Barbara Louise Brunson Sullivan passed away peacefully at her home, surrounded by her children, on September 23, 2022. Mrs. Sullivan, a true Conch and descendant of early Florida families, Cuban planters, and New England sea captains, was also by birth a "Navy Junior," daughter of the late Admiral and Mrs. Clyde Wyndham Brunson. Her childhood was divided among postings to Norfolk, Philadelphia, Washington, and, most memorably, Pearl Harbor, where she was an eyewitness to the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941. Convoyed to the Mainland, Mrs. Sullivan and her mother spent time with their Mobile and their Key West relatives. Mrs. Sullivan graduated from Dana Hall School, then matriculated at Sweetbriar before graduating from the University of Texas. In Washington, she met Dr. M. Bruce Sullivan, who was newly under her father's command in the United States Navy Medical Corps. They passed their first few years of marriage there and later in Japan. It was in Japan that Mrs. Sullivan and her husband first developed their interest in the study of Asian culture; years later, this interest culminated in the establishment of the Sullivan Collection at the Birmingham Museum of Art. When Dr. Sullivan entered private practice, he was recruited to the University of Alabama Medical School in Birmingham, and Mrs. Sullivan devoted her efforts to their growing family. She enjoyed their avocations of worldwide travel and art collecting, and especially their retirement to her childhood home, Key West. Mrs. Sullivan was an accomplished needlewoman, creating for her grandchildren most intricate handsewn garments; and a student of genealogy, having traced her family and her husband's through hundreds of years and over two continents. She was a member of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Mountain Brook, to which her family had belonged since they moved to Birmingham in 1959. Mrs. Sullivan served for several years on the board of the Girls' Club of Alabama. Always a good listener, Mrs. Sullivan's conversation was filled with acerbic wit and brilliant family stories which her family will always remember with great affection. She was a Southern lady, beautiful, gracious to guests, and with the highest standards of behavior, and we shall not see her like again.
Mrs. Sullivan was predeceased by her beloved husband, Dr. M. Bruce Sullivan, and by their dear daughter Barbara Brunson Sullivan; as well as by her sister, Elizabeth Louise Brunson, who passed away before Mrs. Sullivan was born.
She is survived by her loving family: Brian Bruce Sullivan and his wife BettieBoyd; Elizabeth Sullivan Cox and her husband Joe; Catherine Sullivan Oztekin; and by her grandchildren Elizabeth Sullivan Snodgrass (Jacob), Brian Bruce Sullivan Jr. (Jennifer), Charles Keenon Sullivan (Kimberly), Joseph T. Cox, III (Kay), Barbara Cox Byrne (Michael), Catherine Claire Oztekin, Anne Layton Oztekin; and by twelve great grandchildren. The family thanks all those who attended her in later life, especially Gloria Wilson, Faye Bell, Diane Edwards, and Loventrice Bevelle.
A funeral service for Mrs. Sullivan will be celebrated graveside by the Rev. Dr. Mark LaGory of St.Luke's at Elmwood Cemetery at one p.m. on Monday, September 26, 2022. Memorials may be made to St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 3736 Montrose Road, Birmingham, Alabama 35213; or to the Birmingham Museum of Art, 2000 Rev. Abraham Woods Jr. Boulevard, Birmingham, Alabama 35203.
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.ridoutsvalleychapel.com for the Sullivan family.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.17