Emily Ann Rousseau Ryals

Published 9:09 am Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Emily Ann Rousseau Ryals received her heavenly wings at her home on  December 12, 2024. Services for Mrs. Ryals will be held on Monday, December 23, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. in the Cadwell Chapel of Cox-Ivey Funeral Home. The family will receive friends beginning at 10:30 a.m. with Mr. Will Parker officiating.  In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be made to Bainbridge High School Band, 1 Bearcat Boulevard, Bainbridge, Georgia 39819.

     Emily Ann Rousseau was born on November 5, 1949 in Biloxi, Mississippi to Emile Anthony Rousseau, Sr. and Emma Jane Anders Rousseau.  Emily was a wife, love, best friend, and guiding light to her husband of 41 years, Donald Rex Ryals. She touched many peoples’ hearts in her 75 years on earth. Emily and Rex married  on January 15, 1983 and had been very close friends for 13 years before they decided they were meant for each other, or as they referred to it, no one else could put up with their antics but each other. Many nights were spent with a bottle of wine at the Miramar playground or on the pier crabbing in their home town of Biloxi, Mississippi. The Gulf was their playground, boating, fishing, and sailing with their kids. Those may have been cheap dates, but they were heaven on earth to Emily and Rex.

     When they married, Emily gave up her career as a medical secretary/EMT to follow Rex and his career in the Navy. With the extra time on her hands, she started her true calling of volunteer work. Their first command was in Key West Florida where she took on the assignment of Ombudsman (the family members’ assigned representative with direct contact with the commanding Officer) for Rex’s ship.  She excelled in the job so well that she soon was the Ombudsman for three additional ships and a Coast Guard detachment. She additionally worked with the Area Command Chaplin to support the families who had members who were interned in the deep. Emily assisted with 27 burials at sea during their 2½ year tour in Key West. She worked with the welfare and recreation department helping young sailors’ families get settled into housing. More than once, she was called out at midnight because a family showed up and their sailor was at sea, and they had no idea what to do. She cooked holiday meals for all the single sailors who could not go home due to duty. She even coached the base little league team when the fathers were away on patrol at sea.

     When they moved to Bainbridge, they felt that their best shot at becoming part of the community was through Little League Baseball, so Emily ran the concession stand at the boat basin and was a “Team Mom” for six years. From there, she became a parent volunteer with the Decatur County School System. In this position, she proctored exams, chaperoned field trips, and helped run field days at Elcan-King Elementary, Jones-Wheat Elementary and Hutto Middle School.

She was a very active member with the Bainbridge High Baseball Booster Club for seven years, was treasurer for the Bainbridge Bearcat Football Booster Club for twelve years, and ran the basketball concession stand, giving football players the opportunity to develop work skills. More than a few of the football players used Emily as a reference on their first real job application. Emily’s love of children went far beyond helping David raise her granddaughter, Katie. Every kid assigned to her as a chaperone, and some who just joined the group, was her child. And she loved them all. Sometimes she scolded them, but it was out of love, wanting them to be their best and molding them to be good adults. She was proud of every one of them.

     During the past six years, she was an active member of the Bainbridge Marching Band Booster Club. She helped prepare the concessions before every home football game, altered uniforms, and even rode the yellow school bus to the away games as a chaperone. She held a “Get-To-Know-Each-Other” party for the color guard during band camp each year and took them all to a sit-down dinner at the end of the season as an impromptu banquet.

    Emily was a one of a kind, which we will not see again. She didn’t want recognition, she loved working behind the scenes and getting the occasional hugs. Though she will be missed, she isn’t gone as a little of her is seen in every one with whom she interacted.

     Emily Ann Rousseau Ryals is survived by her husband, D. Rex Ryals of Bainbridge; her sons, David Ross, Jr. of Bainbridge and Charlie Ross (Jessica) of Kathleen, Georgia; her grandchildren, Jocelyn Ross (Kayla) of Ivey, Georgia, Katie Ross of Bainbridge, and Haley Ross of Kathleen.  She is also survived by her siblings, Annette Brewer (Mitchell) of Houston, Texas and Elliot Rousseau (Wanda)  of Pasedena, Texas; her sister-in-law, Pattie Rousseau of Biloxi, Mississippi as well as many nieces and nephews.

     Emily was preceded in death by her parents and her brother, Rev. Emile Rousseau, Jr.   

     Online condolences may be made at www.coxiveyfuneralhome.com. Cox-Ivey Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.