Suzanne H. Neely

Suzanne Hesser Neely of Flourtown, Pennsylvania, died on Monday, April 20; she was 93. Loving wife of the late Richard R. Neely, Jr.; stepmother to Mary Susan Wetherill and Richard R. (Judy) Neely, III; and mother to Thomas S. (Erin Margaret) Neely and Charles B. Neely; she is also survived by her 2 grandchildren Sarah and Fiona Neely.

 

Relatives and friends are invited to Suzanne’s memorial service on Wednesday, May 27, 10 a.m., at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Whitemarsh, at 7020 Camp Hill Rd., Fort Washington, PA 19034. Interment will be at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church cemetery.

 

Sue was born in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, the fifth of five children of Paul M. Hesser, Jr., and Mary Price Alburger, a few years into the Great Depression. She grew up in a lively and musical home—first on Durham Street and then on West Phil-Ellena Street in Mt. Airy—and became the young Aunt Sue to many nieces and nephews born during and after World War II, when housing was scarce for returning soldiers and their wives.

 

After graduating in 1950 from Chestnut Hill’s The Stevens School, where she received the Gaul Cup for most outstanding student athlete, Sue went to work in Center City as a secretary at Fidelity Bank and Towers Perrin. She loved working. For fun in the mid-’50s, she joined The Savoy Company and was able to perform in the chorus of every one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas. She met so many people through work and Savoy that she could walk down Broad Street and know the names of many passers-by.

 

In the mid-’60s, not long after her mother, and then her brother Van, died, Sue Hesser met Dick Neely, Jr., on the Chestnut Hill East line. They married in 1967, and Sue joined a family comprised of her new husband and his two children, Susie and Dick, III. The couple then had two children of their own, Tom and Charlie. The new family unit lived on East Springfield Avenue in Chestnut Hill. When the children were old enough, Sue went back to work, finding employment in Chestnut Hill at firms including Ted Helmetag’s, Masland Management, and Emlen Wheeler, where she became a real estate conveyancer. Eventually, in 2002, Sue and Dick moved to Penn’s Wood, now Lola’s Place, on Haws Lane in Flourtown.

 

Sue was an extrovert, drawing energy from frequent social interaction. She loved meeting new people everywhere she went, be it the doctor’s office or grocery store, and possessed considerable skill as a connector—someone who could introduce people to one another, and someone who was sought after for relationship advice. Known for her “Hesser Clan List,” she was also the hub that kept her extended family up to date on news of the family members who were now living their own lives in places far and near.

 

Sue—Suzanne, Aunt Sue, Grandma Sue, Mom—leaves behind a legacy of the importance of family and staying connected with one another, a love of music and people, and a childlike curiosity and wonder about the here and now and the hereafter. She is dearly missed.

 

In lieu of flowers contributions in Suzanne’s name may be made to St. Thomas’ Church Flower Guild,, 7020 Camp Hill Rd., Fort Washington, PA 19034.