Sylvia Osborne Gustafson

Published 12:46 am Sunday, March 27, 2011

TALLUHAH — Memorial services for Mrs. Sylvia Osborne Gustafson, 72, of Tallulah, will be held at 10 a.m. Monday at Trinity Episcopal Church. Visitation will be from 9 a.m. until the time of the service with Crothers-Glenwood Funeral Home in charge.

Officiating will be Brother John Rushing and Skeet Osborne with the eulogy to be given by Betty Wall and a reading by Carol Ann Priest.

Mrs. Gustafson died early Saturday morning, March 26, 2011, at River Region Medical Center in Vicksburg.

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She was a graduate of Northeast Louisiana University and was the first female probation and parole officer in the state of Louisiana. She was assistant administrator of Christian Acres boys group home and was instrumental in starting the FINS program in Madison Parish, where she wrote all the policies and procedures. Sylvia was a former music teacher and, according to her friends and family, she also was a singer, a dancer, a philosopher, a mother and a best friend. According to Sylvia, she was also the author of a book entitled “Sylvia Says.”

She was preceded in death by her husband, Merle B. Gustafson; and her parents, Claudine and Ilar Osborne Sr., all of Tallulah.

Survivors include one daughter, Gay Gustafson of Hernando, Miss.; one son, Steve Gustafson and his wife, Julie, of Tallulah; three grandchildren, Jennifer Mobersley and husband, Carter; Grad Gustafson and Ashlyn Gustafson, all of Tallulah; and one great-granddaughter, Elle Julianne Moberley.

Mrs. Gustafson also is survived by two brothers, Skeet Osborne and Ted Osborne; and two sisters, Melanie Meeks and Ruthie Gaumnitz, all of Tallulah. She also is survived by two sisters-in-law, Alice Gaumnitz of Tallulah and Mavis Bledsoe, of Newland, N.C.