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Obituary for Oleta Dazet
After a lengthy battle with cancer Oleta Duckworth Dazet peacefully died on August 4, 2021, at her home in Ridgeland, Ms., surrounded by her family.
Born in 1929 in Columbia, MS, Oleta was the sixth of Eunice and James Duckworth‘s eight children. Her parents and siblings have preceded her in death.
After her 1947 graduation from Columbia High School Oleta moved to Baton Rouge, LA, where Oleta met her husband Clem Dazet while he was an engineering student at LSU. She and Clem were married 35 years.
While living in Baton Rouge Oleta began her career with Southern Bell Telephone Company where she became the youngest Supervisor, at that time, in the history of the company.
Oleta’s astounding aptitude with numbers contributed to her rapid rise at Southern Bell and facilitated her subsequent success as a professional bridge player.
A member of the ACBL (American Contract Bridge League) Oleta attained the rank of Life Master. She was in demand by tournament players who sought and paid her to be their tournament partner thereby increasing their chances of a tournament win.
Over a 30 year period Oleta taught private bridge lessons in Laurel, MS, and Jackson, MS, however, her true passion was teaching illiterate adults to read. In whatever city she lived during her lifetime, Oleta worked as a volunteer reading teacher thru municipal government programs while also mentoring and counseling those students, some of whom have remained her friends for life.
Oleta’s warm and gregarious personality was ideally suited for her role as a sponsoring foster parent to international students newly arrived in the US. She opened her heart and her home to nursing students from the Philippines and refugees from the Sudan seeking an education and a new life in the US.
A patron of the Northside YMCA, Oleta was an active volunteer and fundraiser for them. For 20s year Oleta lived next door to that YMCA location, and every day during those 20 summers she provided each pool lifeguard his or her lunch and a cool interior during their "work breaks”. Those former lifeguards are now successful businesspeople, politicians, entertainers, etc., who fondly recall Oleta regaling them over lunch with her hilarious stories.
Those who knew Oleta will affirm she was a “one of a kind” individualist who loved to talk “to excess” and who never met a stranger!
She was a member of St. Richard’s Catholic Church in Jackson and attended faithfully until her health prevented that.
Oleta is survived by a daughter Becky Thomas Pyron and her husband Jerry, a son Steve Dazet and his wife Roxann, grandson Wes Thomas, his wife Lori, granddaughter Aislynn Thomas McDonald, her husband Dr. Scott McDonald, grandson Ethan Thomas, and 5 beloved great-grandchildren: Tripp and Ella Thomas, Rebecca and Pierce McDonald, and Rhet Thomas.
Services for Oleta Duckworth Dazet will be Sunday, August 8, 2021, at Sebrell Funeral Home, 425 Northpark Dr., Ridgeland, Ms. Visitation is from 2:00 pm until 3:00 pm when the funeral will begin. A private graveside service for the family will follow. Any additional details are available at www.sebrellfuneralhome.com
The family humbly requests and greatly appreciates if those attending will wear face masks.
Per Oleta's preference the family suggests any memorial donations be made to CARA, the Community Animal Rescue & Adoption "no kill" Shelter, P. O. Box 231, Clinton, MS. 39060.
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