Angelia Matthews Allen (61), of Hattiesburg, passed away on September 11, 2024. Burial is in Highland Cemetery, and Hulett-Winstead Funeral Home handled arrangements.
Mary Lois Burkett (110), of Hattiesburg, passed away on September 14, 2024. A graveside service will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 21 at Highland Cemetery. Hulett-Winstead Funeral Home is handling arrangements.
Jody Catalanotto (67), of Purvis, passed away on September 8, 2024. Moore Funeral Service handled arrangements.
Donald Durham (72), of Petal, passed away on September 13, 2024. A service will be held at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 22 at Karen’s Landing. Forrest Funeral Home handled arrangements.
Sherry Dianne Gipson (71), of Lumberton, passed away on September 7, 2024. A Celebration of Life service will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 22 at Christian Cowboy Church, and Pinehaven Funeral Home is handling arrangements.
Dolores Eleanor Hall (91), of Petal, passed away on September 8, 2024. Moore Funeral Service handled arrangements.
Wally David Hartel (72) passed away on September 10, 2024. Hulett-Winstead Funeral Home handled arrangements.
Sheri I. Hoem (72), of Hattiesburg, passed away on September 14, 2024. Pinehaven Funeral Home handled arrangements.
Andy Moore (77) passed away on September 8, 2024. A visitation will be held from 2:00 -4:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 21 at Canebrake Clubhouse. Hulett-Winstead Funeral Home is handling arrangements.
Carolyn Fay Gieger Mullican (90), of Petal, passed away on September 9, 2024. Burial is in Highland Cemetery, and Moore Funeral Service handled arrangements.
Carl L. Murphy (90), of Hattiesburg, passed away on September 12, 2024. Hulett-Winstead Funeral Home handled arrangements.
Greg Alison Overstreet (48), of Hattiesburg, passed away on September 13, 2024. Burial is in Highland Cemetery, and Forrest Funeral Home handled arrangements.
Joyce “Kay” Graham Perronne (66), of Sumrall, passed away on September 9, 2024. Burial is in Rock Hill Cemetery, and Hulett-Winstead Funeral Home handled arrangements.
Kenneth Renfroe (72), of Hattiesburg, passed away on September 9, 2024. Burial is in Tilton United Methodist Church Cemetery, and Moore Funeral Service handled arrangements.
James Austin Sellers (38), of Hattiesburg, passed away on September 10, 2024. Burial is in Dixie United Methodist Church Cemetery, and Forrest Funeral Home handled arrangements.
Mary Smith (65), of Hattiesburg, passed away on September 9, 2024. Burial is in Highland Cemetery, and Hulett-Winstead Funeral Home handled arrangements.
William Richard Smith (85), of Hattiesburg, passed away on September 13, 2024. Burial is in Sacred Heart Cemetery, and Moore Funeral Service handled arrangements.
Ralph Stinson (93), of Purvis, passed away on September 13, 2024. Burial is in Coaltown Cemetery, and Moore Funeral Service handled arrangements.
David Lee Wertz (84) passed away on September 10, 2024. Moore Funeral Service handled arrangements.
Richard Pettus Conville, age 52, died of a particularly virulent strain of malaria on September 11, 2024 at University Medical Center, New Orleans. He is survived by his parents Richard L. (Dick) and Mozella P. (Mo) Conville of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, his brother Ward Conville and his wife, Mary Moore, and their son, Rick, all of Hattiesburg. He is also survived by his uncle, Roger Conville and his wife, Barbara of Birmingham, Alabama, and several cousins.
Richard returned, three days before his death, from Equatorial Guinea, West Africa, where he was on assignment from ATI, Inc. of Columbia, MD. For over 20 years Richard worked abroad, usually on short term assignments, from Mexico to Myanmar to Afghanistan to Mali to South Africa to Latvia. He dearly loved his friends in those many postings, the exotic places themselves and his numerous friends in the ex-pat community worldwide.
The day after Richard’s death, the President of Richard’s employer, ATI, Inc., Kishan Amarasekera, conveyed his heartfelt condolences, saying, in part, that Richard “was uniquely skilled and experienced in his field, and he was equally generous with his time and advice trying to help people” and that “he was instrumental in our ability to become a leader in a very technically challenging field supporting the U.S. Department of State at their Embassies worldwide.”
He continued: at the last company annual meeting at Mr. Amarasekera’s home in Columbia, MD, “after finding out my son was going for his Eagle Scout rank, [Richard] sat him down to give his advice on the process as an Eagle Scout himself, as well as life in general. This was typical of Richard.”
Richard was born on June 21, 1972 in Greenfield, Massachusetts and was received by his adoptive parents, Dick and Mo, on June 28, 1972. At age six he moved to Hattiesburg, Mississippi when his father accepted a faculty position at The University of Southern Mississippi. Richard was loved and nurtured by members of University Baptist Church and the Southampton Road gang including Tommy and Robyn Rey and Stephen Hatten. He attended Thames Elementary School, Thames Junior High, and graduated from Hattiesburg High School in 1990. Along the way, gifted teachers, David Walker and Paul Vanzandt taught him to think and encouraged his creativity. In high school, Richard performed in theater productions under the direction of Michael Marks, played drums (quads of course!) in the band under the direction of Vic Flowers and was a starter on Hattiesburg High’s first varsity soccer team under coach Reggie Woullard. While not in school, he could be found calling games at the Dixie Youth baseball fields or practicing skateboard tricks or getting lots of air with his trick bike (on the quarter-pipe he had built in the driveway) or working at the Wheel House on Hardy Street, waiting on customers and repairing bikes. Then there was the band, Open Sea, with Richard on drums. But that’s a whole other story!
After graduation from high school, Richard studied all things computer science, and just about everything else, at Southern Miss, and somehow found time for Sigma Nu Fraternity, serving as its president in 1996.
In Richard’s first job after graduation, he served as the audio-visual technician at Lake Terrace Convention Center in Hattiesburg. After a year or two he joined a firm that was soon acquired by IMAX, then Richard found himself servicing audio systems in IMAX theaters up and down North and South America. That experience, plus late-night conversations in local bars, led to his position with ATI as a BAS (building automation systems) engineer. He worked for them in American embassies across the world for the last ten years of his life.
In the year 2000, Richard married Amy Waltman whom he had met in high school, but the union did not last. He treasured his time with her. Richard had many other relationships over the years both internationally and in New Orleans, where he eventually settled in 2014. The friends at Boulevard Bar and the gang at Cleary Tavern remember him well.
A poem by Mary Oliver captures Richard’s life:
When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.
Richard didn’t merely visit this world. He stormed its walls, occupied it, and made it his own--with courage and conviction and generosity, and yes, love.
A Memorial Service celebrating Richard’s life will be held in the sanctuary of University Baptist Church, Hattiesburg, Mississippi on Sunday afternoon, October 6, at 2:00 pm.
At 3:00 pm all are invited to a Visitation/Reception in Kelley Hall, also at the church.
