Westelle Cain Sweeney

Born to the late Elizabeth Pruitt Cain and Cecil Lee Cain in 1935 in Memphis, Tennessee, “Wessie” was the 6th born of 10 children and a lifelong Memphian. She attended Maury Grammar School and Bellevue Jr. High and was baptized at Bellevue Baptist Church. She later attended Memphis State University and practiced nursing in Obstetrics and Gynecology. She was a Lamaze Childbirth Educator and helped birth countless babies. She later became a Senior Research Assistant in the Neuropathology Lab at the University of Tennessee Center for Health Sciences. After retirement, Wess enjoyed reading, gardening, scuba diving and traveling.

She is survived by two sisters, Catherine Cain McCarley and Billie Cain McCollum, and two brothers, Bobby Cain (Jerry) and Curtis Cain. She was preceded in death by her brother Erban Cain (Evelyn), her sisters Dorothy Cain May (Bill), Jeanette Cain Braswell Pounders (J.D.), Mary Nell Cain Upshaw (Harvey), and Elizabeth Cecile Cain.

She brought four beautiful children into this world – Deborah Hull Reeves and Thomas Hull, Jr. (Lynette) with her first husband, the late Thomas Hull, Sr., and Dr. Jennifer Sweeney Norton and Juliet Sweeney with her former spouse of 38 years, Robert “Bob” Sweeney.

She was sadly preceded in death by her first grandchild, Adrienne Hull, and leaves her grandson, Garrett Gooch, three granddaughters - Temperance Norton, Caroline Hull, and Genevieve Chrestman, and one great grandchild, Vivian McDermott.

Due to the current quarantine conditions, pandemic protocols require a private burial for only the immediate family that will be held at Memphis Funeral Home and Memorial Gardens on Wednesday, April 15, 2020. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to St. Jude Childrens’ Hospital.