Sunny Susan's Obituary

Susan (Sunny Susan) Louise Anderson died at 1:07 PM on 29 November 2017 at age 79.  She leaves behind husband, Howard, Son Scott, daughter Cynthia, daughter Shelly and their families. 

Susan attended Florida Southern College in Lakeland Florida with a major in journalism.  She wanted to be a war correspondent.

Susan authored two books, “Becoming Sunny Susan”, a biography, and “Pioneers Past and Present – A Family History.”  They are available on Amazon.com.

Susan worked in various positions in the Pentagon including Administrative Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence, Covert Submarines where she held a Top Secret Clearance and often attended practice runs of classified mission briefings before they were given at the White House.

Susan had a life long love of reading - books, magazines, and newspapers.  She read literally thousands of books and founded two book discussion groups in Tempe, AZ, the “Contemporary Book Discussion Club” (1983) and the “Night Book Discussion Club” (1990).

She also loved travel.  Favorite places visited included the Galapagos Islands, Grand Tetons, and Antarctica.

Susan was an avid Bluegrass music fan and hosted weekly jam sessions in our Tempe home for 30 years beginning in 1983.  Susan maintained an Email list of Bluegrass fans in Arizona and frequently provided them with information on Bluegrass events.

In 1995, after 8 years of undiagnosed symptoms, she was diagnosed with Carcinoid Cancer which is slow-growing and incurable.  She did intensive research on the internet, found the world’s leading expert on the disease, Dr. Richard Warner in New York, who managed to stabilize the disease.  She lived over 22 years with Carcinoid.  She was the first patient to establish a web page devoted to this disease, http://www.carcinoidinfo.info detailing how to live with it and providing help and hope to others.   She also had breast cancer which she defeated.

In 2014, she was placed on home kidney dialysis which was going very well. 

She survived all of those things but a simple urinary tract infection and a short hospital stay led to a C. Diff. infection of her GI tract.  6 months of constant diarrhea, hospitals, rehab centers, etc., weakened her so much that she finally succumbed.

There will be a “Celebration of Life” event from 1 PM to 6 PM on 17 December at Beach House, 603 East Carla Vista Drive, Chandler, AZ 85225.  There will also be a similar event at 10 AM on 22 December at Bella Vista, 1825 W. Emelita Ave, Mesa, AZ 85202.

Please, in lieu of flowers, etc., consider donating to the Carcinoid Cancer Foundation, https://www.carcinoid.org/