Sharon McDowell Hanks

RAYNE - Funeral services will be held on Friday, Jan. 17, 2020, at a 11 a.m. Mass of Christian Burial at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Rayne, for Sharon McDowell Hanks, 77, who died peacefully with her family at her side on Saturday, Jan. 11, at River Oaks Retirement Manor in Lafayette.
Interment will be in the St. Joseph Cemetery #2 in Rayne.
Rev. Kevin Bordelon, Pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Rayne, will be the Celebrant of the Funeral Mass and will conduct the funeral services.
Survivors include her daughter, Dianna L. Hanks Parra; son, Kane C. Hanks and spouse Michelle D. Hanks; three grandchildren, Jackie Miller Dimsey, Payton Gayle Hanks and Murren Isabella Hanks; brother, Jed Doerr; and two step-sisters, Phyllis Fry and Norma Wilson.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Ronald Patrick Hanks; mother, Beatrice Doerr; step-father, Albert Doerr; and sister, Suzanne Kasikantiris.
Mrs. Sharon was a High School graduate in South Roxanna, Illinois. Shortly after she joined the United States Marine Corps. She was a telecommunications officer under the Presidency of Lyndon Johnson and was stationed in Germany for a period of time. She was then transferred to Washington, D.C., where she met her husband, Ronald Patrick Hanks of Rayne. Her husband served as a Crew Chief Officer on U.S. Marine One, Presidential Helicopter, during the period of presidencies for Lyndon Johnson and John F. Kennedy. The couple resided in the New Orleans area for a short period of time, then eventually became permanent residents of Rayne.
Mrs. Sharon worked alongside her husband in the farming industry in Rayne and surrounding areas and were associated with the Hanks Warehouse Seed and Feed dealership that was owned and operated by her husband and his brother, Larry Hanks.
During her lifetime, she was able to acquire her private pilot’s license, attended college at LSU at Eunice, was the operations accountant for Hanks Enterprises, all while raising her family. In her younger years she taught catechism for children of Rayne Catholic Elementary School, volunteered her time for Catholic Cursillo in Prairie Ronde and sang in the choir for the St. Joseph Catholic Church.
Mrs. Sharon was a devoted daughter that tended to her mother, Beatrice Doerr, in Roxanna, Illinois, for many years until her mother’s passing. She loved a good cup of coffee, Elvis, fishing off her son’s fishing pier in Toledo Bend, and shooting at squirrels with a BB gun in her back yard – which they always seemed to haunt her because they would eat all of her bird seed. She loved nothing more than to sit with family and friends while working through a tray of boiled crawfish with a few ice-cold Miller Light beers to quench her thirst. Those that knew her well always expected a detailed and sometimes, arguable, but friendly conversation.
A relative from Illinois, Griffen Courtoise, currently serving our Country in Pakistan as a U.S. Air-Bourne Ranger, wrote a caption on social media when he was made aware of her passing. He knew her well and wrote, “She started a life and made a family in Cajun Country in Louisiana, whom she loved with every fiber of her being, and despite what she insisted, her gumbo was truly wonderful. Most importantly, she had a strong and abiding faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. I know she is now fulfilling the purpose of her existence praising Him with all her soul in paradise. The way she described things, she could make the most mundane sound absolutely exquisite. Go with God, Rest in Peace”.
Pallbearers will be Jason Courtoise, Donald Dupuis, Jason Hanks, Scott Dupuis, Noland LeBlanc and Fred Menard.
A Rosary will be prayed Thursday, Jan. 16, at 6:30 p.m. in Gossen Funeral Home in Rayne.
The family requests visitation be observed in Gossen Funeral Home in Rayne on Thursday, Jan. 16, from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. and on Friday Jan., 17, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Friends may view the obituary and guestbook online at www.gossenfuneralhome.net.
Arrangements have been entrusted to Gossen Funeral Home, Inc. of Rayne, LA, 334-3141.