Carolyn Sue Akin Bates

Carolyn Sue Akin Bates (Sue), (Mama Sue), mother and best friend passed away on August 13, 2015. She was born October 21, 1936 in Indianapolis, IN to Orville and Irene Akin. She is survived by her children, Jerri Sue Bates, Michael Lane Bates and Paul Stephen Bates; sister, Sandra Kay Coffey and ex-husband Don L. Bates.

She lived in Evansville, IN from 1958 – 1970 with her husband Don and they raised three great kids. She always thought the world of her husband's family. She always had a job of some kind and worked until she was 76 years young. She had an incredible work ethic that her kids display today.

In 1970, her family moved to Baton Rouge, LA, where she went to work for Eckert's (now CVS) and later for the local newspaper Morning Advocate, State Times. In 1992 she moved to Austin, TX at the request of her daughter. Sue acquired her nickname Mama Sue while working at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and it just stuck with her. She loved being called Mama Sue. She later went to work for Samsung and absolutely loved the people there. Everywhere she worked, they all knew who Mama Sue was and knew she would always give them some kind of wise crack or comment just for them. She would come home and tell Jerri stories about people that day using their names and expecting her to know exactly who they were and to remember the next time she brought up their names.

Mama Sue was an avid bowler carrying a bowling average of 165-175 over her 30 years of bowling. She loved traveling to other state's tournaments and placed several times 'in the money'. She had several hobbies over the years including ceramics, crocheting, and had an awesome collection of cookbooks. She didn't use any of them, she just liked to have them. She also collected VHS and DVD movies like crazy. In 2009, Jerri cataloged her movies on the computer to keep her from buying duplicates. At the time of her death, Mama Sue's collection had a count of 854 titles. She would not loan them to anyone either.

Mother loved to gamble. We'd go to Shreveport and she'd be packed and ready 2-3 days before we would leave. She'd have all of her casino cards and money in her fanny pack. I would check on her from time to time in the casino and there she was, in the same spot, for hours. One time she asked me to get her the evening pills she needed to take since I was going up to the room. Well, I brought ALL the pills. Mike was at a different table and the Pit Boss came over to him to said, "hey, your Mom is falling asleep". Oops, I gave her a sleeping aide, she did say "bring me my pills".

Mama Sue was a social butterfly and was a lot of fun to be around. She never, ever met a stranger. She had friends all over the place: Chili's, Texas Road House, Wal-Mart, you name it. Everyone knew her.

On August 30, 2005, Mama Sue was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. The doctors told us that she need surgery and asked her when did want to have that done. "Tomorrow sounds good she said". Well, her surgery went well and the day she was discharged from the surgery, she wanted to go up to Samsung and see everyone, because she already missed them. Cancer was not going to stop her from living...and it didn't...She went through chemotherapy and took her medicine and was cancer free for eight years but, it came back in January of 2013 and radiation was the cure this time...she stayed cancer free until her death. She passed away in the wee early minutes (12:32) of August 13, 2015 from phenomena that she had contracted because of issues with self-aspiration.