Sue Cherry Witte passed away on December 30, 2024, at the age of 84 leaving behind a wealth of love, strength, and knowledge for creating a homelife and friendships surrounded in warmth.
Sue was born in Columbiana, Alabama to Lenora Freeman Cherry and Clinton Lee Cherry of Autauga County in 1940. She was the 4th child in a family of six: Francis, Faye, Carolyn, and twins David and Clint Junior. When she was 6, the family relocated to Birmingham where they lived on a multiple acre farm in West End. The farm was a flower farm that supplied many of the nurseries and floral shops in the Birmingham area. Sue would often come home after school and help her father pick the hundreds of tulips, gladiolus, and jonquils, then bundle them for delivery to the nurseries and floral shops in the morning.
She attended Jones Valley High School and later went on to work for Norwood Clinic for 10 years while taking a few accounting classes at a local university. Norwood Clinic managers knew her as “thoroughly dependable, efficient, of excellent moral character, and pleasant, congenial disposition.”
On New Year’s Eve of 1965, Sue met Chuck (Charles Frederick “Butch” Witte) at the Eastwood Mall Shoney’s drive-in while hanging out with her girlfriends in a convertible. She initially resisted his pursuit, but he persisted all the while mindful that she was out of his league. His perseverance and charm eventually paid off. Of course, his six foot one stature and Elvis-like hair didn’t hurt either. Their courtship began and they later married on November 18, 1967, in Sue’s parents’ home in Birmingham. They were married for fifty-seven years.
In February of 1970, she resigned from Norwood clinic and in May 1970 her daughter Sherry was born. A year later, she started a new position as an Accountant for Carraway Methodist Medical Center, the state’s top trauma unit at that time. Even though she did not have a formal college degree, Sue was well-known for bringing the new CPAs and auditors up to speed with her detailed accounting experience. While handling multi-million dollar accounts, she could track down inaccuracies to the last cent. She was a dedicated employee at Carraway for 33 years.
Soon after her retirement, she relocated to Owens Cross Roads, Alabama to be closer to her granddaughters, Lucid and Lenora Lee. She adored her grandchildren and surrounded them with love, laughter, and lots of wonderful cooking.
Sue was a breast cancer survivor twice over, once at age 46 and then at age 75. She was known personally for her many warm friendships with co-workers and church friends over the years, and never met a stranger. She was extraordinarily close with her older sister Carolyn, with whom she spoke on the phone daily for many decades. She was a skilled seamstress in her spare time. In her younger years, she would often come home from work and make herself a new dress for the next day overnight. If she wasn’t sewing, she was cooking. Her cornbread dressing and biscuits were just the beginning of her array of southern comfort foods. Sue had a tremendous appreciation for etiquette, fine china, punch bowls (and the punch), lovely stationary, flowers, nice clothes, and high heels, and deeply valued her right to vote. She loved a good pimento cheese sandwich, her daughter’s fried green tomatoes, and orange tea. She was in her very essence a class-act to her final day. Her family will deeply miss her presence and cherish all of the love she put into daily life.
Sue is survived by her husband, Charles (Chuck) Frederick “Butch” Witte; daughter, Sherry Witte Sakovich (Aaron); granddaughters, Lucid and Lenora Lee; and elder sister, Carolyn Cato.
Visitation will be from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. Sunday, January 5, 2025, at Laughlin Service Funeral Home in Huntsville, Alabama. There will be a private family service.
