REV. 'GUS' DARLING RITES SLATED TUESDAY

PERRYVILLE -- The Rev. Willis F. "Gus" Darling, C.M., 91, of Perryville died Friday, Oct. 16, 1998, at St. Mary's Seminary in Perryville.

He was born Nov. 20, 1906, at Sparta, Ill., son of Roscoe and Anna Stratmann Darling.

He served on the faculty of St. Vincent's College in Cape Girardeau from 1933 to 1944, and was the founding pastor of Holy Family Church, which served the black Catholic community in southern Cape Girardeau at the time.

He entered the novitiate at St. Mary's Seminary in Perryville in 1924. He professed vows in 1926, was ordained deacon by Bishop D.D. Gonzalez in 1932 and was ordained as a priest at St. Mary's Seminary by Bishop Lillis in 1932.

He was a member of the faculty at Los Angeles College in Los Angeles, Calif., from 1932 to 1933.

In 1944, he became pastor at St. Katherine's Church in New Orleans, where he served until 1950. He was an administrator at Rosati Hall in Chicago from 1950 to 1961.

From 1961 to 1963, he was pastor of St. Vincent's Church in Los Angeles, then became a member of the faculty at St. Thomas Seminary in Denver, Colo., until 1966.

He was an administrator at Assumption Seminary in San Antonio, Texas, from 1966 to 1967. He served as pastor of St. Vincent's Church in St. Louis from 1967 until 1976. He was then an associate at St. Vincent's Church in Chicago until 1992. From 1992 to 1993 he was an associate at DePaul Vincentian Residence in Chicago.

He was a senior confrere at St. Mary's of the Barrens in Perryville.

Survivors include a sister, Carrie Richard.

He was preceded in death by a brother and three sisters.

The Rev. Darling will rest in state at St. Mary's of the Barrens Church in Perryville after 5 p.m. today. Parish prayers will be said at 7:30.

Funeral Mass will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at St. Mary's of the Barrens Church. Burial will be in the Vincentian Cemetery in Perryville.

The Miller Family Funeral Home in Perryville is in charge of the arrangements.