Crowd Celebrates Roy Motors
BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
Individuals were barely able to squeeze inside the Roy Motors showroom on Wednesday, but they weren’t necessarily looking for assistance from vehicle salespersons.
Instead it became a tribute to several generations of the Martin Roy family who celebrated the 90th year of operating a vehicle dealership at several locations on North Main Street in Opelousas.
Inside there were apple pies, hot dogs and cold drinks provided to those who arrived, while new Chevrolet vehicles were parked outside.
What became more relevant for the occasion was the dealership journey told by the man who inherited his father’s legacy and kept the business thriving for eight more decades.
Martin Roy Jr., who began operating the dealership and selling Oldsmobile cars and GMC trucks down the street in 1948, recapped the history of the dealership located now on property where he once attended school at The Academy of The Immaculate Conception.
Roy, now 97, became somewhat emotional as watched his oldest daughter, Debbie Fay, provide a startling portrayal of his mother, Marie Homan Roy, who unexpectedly assumed control of the Roy Motors dealership in 1943, after his father, Martin Roy Sr., then 38, died suddenly in a boating accident.
In 1941, Roy remembered that he wanted to spend the summer playing baseball, but his father had other plans.
The dealership also sold vehicle gasoline and Roy recalled how his father explained the necessity of basic customer relations.
“I was told that I needed to smile when people drove up and ask them if they wanted to fill up. I also cleaned the windshield and checked the engines before they drove off,” Roy told those who squeezed closer to hear his remembrances.
It was also during that summer, Roy said, that he would ride his bicycle around Opelousas, collecting bills for the dealership and receiving two cents each for every invoice that contained a payment.
Vehicle sales decreased dramatically during the war years, but Roy said his father was able to maintain the business, selling what cars and trucks he could obtain in addition to pumping what gas was available during the war years and providing customer service.
In 1948 after Roy graduated from college at the same time the car business in Opelousas and nationwide exploded.
“After the war people were waiting for cars. I had to learn how to be a salesman, but I learned that the important part in sales is to find out what people want to buy. After I learned that, selling wasn’t a problem,” Roy told the crowd.
Martin Roy Sr, according to granddaughter Debbie Fay, arrived in Opelousas in 1907 aboard a load of orphan train children from New York.
Roy, who had worked at Hebert’s Food Store and the parts department at Bordelon Chevrolet, started Roy Motos in 1936. Roy then won the 1942 Opelousas mayoral election 15 years after marrying Marie in 1927, whose family came to the Eunice area from Illinois, Fay said.
Marie Roy was comfortable living on West Vine in Opelousas as a housewife and mother until her husband’s death.
Then she stepped into what was then a man’s world of business.
Initially Oldsmobile representatives strenuously opposed the attempt of Marie Roy to operate the Roy Motors dealership, said Fay.
Eventually General Motors officials relented and Marie, who was taking business courses at trade school, became president of Roy Motors, said Fay, who described her grandmother as a woman as an example of how an ordinary woman possessing extraordinary strength emerged to operate a car business.
