The Chicago Parks Foundation helps bring community ideas to life in our parks. In 2019, the family and friends of Susan Levine asked the Chicago Parks Foundation to help locate a place to create a special garden to honor her memory and love of flowers.

The garden provides three seasons of color and beauty and was funded entirely by family and friends, as well as the annual maintenance. For that incredible gift to the parks, the Chicago Parks Foundation shares our gratitude and deep appreciation to Sue’s family and beloved friends.

Here, Marylyn Carleo Grabosky shares the beautiful story of her friendship with Sue and the creation of Sue’s Garden.

Sue’s Garden: A Story of Lifelong Friendship, Celebrated in Lincoln Park

By Marylyn Carleo Grabosky

Sue and I were friends for over 50 years. We were thrown together in not very unique circumstances – our husbands worked together at Standard Oil/BP – and as wives do, we attended the expected wives’ coffees that typified the era of the 1960s. We were lucky to find each other, and our friendship was a truly special one.

Sue Wachtel Levine was born in Chicago in South Shore. Sue married Jerry Levine, had two wonderful children – Jeff & Lisa – and was busy every waking and sometimes non-waking minute balancing children, family, work, a deep commitment to the Arts & Sciences, and her friends. Sue was an optimistic and effervescent human being.

We were complements – she was fiery, and always willing to let you know her point of view for anything; I was intense but more reserved, preferring to survey and watch instead of constantly being in motion.

Together we shared a love of music, theatre, great books, our beloved Chicago and the walks we would take by the lakefront, through the City and in Lincoln Park. We both lived in Old Town, so we would meet at each other’s places and take walks up Dearborn Street into the park, to the Zoo, the History Museum or just sit on a bench to talk. In every season, Lincoln Park is a true treasure.

When Sue was diagnosed with a serious illness, our time together was even more important. After Sue passed away, my partner and I decided we wanted to work with Willa Lang and the Chicago Parks Foundation to celebrate Sue’s memory, her love of the park and her beautiful Chicago, by building a garden where we often walked.

“When you can, come visit the Garden. Bring a special friend or loved one. We all want it to be a place that brings people, and especially friends, together.”

Willa and her team were fantastic. We surveyed several sites in various locations. It was important for the Chicago Parks Foundation to know that not only would we endow the garden, but also fund the ongoing maintenance according to the Chicago Park District’s standards. The site we chose was a special place at the southern edge of Lincoln Park surrounding an existing statue of Fountain Girl, the Frances Willard Memorial. We worked with Willa, the landscape designers, and the Park District to create the garden that would bloom in three seasons and also reflect the Lakefront shoreline with prairie grasses.

Sue always believed in empowering young women, and Fountain Girl is such a special tribute to girls and young women everywhere. The idea of fusing Fountain Girl with Sue’s Garden seemed perfect to us all. The garden provides a wonderful centerpiece for the statue. The statue and Fountain Girl seem to be overlooking the garden with great love and attention.

Sue’s Garden, in combination with the park benches the Levine & Desmond/Grabosky Families have also donated, make for a wonderfully reflective and peaceful spot in this section of Lincoln Park. There is never a time where we’ve gone by and not seen people sitting on the benches or stopping to look at Sue’s Garden. People look, walk, and sometimes stop to smell the flowers, or let their dogs take a drink at the water basin. Mostly, people just slow their stride, linger for a bit, and take the landscape fully in.

I walk there often, when I can, in every season to visit with Sue and her Garden. Her husband Jerry walks there almost every day as well, and can see it from his apartment building nearby. He often says the spot is pure Chicago, telling me, “I love how people go to the Garden and decorate Fountain Girl in Blackhawks ski caps, leave Valentine's Day candy, or decorate her in Halloween black and orange. Sue’s Garden, benches and Fountain Girl are a true focal point in the park.”

It makes me smile to see all Chicagoans enjoy Sue’s Garden. Sue loved Chicago, the lakefront and Lincoln Park. But most of all, she so loved flowers.

When you can, come visit the Garden. Bring a special friend or loved one. We all want it to be a place that brings people, and especially friends, together.

Visit Sue’s Garden & Fountain Girl in Lincoln Park, South of West LaSalle Drive and East of the Chicago History Museum.

Thank you to Marylyn Carleo Grabosky and the friends and family of Susan Levine.