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The family of Norma Pousson Pettijohn will celebrate her life and legacy of 91 years at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Sulphur. Norma went to her eternal reward in heaven on Jan. 2, 2019, at 10:55 p.m. in an assisted care facility.
Her Funeral Mass will be on Monday, Jan. 7, at 2:30 p.m. at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Maplewood. Father Aubrey Guilbeau will officiate the ceremony.
Visitation will be 5-8 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 6, with the rosary at 6 p.m. in the funeral home. Burial will be at Mimosa Pines Cemetery in Carlyss.
Norma was born in Iota on Nov. 11, 1927, the fifth child to Pierre and Lydia B. Pousson. She attended and graduated from St. Francis Catholic School. While she was employed at Cities Service, she met and later married her husband, Billy, in 1952. They were a devoted couple for 26 amazing years before his untimely death.
While her six children were very young, Norma enrolled in the Vincent School of Business, and upon graduation, she began her career at Firestone and retired as administrator of payroll, in 1982.
Norma was a competitive woman who loved basketball and golf. She played on an all-star team and was also co-captain on the Cities Service Basketball team. Norma was keen to fashion and delved into modeling where she appeared in advertisements for GE Gold Medallion homes.
Upon retiring, she volunteered at Big Brothers/Big Sisters after seeing the success of the program with some of her own grandchildren.
Norma Jean, as she was affectionately called, loved gardening, music, dancing, games, cooking, traveling internationally and domestically, sewing and painting. She was an amazing woman who loved people and opened her home often to host friends, families and even strangers. She was very active at Immaculate Conception being a Eucharistic minister, an active member of the Catholic Daughters and a faithful member of the church choir until she was 80.
Norma thoroughly enjoyed being a member of the Silver Singers group as well as the Phi Sigma Alpha sorority.
Norma leaves behind six children to carry on her legacy of strength, resilience, joy, and hospitality, as well as her love for family, God, music, humor and her rich Cajun culture. Her children are Lydia Pettijohn of Mobile, Alabama, Paul Pettijohn of Moran, Kansas, Ralph Pettijohn and wife Sharon of Ruston, Cathy Erickson of Wichita, Kansas, Ellen Stephens and husband James of Sulphur, and Suzanne Shipley and husband David of Birmingham, Alabama. She is also survived by 17 adoring grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren. Her surviving siblings are Leonard Pousson of Lake Charles and Barbara Ogea and husband James, also of Lake Charles.
She is preceded in death by her parents, Pierre and Lydia Pousson; her husband, Billy G. Pettijohn; and her siblings, Verda Baldassari, Milfred Pousson, Lubert Pousson, Harris Pousson and Cornelia Watson.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her name to Our Lady’s Catholic School Gymnasium Fund in Sulphur.
Special thanks to the caregivers at Stonebridge Assisted Living in Sulphur who lovingly doted on Norma the past 10 years and were such an amazing support system for our family.
Words will never express how deeply we appreciate the sitters who watched Mom 24 hours a day for the past ten months. Her life was enriched by your presence and care.