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RAYNE - Funeral services will be held on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019, at a 11 a.m. Mass of Christian Burial at Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Church in Rayne for Sebreana Marie Domingue, 52, award-winning journalist and tireless advocate for early childhood education who died Tuesday, Oct. 1, at The Carpenter House in Lafayette.

Interment will be in the Our Mother of Mercy Cemetery in Rayne.

Rev. Emmanuel O. Awe S.S.J., Pastor of Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Church of Rayne, will be the Celebrant of the Funeral Mass and will conduct the funeral services.

A native of Rayne, Sebreana was a graduate of Notre Dame High School in nearby Crowley. She earned a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Xavier University in New Orleans in 1989 and completed a master’s degree in organizational communication at The University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2013.

Sebreana was a newspaper reporter and editor for more than 20 years. Her career began at the New Orleans Times-Picayune when she was a student at Xavier. She later worked at the (Opelousas) Daily World, where she was education reporter, city editor and managing editor; the Ocala (Florida) Star-Banner, as a features writer; and the (Lafayette) Daily Advertiser, as Acadia Parish Bureau chief and education writer.

Known as a tough questioner of elected officials and as a staunch defender of the public’s right to know, Sebreana won numerous awards from the Louisiana Press Association and other professional organizations. She was a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Sebreana’s coverage of school systems in Acadia, St. Landry and Lafayette parishes led to her later career in early childhood education advocacy. She worked as a research associate at the Cecil J. Picard Center for Child Development and Lifelong Learning at UL Lafayette; there, she wrote grants and proposals to support early childhood education centers across Louisiana. At the time of her death, Sebreana was the place-based community team lead for the Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems/Collaborative Innovation and Improvement Network, a multistate initiative to enhance developmental skills among 3-year-olds.

Sebreana was a governing board member of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. She also presented research findings at several national conferences.

Whether as a journalist or as an education advocate, Sebreana approached life with vitality, insistence, irreverence, stubbornness, occasional indignation, unflinching honesty and unfailing humor. Her laugh can never be duplicated - like her, it was one of a kind - but it never will be forgotten by anyone who heard it. Though she worked much of her career with words, there are none to describe the gratitude felt by the people she touched. All who knew Sebreana will mourn her, but none can say they are poorer for having had her in their lives.

Survivors include her beloved daughter, Amber Domingue of Brooklyn, New York; her father, Roland Domingue; two brothers, Riley Domingue (Margie) and Brandon Domingue, all of Rayne; and two sisters Delphina Moore (Tyrone) of Lafayette and Paula Jones (Michael) of New Orleans.

Sebreana was preceded in death by her mother, Ethel Mae Domingue; a brother, Neil Domingue; maternal grandparents, Willie and Theresa Logan; and paternal grandparents, Riley and Stella Domingue.

The family requests visitation be observed in Gossen Funeral Home in Rayne on Saturday Oct. 12, from 8:30 am to 10:30 am.

Friends may view the obituary and guestbook online at www.gossenfuneralhome.net.

Arrangements have been entrusted to Gossen Funeral Home, Inc. of Rayne, LA, (337) 334-3141.