Biographical Note

Wayne LeRoi Dernoncourt, a union organizer and official in the Textile Workers Union of America, was born in Springfield, Illinois, on June 15, 1918. He was the son of Joseph Dernoncourt, himself a union organizer, and Amelia Dernoncourt. Starting work while still a minor, Dernoncourt soon became involved in union organization, serving on the Steel Workers Organizing Committee during the 1930s. Dernoncourt married Leona Lambeseder (1920-1996), and the couple would have three children. After serving in the U. S. Army during World War II, Dernoncourt joined the staff of the Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA) in February 1946. He became a vice-president of the union in 1964. When the TWUA merged with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America in 1976, becoming the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, Dernoncourt was named vice-president and director of the Upper South Region of the Textile Division. He co-authored The Grievance Procedure and Arbitration: Text and Cases (Washington: University Press of America, 1978). In his later years, Dernoncourt lived in Lynchburg, Virginia, where he died on March 16, 1981.

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