Barbara Sullivan

Mystic — Barbara J. (Whiteman) Sullivan, 94, of Mystic died Monday, Jan. 11, 2021.

She was the wife of the late CDR. Edward T. Sullivan USN (Ret.) They were married 58 years before his death in 2011.

Born in Guilford, she was the daughter of the late Robert and Margaret (Scanlon) Whiteman and attended the Guilford school system, graduating from high school in 1944. Following high school, she attended St. Raphael School of Nursing in New Haven, joining the U.S. Cadet Nursing Corps. She graduated with her nursing degree in 1947, working in various local hospitals in New Haven County for several years before her marriage to Ed in 1952.

During her career as a Navy wife, Barbara lived overseas in such places as Naples, Italy and Cavite City, the Philippines and many states across the U.S., including Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey and Virginia. Following Ed’s retirement from the Navy, she and Ed settled in Mystic in 1979, where she returned to work as a nurse’s aide at Mary Elizabeth Nursing Center.

She is survived by her three children, Eileen Sullivan and her husband, Scott McDiarmid of Annapolis, Md., Anne Megan Sullivan of Los Angeles, Calif., and Mark Sullivan of Mystic; her grandson Brian Ostahowski and his wife, Katherine; several nieces, nephews and cousins; and her beloved cat Mona.

A Mass and burial at St. Patrick Church in Mystic will be planned in the spring or summer of this year. The Mystic Funeral Home is handling Barbara’s arrangements.