Mary Wood Beauchamp Sealy

New Iberia Funeral services will be at 11:00 AM Tuesday, September 22, 2015 at Pellerin Funeral Home in New Iberia for Mary Wood Beauchamp Sealy, who passed away peacefully on Sunday, September 20, 2015 at the age of 97 in Lafayette, Louisiana. Interment will follow in the St. Peter Cemetery in New Iberia. Rev. Ed Downs will officiate. A gathering of family and friends will be Monday from 5:00 PM until 8:00 PM at Pellerin Funeral Home in New Iberia. Visitation will continue on Tuesday from 9:00 AM until 11:00 AM. Born February 7, 1918, in Marianna, Arkansas and a longtime resident of New Iberia, Louisiana, Mary Wood was a retired journalist and first grade teacher. She was preceded in death by her husband of 53 years, Kerny H. Sealy, her father, Jesse Denson Beauchamp, her mother, Ethel Brown Beauchamp, and her brother, J.D. Beauchamp. Her survivors are five children, John Sealy and wife Carolyn of Knoxville, TN, Tommy Sealy and wife Arlene of Mandeville, Billy Sealy and wife Debbie of Pensacola, FL, Elizabeth Sealy Lenoir and husband Jimmy of Walker, and Martha Sealy and husband Dan Hebert of Baton Rouge. She is also survived by 10 grandchildren, Tracy Sealy Stack, Michael Sealy, Jared Sealy, Brent Sealy, Matthew Sealy, Richard Lenoir, Sealy Lenoir Pettavino, Joseph Falgoust, Scott Falgoust, and Benjamin Falgoust. Her great-grandchildren are Connor and Caden Stack, Phaedra Sealy, Gracie Pettanivo, William Falgoust, Palmer Sealy Falgoust, and another great-granddaughter due to arrive in February of 2016. Mary Wood graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in journalism and thereafter worked as a reporter at the El Dorado Daily News and Evening Times and at the Shreveport Times. During World War II she published a company newsletter for an ordinance plant near El Dorado. Recently, her article Pen Pal on the Fence Post garnered an award when published in Life Style magazine. She also earned a degree in education from USL and taught first grade at North Lewis Street Elementary for 25 years. She was a member of the Iberia Teacher Retired Association, Daughters of American Revolution, and First Baptist Church where she taught Sunday School for many years. She loved to read and walked the neighborhood regularly until her late 80s. Pallbearers will be her grandsons. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St. Judes Childrens Hospital, PO Box 1000, Dept. 142, Memphis, TN, 38101, or First Baptist Church, 210 East St. Peter Street. New Iberia, LA 70560. The family would like to express their sincere gratitude to friends and neighbors Cathy and Kerry, Kathy and Brian, Al and Allen, Dawn and Janet, and Mary and Sue who were always there for her. Pellerin Funeral Home, 502 Jefferson Terrace Blvd, New Iberia, LA 70560, 337.365.3331, is in charge of the arrangements