Suzanne Patricia Scott
Suzanne (Sue) went to be with her Heavenly Father on March 3, 2018. She was born the youngest of four children into a pioneering family, March 30, 1930, in Wenatchee, WA to William and Inez Leonardy. As music was highly valued in her family, she started her piano studies at an early age. After graduation from Wenatchee HS in 1948, she began piano studies at U of W in Seattle. Active as an accompanist in the University Presbyterian Church college group, she met the love of her life, George (Jim) Scott, recently returned from WWII in Europe who had resumed his studies in engineering and business. They were married August 5, 1950 and began a series of residences from Trenton, NJ, around New England and then to Louisville, KY for 27 years (where they raised their five children), returning to New England in Trumbull, CT for the last eight years of George’s lifelong career with the GE Company.
Still the accompanist in most any event she attended in the Kentucky years, she buckled down to the job of raising five children, relishing and utilizing her innate creativity to give them the best she had with games, make believe, and unofficial 4-H training, not to mention the countless hours she spent behind the wheel for years driving kids to lessons, sports, church and school events. As the family grew older, she attended the Louisville Southern Baptist Seminary to complete a 3-year Diploma in Church Music, resuming her pipe organ performances.
Later, in her early 50’s, she completed her Bachelor’s in Organ Performance at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. She served on various American Guild of Organists’ Boards and several churches as organist/choir director. Her last job was the organist for Newport Presbyterian Church in Bellevue. A person of high energy, she was always active in the Presbyterian Church, culminating in representing her presbytery in KY for the Women of the Church in a Consultation on World Hunger trip to India in 1974. Of the trip’s several highlights, she had tea with Indira Gandhi in her garden contrasting with a visit to a leper colony.
In Sue and George’s retirement in the Redmond, WA area, they fulfilled their dreams of traveling to all seven continents. In her last 15 years, both enjoyed the Emerald Heights Retirement Community, Sue accompanying at various function until her pulmonary disease drew it to a close. She is survived by three children: Susan Strong (Blair), Cynthia Sandor (Dan) and David Scott (Jan), seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Her husband of almost 66 years, George, preceded her in death in 2016 as well as two daughters: Sharon in 1977 and Mary Kay White in 1986. Sue Scott’s memorial service will be at Emerald Heights Retirement Community on Friday March 23, 3:00 pm. Memorial contributions can be sent to Bellevue Presbyterian Church.