- Date Of Birth: May 10, 1954
- Date Of Death: December 19, 2020
- State: Michigan
Susan Thomas Jeannero of Kalamazoo, Michigan, died December 19, 2020, on the one-year anniversary of her mother’s death. She was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan on May 10, 1954, and moved with her parents, Douglas and Ann Jeannero, to Fremont, Michigan when she was six weeks old.
The middle of three sisters, Susan didn’t have to try too hard to stand out. With the grit and determination of a red-headed Taurus (some might say she was just stubborn), she carefully chose her life’s goals and pursued them with passion, even when the rest of us thought she was nuts. From a family of Michigan Wolverines, she became a Michigan State Spartan, graduating with an MS in Speech Pathology and Audiology in 1977. She spent the next six years working in Green Bay Public Schools. One day in the middle of a very cold Wisconsin winter, she decided she wanted to move to San Diego and work in the computer industry.
So, she did. Our parents delivered her to San Diego with enough savings to survive for a couple of weeks (Mom cried when they left her). From there she gained experience in sales in a variety of jobs until she worked herself into her dream job, educational sales at Apple Computer. On her first day she reluctantly had to admit to her new boss that she didn’t know how to use that shiny new Mac on her desk. Just a few years later, she was awarded the Golden Apple, one of Apple’s national sales awards. After she left Apple, she worked at Cisco Systems in Northern California until she retired in May 2004.
Susan, always a sunny optimist, believed you receive back the energy you put into the universe. She was known for her unbridled sense of humor; for example, she performed Ethel Merman’s “You Can’t Get a Man with a Gun” as a part of Fremont High School’s Homecoming pageant. Many of us fell victim to her contagious laughter upon life’s most awkward occasions. Those of us who tripped on our own feet, dropped a holiday roast on the floor, or drove the wrong way on a one-way street could not stay out of sorts for long because Susan turned each of those embarrassments into memories of helpless laughter. Children were drawn to her, and she never forgot birthdays or anniversaries. She loved champagne (especially the good stuff), travel, interior design, Michigan State sports, and living near the ocean. She had a special place in her heart for her two nephews, David and Ian Douglass. She created special moments for them whenever she could, like their first ride in a stretch limousine during which they innocently re-enacted Tom Hanks’ performance in the limo scene from the movie Big.
Susan moved back to Michigan in 2010 to care for our aging parents. She re-established old friendships, created new ones, and oversaw our parents’ matters until their deaths. Those of us whom she left behind are broken-hearted, but we are much richer for having known and loved her.
Susan is survived by her two sisters, Nan Jeannero of Phoenix, Arizona and Jane Jeannero of Kalamazoo, Jane’s husband, Mike Douglass, and Susan’s two nephews, David Douglass of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Ian Douglass of Kalamazoo. Her parents pre-deceased her in December 2019.
