Obituary of Susan Louise Lee

Susan Louise Lee (née Winterhalter), 66, of Succasunna, passed away Thursday, Aug. 16, 2012 at Overlook Hospital, Summit. Sue was born to the late Alfred and Dorothy Winterhalter on Dec. 20, 1945, in Buffalo, NY. Along with her brother David (deceased) and sisters Ellen and Margaret, she lived on a small farm in Clarence, NY, until the family moved to Huntington, LI, in 1955 and then to Parsippany, NJ, in 1959. She attended Parsippany High School, where she met husband-to-be David Lee, and graduated in 1964. She then attended Geneseo College in Geneseo, NY. She married David and received her teaching license in 1967. Sue and David lived in Rockaway, NJ, for 26 years before moving to Succasunna, NJ, in 1994. Sue taught eighth grade math at Long Valley Middle School (where she was respectfully known by some students as The Warden) from 1977 to 2002. At home, she balanced a full-time job with raising a family, sewing, needlework, knitting, and baking. She endured a succession of unusual family pets—including snakes, rats, and ferrets—in addition to the more conventional family dog and her beloved cats. She devoted more than a decade to the Girl Scouts in the 1970s and 1980s as a parent, volunteer, leader, and camp counselor, drawing upon years of family camping experience to teach girls—among many other things—basic camping skills and a large variety of campfire cooking methods. In 1998, Sue began hot air ballooning. She enjoyed 14 years of chases, flights, and festivals—always with home-baked cookies in hand. Ballooning also led to Sue piloting large balloons in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from 2002 to 2011. On the day Sue retired from teaching in 2002, she flew away from the school in the basket of a hot air balloon. A discovery of stamping turned into a full-time hobby for Sue, including being a Stampin’Up! demonstrator from 2002 to 2012. Her hand-stamped cards and gifts grace many homes. She never went to a treatment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center without hand-made gifts and treats for the staff. Sue is survived by her husband David; daughters Teri Lee and Kendra Myers; sisters Ellen Reuter and Margaret Giacomine; grandson Martin Worley-Myers; six brothers- and sisters-in-law; 15 nieces and nephews; 15 great-nieces and great-nephews; and innumerable friends in the teaching, stamping, and hot air ballooning communities. To know Sue was to be inspired by her. She lived her seven years with cancer the way she lived the rest of her life: with strength, patience, and good humor. A celebration for her will be held at a date to be determined. Meanwhile, celebrate Sue with laughter. Sip some Merlot with a friend. Chase a hot air balloon. Bake some cookies and bring them to your neighbors. Make a donation to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (www.mskcc.org).