Sula Johnson Marsalis
Funeral services for Dr. Sula Johnson Marsalis will be held on Monday, April 3, 2017 at 12:00pm at Poplar Springs Drive Baptist Church with Dr. John Temple and Dr. Raymond Leake officiating. Burial will be at Suqualena Church Cemetery. Visitation will be one hour prior to service at the church. Stephens Funeral
Home in Meridian is in charge of arrangements.
Dr. Marsalis was born in the Suqualena Community near Meridian, MS on November 18, 1923. She graduated from Suqualena High school and attended East Mississippi Junior College and Mississippi College. She was awarded the Master's degree from the University of Mississippi and Bachelor's and Doctoral degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi. She taught Chemistry and /or Biology in high schools in Mississippi for nine years (Meridian, Brookhaven, Lauderdale, Scott and Lincoln counties) and was Chemistry instructor at Copiah-Lincoln Junior College for two years. She taught Organic Chemistry and General Chemistry for twenty years at Mississippi University for Women, where she retired as Professor of Chemistry. Her non-academic work included work at the U.S. Waterway Experiment Station in Vicksburg and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She was a member of Delta Kappa Gamma and during her professional years, a member of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences and the American Chemical Society. She was an active member of Poplar Springs Drive Baptist church, including the Retired Adults' Sunday School Class. She had continued as an active member of the WMU at First Baptist Church, where she had previously been a member for almost twenty years. She also continued to provide home-cooked food monthly for the Matthew 25 Ministry at First Baptist Church during the more than ten years that the ministry was active.
She is survived by two sons, Dr. Wilton L. Marsalis “Bo” and his wife, Jodie and Gary E. Marsalis; grandchildren: John Marsalis and his wife, Sarah; Will Marsalis and Amanda M. Bruss and her husband, Jeremy; three great grandchildren: Walker Sterling Bruss, Mary Hunter Bruss and Wells Alexander Bruss.
She was preceded in death by her husband of 67 years, Dr. Lloyd Wilton Marsalis; her parents, Walter and Cora Thompson Johnson; her brothers: Lamar, Mortimer and Walter Martin and her sisters: Lurline Cook, Lillian Rhodes, Lucile Reeves and Zula Marie Williamson.
Memorials may be made to the Dr. Lloyd Wilton Marsalis Memorial Scholarship at Meridian Community College, 910 Highway 19 North, Meridian, MS 39307 or to Poplar Springs Drive Baptist Church, 4032 Poplar Springs Drive, Meridian, MS 39305.
Pallbearers will be John Marsalis, Will Marsalis, Jeremy Bruss, Jimmy Chandler and Jack Forbus.
Family and friends may view and sign online register book at www.stephensfunerals.com.
November 18, 1923 - April 1, 2017