NATCHITOCHES, LA
Dec. 15, 2020
Floyd Allen Horton Jr., 87, died Tuesday, Dec.15, at his home in Natchitoches. Due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, a private family graveside service in the Catholic Rite of Christian Burial will be at Memory Lawn Cemetery in Natchitoches Friday, Dec. 18 under the direction of Blanchard-St. Denis Funeral Home of Natchitoches.
A native of Eunice, he was the oldest child of Floyd Allen Horton Sr. and Lillie Mae Wyble Horton. He graduated from Eunice High School in 1951 and earned the Bachelor of Science degree in social studies education in 1957 and the Master of Education degree in health and physical education in 1962 from Northwestern State College.
In 1971, he earned the educational specialist degree in school counseling and educational administration from the University of Southwestern Louisiana. He began his teaching/coaching career in Houma, where he met the love of his life, the former Elizabeth “Betty” Millspaugh; both were teaching at Terrebonne High School. They married six months later in June 1959 in her hometown of Natchitoches. For the next 18 years he was a teacher, coach, school counselor and school administrator in Eunice and New Iberia, where he retired in 1977.
He completed a second career in sales at International Paper (then Union Camp Corporation) in Lafayette, retiring again in 1997. During his 40+ years in New Iberia, he was a member of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church and Nativity of Our Lady Catholic Church and was also a former member of the New Iberia Lions Club. He was an avid lifetime LSU sports fan.
He was predeceased by his wife; his parents; his sister, Mary Elizabeth Horton Vail; and his mother- and father-in law, Giles W. Jr. and Ella “Toosie” Millspaugh.
He leaves his sons, Floyd Allen Horton III and wife Linda of New Iberia, and Dr. Steven Giles Horton and wife Emilyn of Natchitoches; granddaughters, Elizabeth Horton John and husband Marshall of Shreveport, Allie Michelle Horton of New Iberia and Mary-Katherine Millspaugh Horton of Natchitoches; great-grandchildren, Emilia Rose and Dominic Joseph Futch of New Iberia; and his brother, William Wyble Horton of Lafayette.
Honorary pallbearers will be his special family at the Natchitoches Assisted Living Center.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts Foundation (Athletics, Fitness, and Wellness Programs), 715 University Parkway, Natchitoches, LA 71457.