After a long and rewarding life filled with service, travel, good health and adventure, Olive Sullivan, 95, died September 26, 2025 at Southeast Iowa Hospice House.
Born June 16, 1930 in Morrowville, Kan. and raised on a farm there during the Great Depression, Olive came to Burlington in 1955 shortly after graduating from Kansas State University to pursue a journalism career at the Burlington Hawkeye Gazette. As a 25-year-old reporter, she had the opportunity to interview Eleanor Roosevelt before advancing to editor of what was then known as the women’s pages. She later worked for the Area Education Agency as a public relations specialist, but continued to write for the paper as a featured columnist for decades.
Olive believed in service to others and was actively involved in numerous organizations in the Burlington area. She was a member of the Altrusa Club, League of Women Voters, Shining Trail Girl Scout Council, YWCA, the Shakespeare Club, local chapters of the UN and NAACP, P.E.O., King’s Daughters, the Des Moines County planning commission, Geode RC & D, CRISP, the Red Cross, Southeast Iowa Symphony, Players Workshop, Des Moines County Historical Society and Des Moines County Democrats. She was on the Burlington Sesquicentennial Board and in her free time, delivered meals and books for the area agency on aging. She was also a dedicated member of Grace United Methodist Church.
Love of adventure and travel took Olive all over the globe and she enjoyed exchanging and sharing ideas with people of different cultures, from Alaska to Morocco to the Great Barrier Reef. One of her favorite places to visit was Lake Chautauqua in Upstate New York where she traveled on various occasions with the King’s Daughters What-So-Ever Circle.
Olive is survived by her children: Gail Sullivan of New York City and Benne Sullivan of Watertown, S.D.; several nieces and nephews, and many friends, 110 of whom attended her 95th birthday party in June. She was preceded in death by her husband LeRoy, her three siblings, and her beloved 18-year-old kitty Mickie.
Olive fully and fearlessly embraced life with a smile, an upbeat attitude and encouraging words for everyone, touching the lives of many people. She enjoyed sharing her wealth of knowledge about the community and sought to make the world a better and more compassionate place at every opportunity.
A celebration of Olive’s life will be held at a future date in conjunction with several of the organizations she was passionate about. Memorials may be sent to the Des Moines County Humane Society, PAW Animal Shelter in Fort Madison or Grace United Methodist Church.