Barbara Dutrieux Lavelle
September 09, 1941 - July 16, 2026
Service: No service is scheduled at this time
Barbara Dutrieux Lavelle, 84, passed away on July 16, 2026. Daughter of the late Joseph and
Majorie Dutrieux; beloved wife to Thomas F. Lavelle Jr. M.D.; mother to Thomas C. Lavelle
(Anne) and Meredith L. Waltenbaugh (Jake); grandmother to Emma, Sarah, Meghan and
Tommy Lavelle, Aidan, Brady and Riley Waltenbaugh; sister to the late Daniel and William
Dutrieux.
Barbara graduated from St. Mary’s Academy in 1960 and completed her nurse’s training at the
Holy Cross School of Nursing (RN) in South Bend, Indiana, in 1963. She worked as a nurse at
Saint Joseph Hospital in South Bend for the following ten years during which time she advanced
in the administration to become the Assistant Director of Nursing Services. She met her
husband, Thomas F. Lavelle Jr., M.D. during his internship year at Saint Joseph Hospital after
graduating from the Indiana University School of Medicine 1968. Barbara and her husband
married after the internship and then moved to San Diego, California, where he served as a
Navy Physician at the U.S. Naval Hospital in San Diego for the following two years.
Tom and Barb welcomed their first child, a son named Thomas, in 1971. They subsequently
moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan where they welcomed their second child, a daughter named
Meredith, in 1974. In 1976 they moved back to South Bend, Indiana where Tom began his
practice of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center. They
lived in South Bend until they moved to the Pittsburgh area in 2012 to be close to their son and
daughter and their families.
During those years while living in South Bend, Barbara did a lot of volunteer service for Easter
Seals Clinic, Service Guild, St. Anthony Elementary School, and the St. Joseph High School
Annual Auction. She also was a Cub Scout mother. She loved to read her cooking books and
magazines, mystery books and novels. She was a very good cook and enjoyed hosting holiday
dinners for the entire family for many years. She loved going on family vacations with her
children and having holiday family cookouts. She also enjoyed watching her children’s soccer
and tennis tournaments and she enjoyed visiting historic sites such as Gettysburg, Fort
Ligonier, Fort Necessity, Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Boston. Barb and her husband were big
fans of Notre Dame and loved going to Notre Dame football and basketball games.
Barbara was always a very loving wife, mother and grandmother. She will be terribly missed by
her family and her long-time friends back in South Bend.
No service is scheduled at this time. Arrangements made by Devlin Funeral Home.
