In Memory

Susan M McCormick (Mayer)

Susan M McCormick (Mayer)

SUSAN MCCORMICK MAYER

Susan McCormick Mayer, after a long illness, passed away on August 18th, 2013. She was a devoted mother, wife, and teacher. Services were held in Santa Fe, NM. 



 
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03/25/14 05:10 PM #1    

Jean L. MacIntosh (Mankamyer)

Sue was a beautiful person, inside and out. She exuded intelligence and grace, even as a young girl. I have wonderful memories of being on a canoe trip with her in the Boundary Waters, great times at Lake Harriet and the Lincoln Del. I'm so sorry to learn of her passing - it was much too soon.

03/26/14 12:25 PM #2    

Cynthia Morris (Riebe)

Susan and I met in seventh grade at Edina. Slender, blonde, and tall, she had the mile-long legs and looks of a fashion model but was far too bright to settle for that.

The McCormicks had recently moved to Minneapolis from Washington State. Susan was particularly nostalgic for the west and missed the mountains. She persuaded me to join the Blizzard Ski club and every Saturday morning she and I, and thirty other classmates boarded a yellow school bus for the 4-hour trip to northern Wisconsin to learn how to ski. Susan took to it and it was no surprise when, in her senior year, she chose Colorado College.

At Edina High friends gathered regularly on Friday nights to watch the football games. These were preceded by a potluck or followed by a slumber party at a friend’s house. She and I shared many similar interests and we became especially close friends. We spent a lot of time at one another’s houses. Her older brother Tom was active with the school band. Her mom and dad always made Susan’s friends feel welcome and both of them were so proud of their children.

Our families both belonged to St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Edina and we were active members of the youth group there, largely for its social opportunities. Through that involvement we attended the Carleton College Episcopal Summer Conference in Northfield, Minnesota. It was a co-ed camp and certainly the first time either of us began to give a hoot about boys. Things radically changed after that summer when another opportunity arose through our church affiliation. Eight of us Edina girls were asked to become cheerleaders for Breck, a private Episcopal boys’ school in Minneapolis. Susan was loyal to one young man there in particular until she left for Colorado College where she met her future husband Jim Mayer from Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

The summer before we all departed for college twelve of us seniors decided to take a canoe trip from  YWCA Camp Menogyn in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on the Minnesota-Canadian border. We navigated the lakes and portages for nearly two weeks experiencing the entire range of Minnesota summer weather and its notorious insects. We depended entirely upon one another and our guide, Fred Nordeen, also an Edina alum, over those weeks in the wilderness and cemented strong friendships there. Each of us was aware that we were on the edge of adulthood and embarking soon in different directions for all that lay ahead.

Susan and I both graduated from college in December, a semester early, and together we decided to take advantage of one last spring before beginning post-college jobs. We headed off to Europe on $5/day. Susan's Jimmy was interning in NYC and she said a reluctant goodbye to him before we left in the middle of January.  

It was a particularly cold winter in Europe. We wanted to avoid the northern climate and charted a route that kept us close to the Mediterranean. Susan was always the first one up in the morning. My waking memory of her was with guidebook in hand, planning our day. In Majorca we met up with Sue's parents who fed us our first solid meal in weeks. We decided to base in Florence for the spring where I studied Italian and Susan orchestrated our visits to museums and architectural sites.  In June, Susan left for NYC to meet up with her Jim and begin her first job as a primary school teacher.

As a teacher, Susan was a gifted natural. She herself was brilliant, playful, caring, forgiving, fun and loving - all traits I know she has passed on to her own two girls, Kate and Lisa. I consider myself so lucky to have known her as my friend and will remember her always.


03/31/14 09:45 PM #3    

John H. "Jack" Brion

Here is a scary moment in life.

i was on a train out of Rome and a familiar girl got and I asked who' she was. sue McCormick, it was January 1967. Can ayone confirm this.????


04/02/14 06:43 PM #4    

Susan Morrill (Stirrat)

Jeanie and Cynthia,

I just read your beautiful and eloquent comments about Susan (Sue to us then).

Susan was a long-time friend of mine. Like Jeanie, also my neighbor, and Cynthia, I met Sue in 7th grade when she moved with her parents and brother Tom into our Brookview Heights neighborhood. I remember playing with her & others in the neighborhood and along Nine Mile Creek, skiing together in Blizzard Ski Club, performing with 2 other friends in the 9th grade talent show, and adventuring into the Boundary Waters the summer before our senior year with 10 other Edina girls to canoe, explore & figure out what was next after high school. Somehow our parents allowed us to go with 2 chaparones who were college kids only a couple of years older than us- amazing!

