Joseph Floyd Cormier

Joseph “Floyd” Cormier, 80, departed this life on May 10, 2017, in the loving arms of his wife after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He loved the Lord and was a longtime member of St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, Hampton, Virginia.
The youngest of seven children of the late Desiree and Adelice Cormier, he was born in Indian Bayou and grew up on a rice farm. He was very proud of his French heritage and loved Cajun music with a passion.
Floyd graduated from Crowley High School in 1954 then joined the Air Force serving 12 years as an enlisted airman before earning the rank of officer, retiring as captain. He graduated cum laude with a degree in industrial engineering from the University of Missouri, where he was a member of the Tau Beta Pi Association. After retiring from the Air Force, he worked for 17 years as a senior industrial engineer at Newport News Shipbuilding.
He loved gardening, traveling, dancing and playing bridge, but most of all he loved his family.
Floyd is survived by his wife of 58 years, Thelma, whom he called “my blue-eyed lassie from Lancashire”; his son, Dwayne; his daughters, Tracey Blackshear and her husband Mike and Yvette Zolea and her husband Guiseppe; seven grandchildren, Dylan, Christian, Owen, Maxwell, Nicholas, Lucia and Simon; his brother, Huey Cormier and his wife Dorothy of Rayne; and all his loving relatives in Louisiana.
A memorial service will be conducted at 2 p.m., Sunday, May 21, at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church by Rev. Reginald Rumburg and Rev. Jeff Cannon. He will be laid to rest with full Air Force honors in the Albert G. Horton Jr. State Veterans’ Cemetery in Suffolk at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, 99 E. Mercury Blvd., Hampton, VA 23669.
Arrangements by R. Hayden Smith Funeral Home.