Francis Arthur ‘Frank’ Ladue Jr. passed away January 9‚ 2011‚ from complications of an injury suffered while fighting a brush fire in November 2010.

Frank was a volunteer firefighter for Santa Rosa‚ Texas. He lived in Belchertown‚ Massachusetts‚ all of his life and came to Texas for the winters from 2003 to 2006. He then moved to Santa Rosa permanently. He loved Texas and enjoyed helping out on the fire department. He had worked as a power house stationary engineer for Solutia in Indian Orchard‚ Massachusetts‚ for 27 years and had trained in firefighting. He attended the fire training school in Houston‚ Texas.

Frank served in the Navy from July 1966 to June 1970. He was stationed on the USS KOELSCH and served in Vietnam.

Frank loved animals‚ and he helped foster many dogs for BONES‚ a beagle rescue in Massachusetts‚ and then for Tip of Tex K9 Rescue in Harlingen‚ Texas. He helped adopt out at least 100 dogs in a couple of years. The dogs were picked up from the local animal shelters‚ fostered and trained‚ and then adopted out to good homes.

Frank loved children and helped foster 48 children in 13 years in Belchertown‚ Massachusetts. He also adopted three adults‚ one young man from Massachusetts and two young women from Santa Rosa‚ Texas.

Frank’s favorite pastime was remote control airplanes. He was a member of SMASH‚ which is located in Rio Hondo‚ Texas. He also loved large trucks and traveling with an RV. He was a very smart man‚ and he could do just about anything on the house. He helped build his house in Belchertown and did a lot of work in Santa Rosa.

He was survived by his loving wife‚ Joan Ladue; son‚ Nick Tran Ladue; daughters‚ Susie Santos and Mari Valdez; brother‚ John Ladue; sisters‚ Jean Eckman and Nancy Reynolds; and six grandchildren‚ Michael Tran‚ Jimmy Tran‚ Maranda Hernandez‚ Alberta Coral Hernandez‚ Yasmine Hernandez‚ and Steven Valdez.

He was always ready to drop everything if someone needed help. He was a good man with a big heart‚ and he will always be greatly missed.