Numa Breaux's father was a cattleman, and he was born on Delta Farm. He is the youngest of 14 children and the only one in his family to go into the oil and gas industry. He worked for two years at a paper mill, making $1.75 an hour, and then moved to Texaco because they were paying $2.50 an hour at the time. His father-in-law worked for Texaco, so Numa went to work there in 1957 and stayed there for 36 years until he retired in January 1993. When he began, it had been 10 years since the workers had seen a new face. As the new kid on the block working with lots of older men, only one of whom could speak English, Numa helped out those who could not read and was taught a lot by them. He began as a roughneck, became a gauger in 1968, a gas lift specialist in 1970, a gang pusher in 1980, and an assistant production foreman in 1990.