Susan Cummings "Sue" Wylly

Susan Cummings Wylly , 1943-2024 

It is with deep sadness that we, Polly Wylly Cooper and Johnny Wylly say goodbye to our dear pretty younger sister Sue Wylly who passed away of primary progressive aphasia.

We three lucky children grew up with loving parents, Polly and John Wylly, in Ardsley Park and Tybee. They planned boat trips with us to Ossabaw Island and Little Tybee to explore deserted beaches, collect driftwood and shells. We spent weekends in the country at our grandfather’s farm at O’leary on Hwy. 21 riding mules, chasing butterflies and fishing in the swamp and jumping onto haystacks. 

In 1946, our parents built a cottage on the Back River at Tybee. We three “churren” helped pull cockspurs and plant Lantana. Sue had a fascination for digging in the mud for sharks’ teeth and fossils. She taught children to swim, sail Sunfish boats, aquaplane, water ski and dive gracefully or do the “belly buster.”

Sue taught elementary education in Jacksonville before SCAD hired her into their fiber department. Later she ran a popular weaving shop on Drayton St. She was a member of the Lowcountry Woodturners’ Club and turned many lovely

bowls on her lathe.  She was soon recruited by Georgia College & State University and in 2004 became Professor Emeritus of Art in the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences in Milledgeville, Ga. After years of teaching weaving, pottery, macrame and sculpting marble, she returned to Savannah to help care for her elderly mother, Polly Brooks, living at Isle of Hope. Thanks to the family and caregivers’ attention and devotion, our dear “Mummy” lived to be four weeks short of 100 years old!

Sue returned to Savannah and bought a cottage on the Back River. She lived many happy years there with her rescue dog Annie.  In her 80s, Sue lived at Summer Breeze, an assisted living facility on Wilmington Island where her special care-givers Michelle Palmer, Tamiko Sardis and Celeste Bernstein looked after her. Family and friends visited often.

Sue’s great-great grandfather, George Washington Wylly, lived at Isle of Hope on Bluff Drive in a home built in 1848. She admired the work being done by the Isle of Hope Historic Association to preserve these grand old homes and quaint fishermen’s cottages. 

If inclined, donations in Sue’s memory would be gratefully accepted by the Isle of Hope Historical Association in care of Tiffany Ailwine, 44 Diana Dr., Savannah, Ga., 31406. 

Let’s leave this world in better shape for our children and grandchildren