About John
Hundreds of mourners came out to pay their respects and remember John Breaux at the Lafayette Albertsons on Saturday, Jan. 31. The store parking lot is only a few hundred yards from the scene of the accident that took Breaux's life on Friday, Jan. 30.
Colorado Hometown Newspapers/Alan Crandall
2/4/2009
Community remembers John Breaux
U.S. Highway 287 crash claims the life of Louisville resident
By Doug Pike
Colorado Hometown Newspapers
As a small crowd gathered Saturday, Jan. 31, at Louisville Town Hall, waiting for Mayor Chuck Sisk to speak about the recent death of Louisville resident John Breaux, a young girl turned to her mother and asked a pointed question.
“Who was he?” the girl asked.
Her mother paused for a moment, in her mind trying to define the man who was so many different things to so many people in east Boulder County.
Finally, the mother found the right words:
“He was just a good guy.”
Breaux, a 57-year-old Louisville man known largely for riding his bicycle throughout Louisville and Lafayette and picking up trash, was killed at approximately 2:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 30, when a car veered off U.S. Highway 287 in Lafayette and struck him while he was standing alongside the road.
Breaux, it seems, played various, specific roles in the lives of countless area residents.
For one local business owner, Breaux was the man who regularly brought her gifts, or food, to brighten her day.
For an entire Louisville neighborhood, he was the mysterious reason morning newspapers ended up on residents’ front steps, instead of at the end of their driveways.
For countless motorists, he was the smiling face and the waving hand along South Boulder Road and McCaslin Boulevard.
For many graveyard shift employees, Breaux was the friend who kept them company during early-morning hours or the one who greeted them upon their arrival to work.
But it was Breaux’s half-brother, Dave Bright — who lived with and cared for Breaux, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia early in life — who most succinctly defined him.
“He was a saint,” Bright said. “We’ll miss him. He went way before his time.”
Crowds of mourners began forming at the crash site as early as Friday evening. By mid-morning Saturday, Jan. 31, a sizeable roadside memorial was already in place.
Impromptu memorial services were organized in both Louisville and Lafayette on Saturday. More than 300 people attended a gathering at the Lafayette Albertsons store — just a few hundred feet from the crash site.
“He was the most kind-hearted, pure person you could ever meet,” said Nathan Hill, a service supervisor at the Lafayette Albertsons store where Breaux volunteered by helping customers carry out their groceries and rounding up carts and trash in the store parking lot. “It's like losing a celebrity; he was so well-liked, well-known.”
Breaux was unemployed, but often donated his time at local businesses, including Albertsons.
“We’ve offered John a job several times, he just wouldn’t take one,” Albertsons supervisor Nash Martinez said. “He would have been one of our best employees, if he was one. He worked harder than my courtesy clerks.”
As much as his public presence and volunteer efforts in east Boulder County will be missed, those who knew Breaux best said they will miss his spirit.
“When I managed our in-store Starbucks, he would come in and buy five drinks and take them down to the ladies at Great Clips,” Hill recalled.
“The good karma he built up is off the charts. I'm not a spiritual person, but if there was ever someone who could make you have faith, it was him.”
In 2003, Breaux began picking up trash along McCaslin Boulevard and Main Street in Louisville, simply because he got tired of seeing it lay around.
“I hate to see the city be like that,” he told Colorado Hometown Newspapers at the time.
The Louisville City Council honored Breaux in March 2005 for his work in keeping the eastern part of the county clean. He received a proclamation and a gift certificate to a bicycle shop.
Breaux was also part of Louisville artist Erin Cox’s 2008 compilation of influential local residents, entitled, “Faces of Louisville.” The collection is still on display at The Empire Lounge restaurant, in Old Town Louisville.
Though he resided in Louisville, Breaux’s loss was felt equally in neighboring Lafayette.
Lafayette Mayor Chris Cameron described Breaux as a man whose contributions often went unnoticed.
“I think we fall into the trap of thinking that great people are those who are rich or famous,” Cameron said. “But great people are the ones who go out of their way to do the little things. John was a great man.”
A funeral service for John Breaux will take place at 11 a.m., Saturday, Feb. 7, at Flatirons Community Church, 400 West South Boulder Road, in Lafayette, followed by burial at the Louisville Cemetery.
Donations to a memorial fund can be made at the US Bank location inside Albertsons, 910 Cherry Street, in Louisville.
