Suzanne Hargett Gulley

Suzanne Hargett Gulley died on January 14, 2019. Born October 6, 1939, she was the daughter of William (Bill) and Madge Crocker Hargett. She attended the old Matthews High School, graduated from East Mecklenburg High School and spent a year at Gardner Webb College before marrying her high school sweetheart, Jim Gulley at age 19. Mrs. Gulley went back to college at age 58. She graduated cum laude with a degree in political science from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2000. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Pi Sigma Alpha, the national honor society of political science.

As a teenager and young adult, Suzanne was a featured soloist with the First Baptist Church of Matthews Sanctuary Choir, taught a Sunday school class and worked in summer bible school programs at Mount Moriah Baptist Church. She also appeared as a soloist in a number of musical productions in high school and college.

She was employed for three years at Allstate Insurance Company before leaving to have her first child, Jim, Jr. and later daughter Elissa. While her children were young, Mrs. Gulley was active in the Matthews Elementary PTA, serving as treasurer for the organization and working on the annual barbecue and in other fund raising endeavors. She and her husband were among the early founders of Matthews Athletic and Recreation Association where she served as a cheerleading coach and a sponsor coordinator. She was proud of the fact that she was able to obtain sponsors for all of the baseball, softball and football teams which were fielded over several years’ time while her children were playing ball at MARA.

Mrs. Gulley began her journalistic career as a part-time reporter for The Southeast News making just $5 per week reporting on church, school, scouting and MARA games. A few years later, she became editor of the paper still only working part-time. When that paper folded, she became the first managing editor of Creative Loafing, leaving there to become editor of the Matthews News.

She was the publisher of the Matthews Record. During her writing career, Mrs. Gulley won numerous state press awards for news and feature writing as well as photography. One national press award for design was presented to the Record. She created quite a stir in Matthews when she began publishing a Civil War diary kept by a man from the community. She loved telling the story that as she was inputting portions of the diary how she began crying when in 1863 the soldier’s wife died in child birth. She discovered the diary’s existence while reading old Mecklenburg County real estate records.

Mrs. Gulley was among organizers of the old Stumptown Festival and she chaired parades for the event for several years.

When her husband, Jim was first elected to a seat on the Matthew Town Council and later to the North Carolina House of Representatives, Mrs. Gulley became an avid political volunteer, heading his fund raising and organizing his campaign. She worked for two years in his office in Raleigh, serving as his legislative assistant.

After gaining this political experience, Mrs. Gulley was ready to try her hand at local politics. She was first elected to the Matthews Town Council in 2002 and was honored to serve as Mayor Protem of Matthews for four of the ensuing 10 years she spent on the council. While a commissioner she represented the town with Centralina Council of Governments and The Arts and Science Council.

She was a strong advocate for greenways in the town and was excited to be on hand when the first shovel of earth for the Matthews sportsplex was turned in 2012. Mrs. Gulley was a Team Matthews library volunteer and a founding member of the effort to build an armed forces museum in Mint Hill.

She and her husband loved to travel and spent many happy vacations touring the US, Europe, South America, Canada, and a number of islands in the Caribbean.

Mrs. Gulley was preceded in death by her husband, Jim and her sister, Nancy Troutman.

Mrs. Gulley is survived by her son Jim, Jr. and wife Paige of Concord, her daughter Elissa Biggs of Clayton, NC and four grandchildren-Jessica Gulley and Erik, Everett and Emery Biggs.

A memorial service will be held at 12:00 pm on Saturday, January 26, 2019 at McEwen Funeral Service-Mint Hill Chapel with a celebration of life reception to immediately follow.

Mrs. Gulley requested that those who care to donate in her name do so to First Baptist Church of Matthews.

Condolences may be offered online at www.mcewenminthillchapel.com.