Susan Doherty O’Shaughnessy passed peacefully surrounded by her family on October 31, 2017 (“Nevada Day”) at her home in Rome, New York.
She graduated from Carson High School in 1962 and from the University of Nevada, Reno Cum Laude in 1966. Susan majored in Spanish but taught German in a middle school in Reno for one year. She married M. Brian O’Shaughnessy in June, 1967 and moved briefly to Los Angeles then to Salt Lake City, Utah.
Susan taught languages in Salt Lake City for two years and used her earnings for the couple to take a 17 day trip to Europe, which began her lifelong interest in travel. Their first son Michael was born 1969 in Salt Lake City and the family then moved to a remote mining camp in Northern British Columbia, Canada, where they met lifelong friends Greg and Sylvia Savage. After two years, the family moved to Silver City, New Mexico where their second son Ryan was born in 1973. The family moved several more times before returning to Salt Lake City where son Tom was born in 1979. The family then moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which resulted in a lasting friendship with Neville and Lorraine Kirchmann. The family moved to Rome, New York in 1988.
Throughout her life and all of our moves Susan was deeply devoted and involved in her Episcopal church and formed many warm and wonderful friendships as she made each new place our home. A particular favorite place was Westport, Connecticut where she and her family lived on three separate occasions and met our dear friends Willie and Kathy Dehler. Susan always did a wonderful job of staying connected with the many close friends she made in all of the places she lived and traveled, taking the time to show that she cared and to offer love and support.
She maintained close relationships with her family and friends from Nevada with annual trips to Lake Tahoe where she enjoyed family dinners, skiing, golfing and hikes to Angora Lakes. Susan was the sweetest person any of us ever met. She was a selfless, devoted and loving wife, mother and grandmother. Her legendary sense of humor and wit remained strong to the end throughout her thirty year medical struggles.
Susan is survived by her loving husband, her three sons, their wives Amy, Kris and Tiffany as well as six grandchildren, Jack, Cole, Reilly, Will, Tanner and Timmy, and her siblings Kathy, John and Debbie.
The family thanks Susan’s skilled and caring Drs. Dreiner, Sullivan, Goel and Penniston and their caring staffs as well as caregivers Lilly Stoltzfus, Jen Bersani, Sherry Connelly, Freda Kauffman, Laurie Ferris, Mary Jane Quinn, Cornelia McGuiver and Karen Arbogast.
Calling hours will be held from 6 to 9pm on Friday, November 3, 2017 at Strong-Burns & Sprock Funeral Home at 7751 Merrick Road in Rome.
Funeral services will be held at 10am on Saturday, November 4, 2017 at Zion Episcopal Church, 140 West Liberty St., Rome, NY.
