Darrell E Sullivan

Grand Coteau -- Darrell E. Sullivan passed away peacefully at the age of 63 November 21, 2024. Darrell and his twin sister, Darlene, were born at Chennault Air Force Base in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in 1961. They grew up with amazing friends and neighbors on Arlington Drive in Lake Charles and attended Dolby Elementary, F.K. White, and Barbe High School where they graduated in 1979. In his youth Darrell enjoyed electronics, flying, photography, swimming, and awkward attempts at romance. He was a Scout and in the Civil Air Patrol. He fruitlessly attempted engineering at McNeese State University but successfully became deeply involved in the Student Union Board and the Catholic Student Center while working as a disk jockey at local nightclubs.  

While pursuing growth in his faith he was surprised when Loyola University in New Orleans recklessly accepted his transfer and he somehow managed to receive a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies, and later his Masters in Pastoral Studies. In his college years he enjoyed learning, sailing, SCUBA diving, swimming and lifeguarding, and more comical attempts at romance. Darrell eventually stumbled into teaching religion in Catholic high schools which in total added up to 23 years. He occasionally left teaching to work in food and beverage, managing coffee shops and cafes but eventually had to accept that education was his vocation. His favorite lifetime pastimes became teaching and using his passport. He taught in New Orleans, Lake Charles, Austin, Cuernavaca, Grand Coteau, and online. Over the years he traveled to over a dozen countries, even studying business in Paris for a year. He especially enjoyed France and Mexico. Darrell taught religion and social studies to high school students online in the last years of his life. Darrell also enjoyed cooking, carpentry, home improvement, his friends, and family.  

Darrell loved multiculturism and was able to boast of having friends and acquaintances all over the world. He considered it a joy to be allowed to get to know people whose traditions, ethnicities, languages, faiths, foods, and identities were different from his own. He welcomed any opportunity to pray in diverse houses of worship, feeling humble in a Catholic Church or Mosque or Temple. He considered himself a devout agnostic and was always grateful to the Jesuits for their contributions to his deep faith unencumbered by rigid beliefs.  

Darrell entered his senior years facing a series of health challenges accumulating over a year in the hospital over a six-year period. It began with stage four Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2018. Recovery was slow but successful. Inspired by the amazing doctors, nurses, and staff who helped him, he became a resident hospital chaplain in 2019. In 2020, while being treated for Follicular Lymphoma, he contracted COVID. He spent a total of eight and a half months in the hospital and may have the state record for testing positive at 200 days. He depended on oxygen from that time on. He was then diagnosed with MDS, a bone marrow cancer likely caused by the intense chemo for Hodgkins.  He ended up passing away from and aggressive Leukemia. 

Darrell is survived by his brother, Robert Desmarais Sullivan, his wife, Muriel, and their daughter, Monique; his sister Gwen Granger, her husband, Larry, and their three sons, Greg, Doug and Chris; his sister, Pam Williams, her husband, Jim, and their children, Holly and Heath; his sister Patricia Sullivan-Thompson, her husband, Mike, and their children, Katrina and Jackson; and his twin sister, Darlene DeVillier, her husband, Tony, and their daughters, Vanessa, April, and Connie. He also held great affection for the families of his nieces and nephews. Darrell is preceded in death by his parents, grandparents, uncles, and aunts. His father, Dazzel Sullivan, was a self-proclaimed redneck from Smith County, Mississippi. His mother, Lina Desmarais Sullivan, was a revered Cajun from Cameron Parish, Louisiana.  

The funeral mass will be held at St Charles Borromeo Church in Grand Coteau on Tuesday, 26 November 2024 at 1.30 with a viewing from 1.00 with Fr Keith Pellerin as celebrant. Flowers are welcome. However, in lieu of flowers if you would like to donate to Darrell’s fund to help cover funeral expenses, donations can be made to his family.

Words of Comfort to the family may be expressed at www.sibillefuneralhomes.com. Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to Sibille Funeral Home of Opelousas.