Robert Billeaud, who has always been known as "Popie", is our guest. He serves as President of JB Mouton, the construction company established by his great-grandfather, John Berchman Mouton, in 1915. This interview gives the listener an opportunity to hear Popie speak of his love of building and the satisfaction the team at JB Mouton derives from creating structures built to withstand the test of time. As Popie tells clients, "You can pay for the building but it will always be ours!"

One of 17 children raised by Lillie and Manning "Bozo" Billeaud, Popie was raised in a warm and loving family. While Bozo encouraged all of his children to follow their own path in life and "just get an education," Popie always loved the construction business. A graduate of Northeast Louisiana (now UL-Monroe), he studied Construction Management and joined his father at JB Mouton in 1976 as a Project Manager.

The success of JB Mouton is attributable to its reputation for integrity and the ability to get the job done on time, if not early, with quality workmanship. Popie explained that building skills are such that you either have them or you don't, that you can't teach the innately given craft of building. So the company looks for team members with that gift and nurtures them and their talent, while always challenging the team to build the best building they can. Ongoing craft and safety training are important components of the company's culture.

JB Mouton has built many of our community’s most iconic landmarks, schools, and churches such as the LITE Center, St. Pius Catholic Church and Elementary School, ESA’s lower school, CGI, the IberiaBank Tower in River Ranch, Moss BMW and Kia Sterling. They’ve also renovated St. John Cathedral, the Academy of the Sacred Heart, the Cajun Dome, Hub City Ford, IberiaBank Tower downtown, and St. Charles College in Grand Coteau.

Chase Tower (formerly FNB Towers)The LITE CenterSt. Thomas More Football Stadium

Surviving economic ups and downs and two World Wars has not been easy for the company, and the early days were tough. JB Mouton was originally a farmer who turned to carpentry to make a living. A jack of all trades, he learned the craft of building in early jobs he worked on, and in 1915 started building homes on his own.

An early remodeling job JB Mouton took on was the home of Joshua Hays and Mary Laboye Town, the parents of A. Hays Town. Town was only 14 years old at the time and drew up the architectural plans for the remodel. He was so talented that he was hired by JB Mouton to draw up other plans and Town would recount later that his first commission ever made was paid by JB.

By the 1930s, JB Mouton's sons, Bill and Francis, joined the firm and they began working commercial construction. U. S involvement in WWII resulted in the rationing of supplies so the firm put its work on hold with Francis going into the service and Bill taking their equipment to Fort Polk to be of service to the military.

By 1949, Popie's father, Bozo, went to work at JB Mouton with his granddad and uncles. Commercial construction projects were in high demand and one of Bozo's first jobs was a contemporary A. Hays Town building on the airbase in New Iberia. The ensuing years led to the building of Pecan Island High School, Crowley High, Carencro High, and remodel/additions to Lafayette High, Woodvale, Alleman, Comeaux High, J. W. Faulk, and S. J. Montgomery.

In the mid-1960's, JB Mouton added two stories to UL's Dupre Library, and Bozo joked that no books got wet in the process! The firm also built Lafayette's airport in the early 1960's and remodeled it in the late 1980's.

From 1973 to 1975, JB Mouton worked on the construction of FNB Tower,