Danielle Laurette Cusworth Segrest

Danielle L.C. Segrest was born in Houston,TX. Her parents are Loret Cusworth Segrest of West Palm Beach, FL and Neal M. Segrest, Jr. originally from Port Arthur, TX

She was a 2004 graduate of Klein Collins High School in Spring, TX. and graduated with a BA in Business Administration with a Minor in Marketing at Sam Houston State University in August 2010. She is survived by her parents and her sisters, Victoria Anne Cusworth Segrest and Fae Charise Segrest. She has one grandparent (Nealon M. Segrest, Sr. in Port Arthur, TX ) many aunts, uncles, cousins, second-cousins and other relatives in Texas, North Carolina and Florida.

Her love of animals was one hallmark of Danielle’s life. While in the second-grade and on her seventh birthday Mom and Dad presented her with a large box containing her present – a white Arabian gelding who she called Cash. Mom had Tango. She loved her horse and was even able to walk a proud black stallion by herself at 9 years old due her mastery of handling animals that came from within. Her first dog, Max a big black and tan coon dog that she got from the local SPCA always watched out for her and kept snakes and varmits away from her. She always had cats, dogs and birds surrounding her. They were her children and made sure they were properly cared for. Dad was always saddling up Cash for her to ride on their property in Spring and the dogs trotted behind. Her current dog, Chevy, is a basenji hound and, due to training by Danielle and her boyfriend,Randy Schaff, is a loving and smart animal.

Danielle attended school and made friends in West Houston, Spring and Klein, TX, Minneapolis-St. Paul,MN, and Lafayette, LA attending schools in each. She took dancing and piano from the time she was 4 years old and was an accomplished pianist and excellent dancer in ballet, jazz, modern dance and immersed herself in Texas with country western dance, which she kept up until her demise. She danced with a youth group publically in West Houston, a local dance group in Spring, TX, Klein TX , Minneapolis and even with her sister in a professional dance troup based at New Orleans in Lafayette, LA. Danielle was the Dragon while her sister was one of the Pages in the Nutcracker Suite.

She recently found kayaking and hiking in the hill country in Austin, TX with Victoria and had vowed to buy a kayak as soon she had gotten her career moving. For that reason among others, Danielle threw herself at the job market and landed an interview immediately with a brokerage firm and four others within two days. It showed just how skilled she was and the lost potential that she had attained in her short 25 years. She was not afraid of interviewing and felt at ease with whomever she met.

While in college, she worked for Dr. Krenik as the Marketing Director for a new weight loss unit called(Zerona) that broke the cell walls of fat cells and aided patients in sculpting their bodies from the weight loss. She moved from patient to patient training them in how to ease pain in their bodies after Dr. Krenik released trapped nerve roots and strained muscles using classic chiropractic principles in non-stress directional manipulation. She loved working with people. When the management changed at the facilty, she found it hard to be loyal to a new manager whose philosophy she did not agree with and sought out new employment and finally decided to finish her degree and to find firms with people who she could work for that she readily fit in with.

Danielle had been a brownie and Girl Scout and spent many week nights on field trips and working on merit badges. She enjoyed the sisterhood of the scouts and found increased value in the girl-girl friendship. One school that she attended was an all-girl school in Grand Couteau, Louisiana. The school is the oldest parochial school in the south. The Academy of Sacred Heart gave her a sense of pride in herself that public school had not. She was completely happy to be feminine and smart. She took pride in playing soccer for the school and the city while learning expressive dance. The school took time with the children there, testing them for weaknesses left behind at most public school systems while straitening them out.

As a Junior Volunteer at Houston Northwest Hospital in 2000-2003, Danielle pushed wheel chairs, delivered patients to x-ray, lab tests, therapy and checkout. This work was satisfying for Danielle, except when she came across other students who were lazy. She did not like, nor would put up with lazy workers as she was trying hard to maintain good grades for college and hoped to get a scholarship through the volunteer work. It was disappointing to find that only one or two of the students were destined to get assisted funding for college.

She did get two very prestigious scholarships from AWRT Houston. American Women in Radio and Television gave her two scholarships and even set her up with on-the-job paid training in the Advertising field at AD Results. This work also came natural to her as her mother, Loret Cusworth Segrest has spent all of her adult life in this field. Danielle had worked at her parents’s agency, C&S MEDIA Services earlier in the office and in the field. This is why she went into Business and Marketing.

Danielle worked one summer while in high school as a paid event worker with VERB (A Non-profit organization whose directive was to educate and encourage the youth of today to be more physically active in 2008).

In her senior year at Sam Houston State Unive rsity, Danielle was a volunteer consultant for H.E.A.R.T.S. Veterans Museum of Texas and received awards for a superlative Marketing Plan and Presentation for 2008. She also developed a case study and presentation for Starbucks Corporation with an emphasis on building a sustainable supply chain in 2008.

One of her largest college accomplishments was to have worked as the team leader of a Strategic Audit Case Analysis and Presentation of Exxon/Mobil corporation, also in 2008.

She will be sorely missed and her family is devastated by the loss of her in daily life. Her young adult motto was to “LIVE WELL, LOVE MUCH, LAUGH OFTEN”. Danielle did this to the fullest of her ability. She succeeded at this more than anyone we know, her parents say. We love her very much and know she is with us still and will continue being with us in spirit until it time for us to join with her again.