Carolyn Sue Leonard Pusateri

Carolyn Sue (Leonard) Pusateri, 83, passed away on 1/14/2025 in Wilmington NC. She was born on 7/11/1941 to Wilma (Billie) L. Dunlap and McClelland (Mac) H. Leonard in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She grew up on Overbrook Blvd in Carrick, PA with her parents and older sister, Nancy J.  (Leonard) Bullion. She was a majorette at Carrick High School. She attended West Penn Nursing school where she obtained her RN. She met James (Jim) P. Pusateri, who had gone to the same high school, after he returned from Korea. They married in 1963.

She was a dynamic personality and over her life was a surgical scrub nurse, Realtor, home builder, kitchen cabinet designer and business owner. She lived in the North Hills (Allison Park/Hampton Township, PA) for many years and later Topsail Island and Wilmington, NC. She made friends easily and had many lifelong friends for 50 and 60 years. She called herself the ‘Food Fairy’ for her love of cooking and sharing the food with others. If you were sick or just because she never figured out how to cook for just two, she would bring you her Chicken Marsala or a Dutch-apple, peach-nectarine-blueberry, or Impossible coconut pie.

She had many passions, but gardening and flower arranging were some of her favorites. She had beautiful gardens and created floral shop quality arrangements. She loved to teach others how to do it too. Apple arrangements for Christmas were her special favorite. After retiring to the beach, she continued to make new friends, cook, and teach. She loved ‘her ocean’.

She was described as ‘unique’, ‘the person with the most personality I ever met’, ‘a friend for 60 years’, ‘a visionary’, ‘someone who was there for me when I needed them’, ‘an excellent cook and friend’, ‘extraordinary’, ‘a blessing to me’, ‘a friend to everyone she met; butcher, doctor, landscaper, or neighbor’. She will be missed by the many people she touched throughout her life. May she be pain free and at peace with ‘JMJ’ (Jesus, Mary, and Joseph) and all her family and friends who have gone to their rests before her.

She was preceded in death by her parents, sister, and husband. She is survived by her sons, David (Ellen), Thomas (Pamela), and Matthew (Stephanie), grandchildren, Rachael (Jesse), Nicholas (Abby), Jacob (Maria), Anna, Jessica, Silas, and Riley and her great-grandchildren, Jason and Julia.

The family wishes to thank the countless health care providers that cared for her over the years and the comfort they provided her and the family.

Private services and burial will be at a later date in Pittsburgh, PA.

Your memories and online condolences may be shared with the family, here, in the guestbook.

In lieu of flowers or gifts, please live like Carolyn did and introduce yourself to someone in line at the grocery store or McDonalds. Find out something about them and you never know, you might meet your ‘new best friend’.