Former City Councilman leaves legacy, losing his battle with cancer
Apr. 15—Joe Emmett is best known for his service to the citizens of Huntsville serving on City Council and operating his business, Emmett Plumbing Service. Emmett has passed away earlier this week. His obituary is at the bottom of this story.
Emmett ran for Ward 1 and won the seat in November 2011. He served four 2-year terms, terming out. In his interview in 2011, Emmett doted on his wife, Judy.
"My wife and I have established a scholarship at Sam Houston State University," Emmett said. He also reported supporting the Wounded Warrior Fund, Huntsville Community Theater, was a Charter member of the Knights of Columbus and member of Saint Thomas Catholic Church.
He never retired from his business. Some of his other community activities included youth softball coach, women's softball coach, and worked with local Boy Scouts on Eagle projects.
His service arrangements and obituary are below.
Joseph "Joe" Emmett was born in Dallas, Texas on January 30, 1947. He was raised in Dallas and attended Bishop Dunne Catholic School through high school. Joe was an altar-boy and along with his cousin, Sam Emmett, a proud member of Boy Scout troop 110, always joking that they were Life Scout Retired. After graduating from North Texas University, he moved back to Dallas and started Emmett Plumbing and became the youngest Master Plumber in the State of Texas, a fact he has always been very proud of. In 1970, he moved to Huntsville at the request of Nat and Alice Davis, who encouraged him as he grew Emmett Plumbing to what it is today. Emmett Plumbing and his legacy is what it is because of his hard work, loyalty, expertise, and integrity. One of the things he enjoyed the most about plumbing was passing his knowledge on to others. Although he never retired from the plumbing business, Joe did retire from Windham where he was a vocational teacher. Joe was proud of his service on Huntsville City Council, representing Ward 1 for nine years. During that time, he was proud of all of the accomplishments he achieved to help the City of Huntsville. He was a longtime member of St. Thomas Catholic Church of Huntsville. Joe loved to hunt and fish a trait he passed onto his daughter and grandchildren.
Joe was a wonderful husband and father and is survived by his wife of 52 years, Judy Emmett. His daughter D'Anne and his grandchildren Samantha and Emmett are his pride and joy. He is also survived by a brother, Ross Emmett, and two sisters Josephine Smith and Mary Ann Behan and her husband John.
The visitation will be at Sam Houston Memorial Funeral Home on Tuesday, April 18th from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm. The funeral will be held on Wednesday, April 19th at Sam Houston Funeral Home. After both the visitation and funeral service there will be a Celebration of Life at 82 Sunset Lake Rd. Please join us at the lake to celebrate Joe's wonderful life. Memorial condolences may be made to the family at www.shmfh.com.
In memory of Joe, in lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to MD Anderson Cancer Center, P.O. Box 4486, Houston, TX 77210-4486 or //www.mdanderson.org/gifts with a notation that the donations are to be applied to Dr. Sumit Subudhi's prostate cancer research in the Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology.