My friendship with Susan continued after high school when we met skiing in CO. Years later, Susan's parents moved to the San Francisco Bay area near where I was living. We got together with our young daughters - a few months apart - when she visited in the summers.

Fast forward to 1989...I married our classmate Andrew (Drew) Stirrat and moved to Colorado. Susan and her husband Dr. Jim Mayer, a rheumatologist, lived in Santa Fe which is only a 6 & 1/2 hr. drive from us. In fact, they lived in the oldest inhabited home in the center of Santa Fe - a home dating back over 400 years!!. We were so intrigued by the history of their home. We saw Susan many times over the years and her husband Jim who grew up there took us on a walking tour of the city during one of our early visits. Santa Fe was changing fast & Jim was unhappy with all the commercialism. Susan was an artist, served on a state arts council, taught gifted students & loved her community.

Drew and I had tried contacting Susan in the last few years but heard nothing. After Christmas Jim sent us a note informing us of Susan's passing from early Alzheimers in August of 2013.

I, too, will cherish my memories of Susan and the times we spent together.

Susan Morrill Stirrat


04/02/14 07:20 PM #5    

Jean L. MacIntosh (Mankamyer)

Time has flown by and all these memories bring tears to my eyes. Weren't we lucky to have such wonderful experiences and wonderful friends growing up! Thank you, both, for sharing  about Susan's life as an adult. It's clear she was loved and appreciated by many friends and family and, though too short, her life was full and rewarding.


04/18/14 11:31 AM #6    

Karen L. Hegener (Tangen)

You guys have said it all...so many wonderful memories.  Mine are of Breck cheerleading, double dating, sleeping over at Sue's house and having her pull me out of bed to go skiing, always wanting one more run even when it was below zero and we were frost bitten, her dear friendship when I was new at Edina...Sue, I'll see you in heaven someday and we can eat leftover ice cream out of a 20 gallon bucket together, as we did in Aspen!  Sween, kind, beautiful girl...


05/26/14 02:28 PM #7    

Ann-Marie Rose

Since I became aware of Sue's untimely death, through the reunion website, I have been pondering what to say about such sad news.  I thought Memorial Day seemed an appropriate time to look back and remember her.

 

She and I were close friends though out high school.  We shared similar interests that

included skiing, which she excelled in and I liked only for the outfits and lodge activities.

Neither of us dated boys from Edina High School because we preferred young men from Breck.

She was far more serious then I but we always convulsed with laughter during mulitiple sleepovers

annoying our older brothers who both are named Tom.  The now infamous Bounder Waters

camping trip we were tent mates along with Cindy.  Since Sue, Cindy and I were raised Episcopalians

we attended week long summer retreats at Carleton College.  I don't remember the retreats being 

much about religion, we just had extreme fun.  There were required church services where we sat in the baloney

for strategic reasons.  Pearl tapioca and a straw make fine pea shooters; there we pinged that backs of heads during prayers.  These stories are endless but I hope I made my point; Sue was a smart, elegant young women who also had a very creative sense of humor.

 

Others have mentioned Mr & Mrs. McCormick and indeed they were wonderful people.  I remember

sitting for hours at the kitchen table with Mrs. McCormick and Sue.  My Mom and Mrs. Mc also 

conversed often.  I do not know what the topics were but it may have centered around "is this normal, or is that proper"  …..though neither one of our mothers were stuffy in the slightest.

Around 11th grade I went though some serious surgery and the McCormicks made hospital visits.  To cheer me up during my recovery Mr. Mc gave Sue and I convertible rides.

 

Following Sue's marriage we went in different directions seeking fulfillment of our own special dreams and with that we lost contact.  From what I have read Sue made important contributions to the world though teaching and her art.  To paraphrase American author Willa Cather…it's all about the journey and not the end.  Sue's life ended too soon but she did it well.  I am sure her daughters have a wonderful legacy to live with…she is resting in peace.


05/27/14 07:20 AM #8    

M. Linda Kreiser (Stevenson)

Cindy, Anne and Susan!  I am so saddened to hear about she's long illness and her passing.  Over the years we kept in touch by Christmas writings but the last one received I suspected something was very wrong and then heard nothing. I wished I had pursued the " why?"

Sue and and I met in sixth grade and were very close friends through junior high and into high school. There were so many fond memories together. I knew her family well and had many sleep overs at their home. She was in our wedding. Sue was that person who did everything well! I vas very close to her family.  Sue was in our wedding and lived across the street from my high school sweetheart at the time and husband of 47 years.  

 

 

 


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