Susan Breeyear

Susan Lemieux Breeyear, wife, mother, daughter and well-loved member of Trinity Baptist Church in Williston, passed away at the age of 74 on October 10, 2024 at UVM Medical Center after complications from a rare form of cancer. 

She was born in Barre, Vt., on April 14th, 1950, to Conrad and Norma (Whitehill) Lemieux of Graniteville, Vt. Susan majored in English at the University of Vermont and joined the Peace Corps so she could teach English as a Second Language to students in Senegal, West Africa in the 1970s. After her college years, Susan was the former Assistant Manager of the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in Durham, NH, and enjoyed playing her guitar and singing for others to share her faith. She met her husband, James J. Breeyear, in Burlington, Vt. while she was student teaching at a grade school in Essex. They fell in love and married in Williamstown, Vt. on June 8, 1974. Susan worked at the University of Vermont in the Romance Languages Department, then as the Language Resource Center Coordinator in the Language Lab, and she retired after fifteen years in her position at Saint Michael’s College as the Assistant Director of Instructional Technology. Susan loved crafting, gardening, reading, taking walks and hiking. She was very devoted to her family and enjoyed participating in the Whitehill family reunions held in Ryegate, Vt. each year. After retirement, Susan found her love of quilting. She made beloved quilts for everyone in her family and gave them out as gifts to others as quickly as she finished them. Susan’s good-natured, yet sarcastic sense of humor was loved by all who knew her, and her generous and willing spirit touched the lives of many. 

Susan is survived by her husband, James Breeyear, her two daughters, Elisabeth Finstad and Sarah Hyde, her grandchildren, Alex Breeyear, Alicia Potvin, Autumn Finstad, Luke Hyde and Judah Hyde, and her mother, Norma Lemieux. 

A memorial service officiated by Pastor Rob McIlwaine will be held at ten o’clock in the morning on Friday, November 1, 2024 at Trinity Baptist Church in Williston, Vt. Susan will be laid to rest in the Vermont Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Randolph, Vt. 

Cards and donations in her memory may be sent to Trinity Baptist Church, 300 Trinity Dr., Williston, VT 05495.