Sue Gail Stroud Dearman

A Mass of Christian Burial for Sue Stroud Dearman will be held at 1:00 p.m. Saturday, December 15, 2012, at the Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Natchitoches, Louisiana. Father Michael Craig Scott will officiate, assisted by Deacon John Whitehead. Prior to mass, the family will receive friends at Blanchard-St. Denis Funeral Home from 11:00 to 1:00 p.m. Following mass, her ashes will be interred at Memory Lawn Cemetery. Sue passed peacefully from this life on Tuesday afternoon, December 4, 2012, at Grace Home Hospice in Alexandria, Louisiana. She was born in Natchitoches on January 24, 1938, the first of three children born to William Gilbert Stroud and Sadie D. Stroud. She was a long-time member of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, where she served as a lector. She was also a member of the Catholic Daughters of America. Sue graduated from Natchitoches High School in May 1956. She went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and a Master of Business Administration from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches. Sue was widowed at a young age, and never remarried. In addition to her work, she enjoyed spending time with her daughters and playing bridge with friends. She was a reluctant but highly accomplished seamstress. She held a number of accounting positions over the years, including at the accounting firm of LeBlanc and O'Malley, the law firm of Watson, Murchison, Crews, Arthur and Corkern, J.H. Williams Cotton Gin and the Natchitoches Parish School Board. She taught economic and business courses at Northwestern State University at its Fort Polk campus. She taught business classes at St. Mary's High School and served on the St. Mary’s School Board. After retiring from the Natchitoches Parish School Board, she devoted most of her time to caring for her now deceased mother, Sadie D. Stroud, and enjoyed the company of her daughters and grandchildren. In recent years she regularly reunited with several childhood friends, occasionally traveling with them. Sue was preceded in death by her husband, Lester Richard Dearman; his parents, Emma and Lester Arthur Dearman; and her parents, William Gilbert Stroud and Sadie D. Stroud. Those left to cherish her memory include her daughters, Lisa Dearman Boydstun of Pineville and Laurie Dearman Clark of New Orleans; her sons-in-law, Clark Boydstun and Jeff Clark; her sister Elizabeth Arthur; her brother William Gilbert Stroud, Jr. and his wife Tina; her grandchildren, Jeffrey, Jared, Joanna, Janelle, Jacob, Jennifer Sue and Jonathan Boydstun and Peyton and Emma Clark; and her nieces and nephews Allison Arthur Stamey-Jimenez, Susan Arthur-Cowsert, Susan Stroud Sewell and William Gilbert Stroud III, as well as their spouses Robert Jimenez, Craig Cowsert, and David Sewell, and their children, Stephen Stamey, Michael and Matthew Jimenez, Erin Hebert, Christina and Kyle Cowsert, Abigail Sewell and Isabella Stroud, and numerous extended family members. Sue's wisdom, generosity, spiritual strength and sharp wit will be missed by all.