Dana Sue Sullivan

**Dana Sue Sullivan** is one of the main characters in Sweet Magnolias. She is portrayed by Brooke Elliott.

## Biography

### **Early life**

**Dana Sue Sullivan** attended Serenity High School and graduated from there along with her friends Helen Decatur, Maddie Townsend, Micah Harrison, and Ronnie Sullivan.

### Current Life

**Dana Sue Sullivan** is the wife of Ronnie Sullivan and the mother of Annie Sullivan. She is a chef and owner of the restaurant Sullivan’s. She is still friends with Helen and Maddie and the three of them are referred to as The Sweet Magnolias collectively, and they co-own The Corner Spa together.

## Throughout the Series

### Season 1

In Pour It Out: Dana Sue is having trouble with her family restaurant, Sullivan's, as someone has stole wine from it. later that day, when she is closing the restaurant, she finds her sous-chef, Brad, drunken with the stolen wine. He is behaving violently and saying misogynistic things, so Dana Sue fires him. Later on, Dana Sue discovers that Brad has also scrapped her car.

Dana Sue is also having trouble with her daughter Annie, who isn't happy with the situation she has going on with her mother and directs her anger towards an Instagram account that she made, which she uses to showcase Serenity's most negative aspects.

In A United Front: Dana Sue is feeling stressed, as she doesn't have a sous-chef anymore, even though Erik Whitley, the dessert chef, is doing everything he can to impress her so that he can substitute Brad in the position. Dana Sue doesn't notice how good he would be at the job, and she also doesn't notice Isaac being sneaky and Annie wanting to talk to her. When Dana Sue finally finds time to talk to her daughter, Annie doesn't need her attention anymore. It isn't until later when Dana Sue sees Annie's photo that she had taken of the Sweet Magnolias, which was tucked in an envelope with the name "MOM" in the front.

In Give Drink to the Thirsty: Dana Sue gets sued by Brad for unfair dismissal. He comes to the restaurant and promises in front of everyone at Sullivan's that he will ruin her, causing Erik to take him out to the entrance and threaten Brad. However, Dana Sue is still stressed and needs a pep talk from Maddie to get back on track. Her family issues are complicated too, as Annie thinks her mother cuts people off after one small mistake; Annie uses both her dad and Brad as examples.

In Lay It All Down: Dana Sue is so stressed that she collapses at the beginning of the episode. It turns out that she is at the verge of contracting diabetes, which is apparently the illness that caused her mother's death. Annie is taking Dana Sue's health and blood sugar more seriously than the own Dana Sue does, which leads to another argument between the two of them. Thanks to Erik, Dana Sue finally turns to Pastor June for help, and ends up helping a group of Serenity veterans (such as Collins Littlefield and Vernon Hall) with their cooking. Dana Sue finally goes back to Annie, who finally receives the apology, care and attention from her mother that she initially longed for.

In Dance First, Think Later: Dana Sue is stressed about all the prepping needed to be done before the opening day of The Corner Spa: there is a part of the entrance walls that won't dry. Finally, she manages to cover it thanks to a magnolia painting that Paula brings. Later, Annie is mad at Dana Sue because she isn't paying her attention: Annie needs her mother's permission to leave the spa opening day in order to take a few pictures at the baseball fundraiser for the school newspaper with her friend Simon.

In All Best Intentions: Annie experiences her first hangover after the party at the school gym, and Dana Sue makes it worse by demanding her to go to church.

In Hold My Hand: Dana Sue knows nothing about Annie's drunken mishaps, even though everyone knows at school. However, Dana Sue sees a text message with suspicious emojis in Annie's phone and has a chat with Maddie and Ty, in which the latter snaps under the pressure and gives everything away. This leads to a huge rift between Dana Sue and Annie in which Dana Sue says that what makes her angriest is the fact that Annie lied to her and hid her the whole situation. Dana Sue grounds Annie, which makes Annie even angrier at Ty. Later, after Dana Sue gets home, she and Annie make up and have an emotional conversation.

In What Fools These Mortals Be: Dana Sue implements family breakfast at her household, but Annie isn't too keen on the idea. That throws Dana Sue for a loop, until Erik comes to the rescue and takes her for a walk in the forest. They later go fishing, and Erik teaches her about mindfulness, as well as opening up about his past as an EMT and about his wife, Vera, dying pregnant with his child. Later, Dana Sue is convinced by Annie to let her attend Kyle's play, as it is by Shakespeare and can be considered as educational.

In Where You Find Me: Dana Sue needs to negotiate produce prices with a farmer who turns out to be young and very handsome: Jeremy. Despite Ryan being there to help, Jeremy and Dana Sue ignore him and go on a road trip in Jeremy's car, ending up kissing.

In Storms and Rainbows: at Sullivan's, Dana Sue meets Micah, an old friend of hers who is also Dana Sue's silent partner: he is the co-owner of Sullivan's. After cooking with her, it turns out Micah wants a favor: he wants Dana Sue to buy him out so that he can help a sick relative. Dana Sue asks Helen for help, and she says that there are two ways to do it: one of them is getting a mortgage for her house (which Dana Sue doesn't want to do), and the other is to divorce her estranged husband, Ronnie. However, when she calls him so he can come to town and talk to her, he doesn't feel the same way and wants to get back together with Dana Sue. And in case there wasn't enough turmoil, Isaac suspects that he could be Dana Sue and Micah's child, so he tearfully asks her if she is his mother, to which Dana Sue answers she isn't.

### Season 2

**Casseroles and Casualties**

TBA

**So Much to Say**

TBA

**The More Things Change**

TBA

**Walk of Faith**

TBA

**Great Expectations**

TBA

**Find It in Your Heart**

TBA

**Fragile Things**

TBA

**The Rules of the Game**

TBA

**Dear Heart**

TBA

**If Thou Wilt, Remember**

TBA

## Relationships

### Friends

#### Micah Harrison

Micah and Dana Sue were friends for years. He helped seed her the money for Sullivan's. In Storms and Rainbows, he comes back to town to talk to Dana Sue about buying him out of Sullivan's as he needed the money to help his brother.

### Enemies

#### Kathy

*For more information see Dana Sue and Kathy*

### Ronnie Sullivan

*For more information see Ronnie and Dana Sue*

### Jeremy Reynolds

*For more information see Jeremy and Dana Sue*

## Trivia

* Her mother died of diabetes.
* She and her father worked on fixing up a skylark convertible when she was younger.

## Gallery

**Dana Sue Sullivan** has a **photo gallery**.