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Tributes to N Norfolk teacher and lay minister
 

Tributes have been paid to lay minister Sue Ling, a retired teacher and musician from Mundesley, who has died aged 83.

Mrs Ling, then Miss Boagey, was born and brought up in London and spent war years as an evacuee in Newent, Gloucestershire. She played the piano and violin in orchestras and competitions, even travelling to the Netherlands to perform. She attended Clapham County School for Girls, where she was a prefect, captain of games and captained tennis, rounders, and hockey teams.
 
When she was 18, she moved to Norfolk to train as a 'music specials' teacher at Keswick Hall College, and her first job was at Aylsham High School in 1957. In her early twenties she played the fiddle for the Kemps Men of Norwich Morris dancing group and took part in amateur dramatics in North Walsham.
 
In 1961 she married Keith Ling, an agricultural engineer, and they had many happy years together until Keith died in 2004. The couple lived in Stalham briefly and then North Walsham, and Mrs Ling moved to Mundesley in 2009. Mrs Ling taught at Manor Road and Millfield Road schools in North Walsham, including a period when Jane and their son, Matthew, were pupils there.
 
Mrs Ling moved to Mundesley Junior school in 1978 and later taught at the Clare School in Norwich. She also became a captain for North Walsham’s Girl Guides, and ran choirs for children and adults. When she was in her 40s she sat music exams, attaining Grade 8 with distinction in piano and Grade 7 with distinction in violin.
 
sue and keith ling 750ATMany of her musical ventures were associated with the church, and Mrs Ling became a licensed lay minister with the Church of England twenty years ago, pictured right. Over the years she led services, Bible studies, retreats and musical groups at St Nicholas church in North Walsham, as well as the village churches in the King’s Beck and Mundesley and Trunch benefices, and at Mundesley Methodist church.
 
Mrs Ling was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just a year ago, but managed to fulfil two dreams before she died, watching Norwich City play at Carrow Road, and spending a final summer at Mundesley beach, where she and Keith had kept a beach hut for many years.
 
Her daughter, Jane Gay said that her mother’s deep Christian faith had shaped much of her life and how she approached death. She had taught generations of schoolchildren, sharing her love of making others happy through the power of music.
 
Her funeral will be today, Monday February 1. In line with her wishes, she will make one final trip to Mundesley. At about 11.30am, the hearse will travel down Back Street and onto the village church for prayers at the lychgate before going along the seafront and then on to a private burial at North Walsham.
 
Donations in Mrs Ling’s memory can be made online at
togetherinmemory.pancreaticcancer.org.uk/In-Memory/Susan-Ling.
 
This is an extract from the obituary published by the Eastern Daily Press.

The photos of Sue Ling were supplied to the EDP by her family.

 

Tony Rothe, 01/02/2021

Published: 01/02/2021
Tony Rothe

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