Obituary of Susan M. Perry

Susan M. Perry, 66, died on January 10, 2016 of brain cancer. Sue loved sailing, the Yankees, great music and New York City. Born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin on July 19, 1949, Sue grew up in Wauwatosa and graduated from Wauwatosa West High School. She earned a B. S. in English and secondary education from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and an M.A. in English from the University of Maine. She completed coursework for a doctorate in rhetoric and composition from the University of Rhode Island. Sue worked in New York as a copy supervisor at Wishbone/ITP, as a senior copywriter at Saatchi and Saatchi Healthcare Advertising, and as a writer and medical editor for Cline Davis and Mann. She taught a variety of courses at Iona College and at The Portfolio Center in Atlanta. She began her career writing copy at WTMJ in Milwaukee. Sue treasured her nieces and nephews—Wallis and Arthur Perry; Lisa Mañón and her daughter Sahsheem Davis; Jennifer Mañón, Josh Bardfield and their daughters Sadie and Uma; Jesse Schmidt, Katie Barnes Schmidt and their son Grady; Darren Schmidt and Sunita Kurra; Mary Catharine, Rory and Hannah Gillick; Molly Horstman and Raphael Gang; Terry Horstman; and Patrick Perry and his daughter Ashlynn—and they adored her in return. Five of Sue’s brothers and sisters survive her: John (Becky) Perry, Terry Perry (the late Terry Gillick), Katy Perry (Andy Horstman), Anne Perry (Ray Schmidt), and Joe Perry. They and Sue’s many friends will deeply miss her quick, irreverent wit, her insistence on proper grammar and her uncanny ability to make everyone feel as if they were her favorite. Sue’s mother Mary Sullivan Perry died in 1960, her father Wally in 1989, and her sister Barbara in 2001. Plans for a memorial celebration in Milwaukee are pending. Donations suggested to the Sojourner Family Peace Center or Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer (MACC Fund), both of Milwaukee.