Sue Balliette joined the Madison Astronomical Society in the late 1960s as a high school student after she learned of the club during a visit to the Washburn Observatory.

Sue had a visual impairment that prevented her from driving. To ensure her participation in MAS, her father Roger drove her to the meetings and joined the club himself. Attending meetings with Sue ignited Roger’s interest in astronomy and the two would go on to be active members and serve on its board through the 1970s and 1980s. Sue served many terms as secretary and Roger served as secretary and later as president.

By the end of the 1980s, Roger’s health was deteriorating, and he was having trouble driving. In 1988 he became disabled and died in 1991. Lacking reliable transportation, Sue thought her involvement with MAS had ended for good. But in late 2020, as I was working on the club history project, I located her and re-established contact.

Sue’s involvement with the club had been important to her as a young woman and, when she could no longer participate, its absence left a big hole in her life which she always regretted. When I got in touch with her in 2020, I immediately invited her back because we were meeting via Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sue knew how to use Zoom and enthusiastically accepted my invitation. However, after visiting MAS’s website, she thought that meeting attendance required membership and, due to her fixed income, she could not afford to join. MAS’s board considered the issue and immediately decided to give Sue an honorary lifetime membership. Sue happily attended meetings for the duration of the pandemic. After we began to return to in-person meetings by the end of 2022, I offered to arrange rides for Sue to come to the meetings in person but she always declined. I don’t believe it was a lack of interest, but perhaps she didn’t want to be a bother.

While writing the History of the Madison Astronomical Society, 1935-1988, I interviewed Sue extensively. She related many anecdotes from her years in the club. Here are two that stuck with me:

Sue recalled her pleasure at being the motivating influence that got MAS to pass a smoking ban sometime during the 1970s. She reported that some of the men were upset with her that they could no longer smoke in the meetings but, as an asthma sufferer, Sue felt it was the right choice and stood by her activism. And the vote to ban smoking passed with no opposition!

Sue was an enthusiastic fan of Star Trek (the original television series). In the early 1970s, this was still fresh and considered cutting-edge sci-fi. Among MAS members, Sue found several other fans. She loved the chance to socialize with people of like mind and be given the chance to chat about their Trekkie fandom.

As the club historian, reconnecting Sue with MAS felt significant to me. Sue was a link to an earlier era of MAS, and her stories contributed much to fleshing out the activities of the club from the late 1960s through the 1980s. One of her contributions centered around the fact that women were in the minority, so female MAS members tended to stick together. Many of Sue’s fondest memories of the club were tied to the various women she became friends with over the years due to her connection to the group. Sue also contributed important recollections of one of MAS’s founding members, Paula Birner Carey.

Despite her mobility and visual challenges, Sue remained very active socially. While the pandemic limited many opportunities, it opened others up because of the proliferation of online meetings. Deeply devout, Sue was active with her church friends and loved talking about books and discussing religious topics. She served on the Madison Disability Rights Commission and maintained close touch with many Alcoholics Anonymous friends, despite her many years of sobriety. And of course, she rejoined the astronomical society. Sue’s life centered around friendships and public service.

Sue died in her sleep on December 28th, just a couple weeks shy of her 71st birthday.

(Written by John Rummel, January 2024. Photo from Sue’s online obituary found here)

For me the stars on a black velvet sky surpass the beauty of a great sunset or a beautiful forest. The starry sky touches the heart and love of God, who created it all.

(Concluding lines of an essay Sue wrote around 2005 on her years in the Madison Astronomical Society.)