truly loved his Bayou Scie community, saying there was no better place to be raised.
Following graduation from Zwolle High School, Arvis enlisted in the United States Army in 1940. In 1944, he began Infantry Officer Candidate School and achieved the rank of 1 st Lieutenant at the time of his Honorable Discharge in 1952. Before departing for Europe on the Queen Mary, his job as a Platoon Sergeant was training troops for combat, serving at many bases across the southern United States. Arvis’s Infantry career included combat in Germany, including in the Battle of the Bulge. When the war came to an end in 1945, he remained in Europe and ran an Army R&R center in Sittard, Holland; then returned to the States, settling in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he met his bride-to-be, Margie Aucoin.
Arvis loved his life and often said he wouldn’t have done anything different. His greatest successes were his home and his family. He and Margie wed in 1949, and they have three daughters: Theresa, Karen, and Glenda. He had a successful career in retail, beginning with Coffey’s Variety Store, McCrory’s, and the remainder of his career was with Kroger, which took him and his family to Bossier City, Louisiana; Orange, Texas; and Lafayette, Louisiana, where he retired in 1981. He then moved to his beloved Kepler Lake where he and Margie spent their retirement years where he could hunt, fish, and piddle around until his heart’s content.
Arvis is preceded in death by his cherished wife; his parents; and his four brothers: Vernice Wiley (and wife Ethel and son Larry), Kenneth Wiley (and son Gary), Orlan Wiley (and wife Billie Jo and sons Mike and Russ), and JV Wiley (and daughter Jeanne).
Left to mourn his absence and cherish his memory are his daughter Theresa Wiley, and her husband Jimmy of Schertz, Texas; his daughter Karen Wiley of Lafayette, Louisiana; his daughter Glenda Rhees and her husband Brian of Live Oak, Texas; grandson Michael Wiley, his wife Emely and their children Bryce and Jordyn; granddaughter Taylor Bernard and her children Cooper, Georgia and Ellie; sisters-in-law Marie Wiley and Norma Jean Wiley; nephew Van Wiley; nieces Judy Norcross and Scherri Holmes; caregiver Callie Canterbury, and a host of friends and relatives.
Funeral Services were held November 20, 2021 at Rockett Funeral Home in Ringgold, Louisiana, officiated by Brother Carl Griffith. Special music was provided by Kennedy Hudson. Interment followed at Bayou Scie Cemetery in Zwolle.
Pallbearers were Jimmy Wiley, Brian Rhees, Michael Wiley, Bryce Wiley, Cooper Bernard, and Jordyn Wiley.
We would like to express our gratitude to each and every one of you who provided care and support over the last several years so that Dad could stay in his home.
In lieu of flowers, please consider blessing the less fortunate in our community during this holiday season. Hebrews 13:2
“The secret to a long life is to be content with what you have.” Arvis Wiley
