James Dowling Sexton

James and his seven brothers and sisters were raised in Wilmette and Winnetka, a North Chicago suburb. The family of James's parents owned the Sexton Food chain based in Chicago. After graduating from St. Joseph's College, a Catholic college in Rensselaer, Ind., James graduated in Philosophy from Fordham University, NY and decided to attend Franciscan Order seminaries to become a Catholic priest. He also studied theology at Quincy College in Quincy Illinois, and at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

In 1969, he served in the Peace Corps in Shustar, a small town south of Iran. While preparing a PhD in Persian literature at Teheran University his life totally changed. That's where he met a French schoolmate who was majoring in ethnology. He and Catherine Ferrandon communicated in Persian, French and English. They married in Tronchoy, a small village in Burgundy, France, and went back to Iran to pursue studies. They stayed in Kabul, Afghanistan, just before the Iranian revolution. James and his wife later decided to go back to Burgundy, France, where he worked in forestry, and started a forestry computing and software company, which became one of the best in France.

Their first child, Caroline, was born in 1978 and now lives in Paris. Their son, Jerome, a pilot, lives in North Carolina. Pascale and her husband, Nuri Bilgis are raising their children in Istanbul.

While living in Iran and Tronchoy, James wrote a dozen excellent short stories and a play that with the help of his editor, Gael Stahl, a lifelong friend, his work was produced in Nashville. "The Crowd's Child", based on a story James translated and Americanized from the Persian culture, was produced by four Nashville theater companies over two years.

The Sextons moved to Dijon in the 1990s for their children's schooling, and then settled in Columbia, SC, in 2000.

James, who has been in precarious health for four years, still managed to create and maintain the web site of the Franciscan Diaspora with great expertise. He will be greatly missed by his family and friends.

A memorial service will be held at 12:00 p.m. Saturday, January 2, 2016, at Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel.

Arrangements under the direction of Dunbar Funeral Home (Devine), COLUMBIA, SC.