Vera Elizabeth Boudreaux

For 50 years, Vera Boudreaux has been involved in mission work prompted in 1968 by her first visit to Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. A few years later, she and her husband Robert Boudreaux, Sr. founded the non-profit organization People Concerned for Missions (PCFM). Since that time, she has been lending a helpful hand to those in need and carrying the message of hope, love, peace, and reconciliation across the USA and many other countries, including several counties in Africa, India, the Philippines, Jamaica, Haiti and other Caribbean Islands, as well as several regions of the Middle East. 

Known affectionately by thousands as “Mom Boudreaux” or simply “Mom B,” her trademark mane of white hair and warm smile captured the hearts of all who came in contact with her, especially those she adopted as her spiritual sons and daughters. Mom B embraced an extended non-denominational church family throughout the world.

Mom B, a charismatic and highly sought-after inspirational speaker who heard a call at an early age and became an ordained Christian minister, died peacefully in her sleep on Monday, April 23rd at home. She was 94.

The volunteer-run nonprofit she and her husband founded continues to operate, supporting clinics, churches, feeding canteens, and schools for 500 children in the central Haitian town of Gonaives, as well as remote mountain communities in Haiti.

Born Vera Fobbs in Crockett, Texas, and reared in Houston, she met and married Robert Boudreaux in 1943 in Houston. Two years later, the couple moved to San Francisco with their first-born child.

The growing Boudreaux family settled in 1955 onto a five-acre ranch in Santa Rosa, 50 miles north of San Francisco. Robert and Vera reared seven children and many foster children on the ranch, which they called Cheerful Acres. Cheerful Acres frequently hosted joyful multicultural gatherings of hundreds of people from all walks of life for more than 20 years.

While living in Santa Rosa, Mom B was extremely active in community organizing and education. She received a certificate in Social Services from the University of California, Berkeley and teaching credentials in parent/child education and pre-school education from Sonoma State University. Mom B held various leadership positions, including Youth Authority Counselor for the State of California Girls’ School; Director of the Head Start Program in Sonoma County; Board Member of the NAACP in Santa Rosa; and Chairperson of the American Friends Service Committee (Quakers), in which she played a major role in dismantling housing discrimination against African Americans in Sonoma County in the 1960s.  

Mom B had been in faltering health and was last able to travel about four years ago at the age of 89. She endured a mild stroke and the limits brought on by aging, but remained actively engaged with PCFM and the PCFM leadership team who frequently travel to Haiti.

Vera Boudreaux is preceded in death by her husband Robert Boudreaux Sr., daughter Angela Boudreaux, and son Don Boudreaux. She is survived by her children Robert (Karen) Boudreaux Jr. of San Francisco, Tony (Audrey) Boudreaux of Baltimore, Brenda Boudreaux of Oakland, Glenda Boudreaux Penny of Sacramento, Pierre Boudreaux of Ukiah, and Bernard Boudreaux of Oakland; sister Dean Brown of San Francisco; brother-in-law Norris Boudreaux of Houston; 20 grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren, and two great-great grandchildren; dozens of nephews and nieces; numerous extended family members; and thousands of spiritual sons and daughters.

Visitation is Wednesday, May 9th from 4:00 – 8:00 pm at Duggan’s Funeral Service, 3434 17th Street, San Francisco. Funeral Service is Thursday, May 10th at 11:00 am, San Francisco Christian Center, 5825 Mission Street, San Francisco. Interment will be private at Greenlawn Memorial Park in Colma.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a tax-deductible donation to People Concerned for Missions, P.O. Box 2024, Daly City, CA 94017. Tax ID #68-0041701.

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