Obituary of Sue Elise Livengood

Sue Elise Vanderbeck Livengood died at age 82 on the morning of March 7, 2022, after a long decline with dementia, in memory care at Arbor Terrace Fulton of Fulton, Maryland.

Sue Vanderbeck was born October 14, 1939, to Herbert Allen (“Van”) Vanderbeck and Mary Caroline Vanderbeck (née Wheaton) and raised in the Rochester, New York area. She lived in the Baltimore and Washington, DC metropolitan areas from 1971 until moving to Arbor Terrace in 2019. She leaves behind a brother, artist Pieter Vanderbeck, of Providence, RI; two children, Jylene of Lynn, MA, and Timothy (m. Gwyn Fireman) of Columbia, MD; and two grandchildren, Rachel and Isaac (partner Ivy Coleman).

Sue was many things, a woman of determination, intelligence, snark, and love. As a working woman in the 1960’s, she was a pioneer by necessity. She was among the first generation of cardiac sonographers trained at Indiana University by Dr. Harvey Feigenbaum. She was a college graduate in her forties (Johns Hopkins U.), who reveled in learning as an amateur student of classical Mayan and Incan culture, with a fondness for the liqueur Xtabentún. She was a leader in using cheap store-bought salad dressing to make delicious barbecue chicken, sometimes worrying the neighbors by injecting marinade with a catheter syringe. She loved flowers, especially lilacs, the symphony, her friends and family. She loved her coffee cold, her enchiladas hot, and her tea strong. She could drive a stick-shift.

Sue's Graveside Service will be held on Saturday, April 23, 2022 at 2 pm in Parma Union Cemetery in Hilton, NY. She may be honored by donations to Heifer International, to the Alzheimer’s Association, or to the American Cancer Society. (click on the charity name to link directly to the donation website)