Sister Sylvia Provost

1933 - 2023

On April 1, 2023, Sister Sylvia Provost, a School Sister of Notre Dame 70 year jubilarian, passed away peacefully at Lakeview Regional Hospital, Covington, with five Sisters in prayerful attendance. The second of three daughters, she was born to Ethel Lee Travasos and Lazard Joseph Provost on August 5, 1933, in Port Arthur, TX. She is survived by her blood sisters, Peggy Hyde of Pearl River and Nancy Dillon of Abita Springs and their children. S. Sylvia attended Galena Park Elementary School for her first five years of elementary education. The family then moved to New Orleans where her father bought a corner grocery store located several blocks from Redemptorist Grade and High Schools where she first encountered the School Sisters of Notre Dame. In her junior year she realized she wanted to be one of them and entered the community, completing her high school education as a candidate at Sancta Maria in Ripa, St. Louis, MO. She professed first vows on July 31, 1953, and final vows on July 31, 1959. S. Sylvia received a bachelor's degree in history from the former Notre Dame College, St. Louis, MO in 1961 and a master's degree in elementary administration from Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, TX in 1972. Following profession, and over the next six years, she taught elementary children at several different locations in the Mid-West and South. In 1973, she responded to the call for volunteers to go to Africa. After 6 months of preparation, she was among the first five SSNDs from the former Dallas Province to go to Ghana, West Africa. She taught at St. Martin's Secondary School in Nsawam, Ghana. Upon her return to the states, she returned to school administration or elementary grade teaching in Louisiana parochial schools. By 1984, S. Sylvia realized that she needed to leave the classroom and to pursue parish ministry. For the next 25 years, she ministered at St. Augustine Parish, an African American parish, in North Little Rock, Arkansas. During these years, S. Sylvia served in a variety of ways which included: visiting parishioners, conducting workshops, delivering food to the poor, working with Senior Citizens and preschool children, initiating a Learning Center for children of the neighborhood and singing in the choir. In 2009, she moved to St. Mary of the Pines, the SSND retirement facility in Chatawa, MS to assume the role of community bursar working in the finance office. Ten years later, she joined the other Sisters at Chatawa in the move to St. Anthony's Gardens, Covington, LA. Memorial Services for Sister Sylvia will be held at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Covington, LA on April 11, starting with a sharing of memories service at 10:30 followed by the Funeral Mass at 11:00. To view these services go to the livestreamed Mass indicated on the homepage of the parish website: www.mhtcc.net. Interment will be at 1:30 in St. Mary of the Pines Catholic Cemetery, ,Chatawa, MS. Father Suresh will officiate with the Knights of Columbus serving as Pallbearers. Arrangements are entrusted to Serenity Funeral Home of Covington, La.