Suzanne Marcella Sue (Smith) Hart

Sue Hart, 78, longtime faculty member at MSU Billings, died August 25, 2014, in Livingston, Montana, surrounded by her family. A vigil and social gathering will be held from 3-6 p.m., Thursday, August 28th on the campus of MSU Billings, 1500 University Drive. The prayer vigil and sharing of remembrances will begin at 3:00 p.m. in Petro Theater. A Funeral Mass will be held at noon, Friday, August 29th, at St Patricks Co-Cathedral, 215 North 31st Street. Cremation has taken place. Interment will take place at a later date at Mountain View Cemetery in Livingston. Suzanne "Sue" Hart was born on April 15, 1936, in Detroit, Michigan, to Truman and Mayetaa Toohey Smith. She was raised and educated in Detroit until the family moved to White Plains, New York in 1956. As an undergraduate, she attended Mercy College (now the University of Detroit Mercy), Good Counsel College (now the White Plains campus of Pace University), and the University of London. In 1958, she moved to Missoula to attend the then-Montana State University (now The University of Montana) as a graduate assistant in the English Department. She received an M.A. in English from that institution, and taught at the University of Idaho and Billings Catholic Central High School before joining the faculty of the English Department at Eastern Montana College of Education (now MSU Billings) in 1961. She taught a variety of courses at MSUB, including College Composition, Reading & Responding to Literature, Creative Writing, and five courses she developed for the department: Montana Writers, Montana Memoirs, Adolescent Literature, Magazine Article Writing, and Women in Literature & the Arts. Following her 2013 retirement, Sue was conferred the rank of Professor Emeritus by the Montana Board of Regents, recognizing her 50 years of service to MSU Billings, her community, and her state. She was a frequent contributor to a number of magazines and professional journals, and at one time worked for the Billings Gazette. She also developed a Local Access Channel Television interview program, "Montana Books & Authors," which she hosted for over ten years. She traveled the state making presentations for the Montana Committee for the Humanities (now Humanities Montana) Speakers Bureau, and she enjoyed meeting the people in the communities she visited. (She loved telling her freiends in the East about the week she drove 1200 miles to make presentations and never left the state.) She received a PEN Syndicated Fiction Award for her short story, "Star Pattern," and wrote four books: The Call to Care, the history of St. Vincent Hospital; Yellow-stone & Blue, the history of the first 75 years of MSU Billings; Montana Center on Disabilities: Focusing on Abilities; and Billings: Montanas Trailhead. She was the recipient of a Governors Humanities Award, a Governors AIDS Award, the Montana Historical Societys Board of Trustees Educators Award, a WILLA Award from Women Writing the West, and three Faculty Excellence Awards from MSU Billings. Sue was fortunate enough to work with Bill Bilverstone, Lansing Dreamer, and Gene Brodeur of Montana PBS on the production of two documentaries, "Paradise & Purgatory: hemingway at the L-T & St. Vincent Hospital," for which she was an associate producer, and "Gravel in her Gut and Spit in Her Eye The Life of Dorothy M Johnson," for which she wrote the script and was co-producer. The latter was a Spur Award finalist in the Best Documentary Script category in 2006. Her good fortune continued when she was able to work with Rob Massee and Dennis Schuld of the MSUB campus, on documentaries covering the lives of two important Montanans, Ben Steele and Elsie Fox. She was also extremely fortunate to know many of the states finest authors, poets, and historians, including A.B. Guthrie Jr., Dorothy M Johnson, Norman Maclean, Marian Place, James Welch, Dave Walter, Michael Malone, Ivan Doig, Tami Haaland, Sandra Alcosser, Shirley Steele, Melissa Kwasney, Patricia Nell Warren and her author friends in Livingston, William "Gatz" Hjortsberg and his wife, artist Janie Camp, Terry C. Johnston and his wife Vanette, Tim Cahill, and many others. In addition, Sue was privileged to have worked with editor Caroline Patterson on the Montana Women Writers anthology, A Geography of the Heart and the Fra Dana biography. She was blessed to be an Associate of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth in her later years, and to serve as a sacristan and Eucharistic minister for several years at St. Vincent Hospital. She also volunteered as a docent at the Moss Mansion and was a frequent presenter at professional conferences until 1992 when her parents moved to Billings to make their home with her. Their presence also blessed her life. She was married to Richard H. Gilluly in 1959, and they had four children, Kathleen, Mary, Michael and Margaret. As the woman in the old story tells her friend who brags about her gold neclases and bracelets, Sues children were her jewels. She later married Ronald Mathew and Michael Hart. Even though these marriages ended in divorce, she and her children stayed close to the Hart and Mettler/Mathews families. In 2000, she married her longtime friend Richard S Wheeler. They enjoyed 13 years together, sharing their interests in Montana history, writing, and entertaining their many friends in Billings and Livingston. She was preceded in death by her parents, Truman and Mayetta Smith; her niece, Stacy Higdon; her cousin Terry Toohey; dear in-laws, Sam and Esther Gilluly, sister in-law Carol Gilluly, Helen Covert, sister in-law Susan Mettler, and Edmund and Leta Mettler. Survivors include her husband; one son, Michael Gilluly (Shelby), Billings; three daughters: Kathleen Gilluly, Laurel; Mary Gilluly, Livingston; and Margaret Marquez, Cedar Park, TX; a stepson, Mitch Hart (Kelia) and their sons Matthew and Samuel, Billings; a brother, Richard T. Smith (Sue), Murfreesboro, TN; brothers in-law: Jack Gilluly and Bob (Mary Ann) Gilluly, Anaconda; three cousins: James Toohey (Jan), Charles (Lori) and Don (Kathy) Smith, Detroit, MI; six grandchildren: Gene Gilluly (Donna), Billings; Remi Trottier (Carol), Oregon; Benjamin and Samuel Marquez, Cedar Park, TX; Laine and Jack Gilluly, Billings; two great-grandchildren: Casey Gilluly, Laurel, and Myla Abrahams, Billings; many young people who lived in the Hart household while they attended college; thousands of former students, and many, many dear friends. In lieu of flowers, please remember our mother by giving of yourself, your time, your resources to those in need, in her memory. Memorials can be made to the Sue Hart Opportunity Scholarship Endowment, MSU Billings Foundation, 1500 University Drive, Billings, MT 59101. Online condolences may be shared at Franzen-Davis.com Always an author and true to her giving nature, Sue prepared her own obituary, updating it over the years with births, deaths, and accomplishments. Thank you, mom, for helping us through this