Obituary of Mary Sue Cheek

Burlington Mary Sue Moore Cheek, 91, passed away peacefully on Wednesday January 14, 2015 at Twin Lakes Community in Burlington. Mary Sue was born in Pitt County, NC on February 19, 1923 to Lula Trott Moore and Lee Hyman Moore. She graduated from high school in Greenville and matriculated from East Carolina Teachers College (now East Carolina University). Her lifelong ambition was to work in the fashion industry so she left on a one way ticket to New York City and quickly secured a position there with McCall's Patterns writing fashion copy. After two years in New York she moved to Richmond, Virginia, where she worked with Miller and Rhodes also as a fashion copy writer. She met Marvin Emmett Cheek on a blind date and after a whirlwind courtship, married him, and traveled to the 1946 Sugar Bowl for their honeymoon as he was playing right guard for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill football team. She moved to Chapel Hill with her husband and became a kindergarten teacher at Little Red Schoolhouse in Chapel Hill. She later got her master's degree in early childhood education from UNC-CH and then worked for 25 years for the Chapel Hill School System. She also helped her husband manage their farm near White Cross, NC. After her retirement, she and her husband moved to the Twin Lakes Community in Burlington in 1994. Mary Sue travelled extensively throughout Europe during the past 20 years with the company of friends and family. She was very active in community affairs at Twin Lakes until her health declined in the past five years. She was a lifelong Baptist and member of several churches during her lifetime, the most recent being First Baptist Church of Burlington. She is survived by her son, Thomas Emmett Cheek (wife Miriam Cowan), two step-grandchildren, Mariah Elizabeth Norment (husband Kraig) of Burlington and Karl Matthew Kircher of Greensboro. Her sister, Hilda Marian Moore McDonald of Elkin also survives, along with her children. Four children of her older sister, Margaret (now deceased) also survive. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Hospice & Palliative Care Center of Alamance-Caswell, 914 Chapel Hill Road, Burlington, NC 27215. The family wishes to acknowledge the many hours dedicated to the care of Sue by members of Hospice. The family also wishes to acknowledge the care given by the dedicated staff of Coble Health Center at Twin Lakes and to acknowledge Gwynn Moore for her special friendship and care of Sue. The family will receive visitors on Friday evening January 23 from 7 pm to 9 pm at Walker's Funeral Home, 120 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC. A funeral service will be held at Walker's Funeral Home of Chapel Hill at 11 am on Saturday January 24, followed by a memorial service at Twin Lakes Community Chapel, 3801 Wade Coble Drive, Burlington, NC at 1 pm.