Mary Bert Thornton Dugas

New Iberia Memorial services will be held at 10:00 AM Monday, August 25, 2014 at Pellerin Funeral Home in New Iberia, for Mary-Bert Thornton Dugas, 81, who died Friday, August 22, 2014 in New Iberia. Entombment will follow in the St. Joseph Cemetery in Loreauville. A gathering of family and friends will be Monday from 8:30 AM until 10:00 AM at Pellerin Funeral Home in New Iberia. Rev. Ed Degeyter will officiate. A longtime area resident, Mrs. Dugas was born on October 20, 1932 to Lyman E. Thornton, Sr., and Mary Alice Eaton Thornton. She taught for 24 years, retiring after teaching at Mt. Carmel Academy, and Jeanerette High School. She received several bachelors degrees from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where she studied criminology, English, and general studies. Mrs. Dugas dedicated her life to constantly learning new subjects and mastering existing ones, including engineering, music, genealogy, crocheting, art, and languages. Mrs. Dugas is survived by her husband of 45 years, Denis Dugas, Jr. of New Iberia; children, Tim Hance and wife Sarah of Mandeville, Nancy Hance Fuslier of New Iberia, Peter Dugas and wife Jennifer of Washington, D.C.; brother, Lyman Butch Thornton and wife Pam of New Iberia; grandchildren, Marie Denise Broussard, Kellan C. Dugas, and Tenley E. Dugas. I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. Thoreau, Henry David. In lieu of flowers, the Dugas family request donations be made to the Iberia Parish Library. Pellerin Funeral Home, 502 Jefferson Terrace Blvd., New Iberia, LA 70560, 337.365.3331, is in charge of arrangements.