Sue Patterson Bielawski

Sue Patterson Bielawski died on 22 September 2025 at The Cedars of Chapel Hill. Since moving there in December 2011, she has participated in play reading and the Classical Concert Series. UNC physicians and Heritage Acupuncture have kept her body functioning. The Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (ERUUF) has nourished her spirit.

Sue was born on July 2, 1935, in Harlan, Kentucky where her father, Harry Rickert Patterson, was selling mining equipment. Her mother, Imogene Lewis Patterson, devoted full time to Sue and her younger brother, Harry Lewis, until he entered school in 1946 when she returned to teaching. Both parents worked in the family vegetable garden and participated in Christian church programs.

Graduation from Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati was wonderful preparation for Oberlin College (1956), the library science graduate program at Indiana University (1964), and the accounting program at North Carolina State University (1984). In retirement she has taken courses at UNC-Chapel Hill, OLLI at Duke, and The Public Humanities at UNC.

Marrying Bart Bielawski in Chicago in 1960 changed her life. She was studying bassoon with Leonard Sharrow, first bassoon in the Chicago Symphony, and Bart was in his first engineering job in America. The next year they moved to Bloomington to enable Sue to perform in music ensembles. They were kids when they got there; when they moved to Corning, NY six years later they were grownups with graduate degrees and two sons.

While Bart pursued new business opportunities for Corning Glass Works, Sue worked in the Technical Information Center and then in the Learning Resources Center at Corning Community College. As fiber optics expanded, Bart’s work took the family to Hickory, North Carolina in 1980 then to Raleigh in 1982. Finding no opportunities as a librarian, Sue retrained for accounting. In November 1984 she passed the whole CPA exam and started work at the North Carolina State Auditor’s Office in March 1985. She retired in 1997.

Survivors include son Mark and his wife Beth Baldwin of Franklin, Tennessee; son Michael and partner Melissa Haft of Chapel Hill; granddaughter Morgan Bielawski of Nashville. Husband, Bart Bielawski, proceeded her in death in 2024.

Aquamation is being handled by Endswell in Hillsborough. Burial will be private.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the charity of your choice.