Susan Lee

Susan J. Lee, 83, died on July 6 in Bozeman, MT.

She was born in Ames, Iowa in 1942 to Herman J. and Mary Martha (Brown) Stoever. With herparents, she traveled widely including attending her sophomore year of High School in Istanbul,Turkey as well as spending time in Rio de Janeiro. Her lifelong love of travel took her onmeaningful trips ranging from volunteer work in Czechoslovakia during college to China withfamily later in life. She earned degrees in Anthropology and Zoology from the University of Kansas where she was an active member of the Chi Omega sorority

.She married Floyd Denman “Denny” Lee in 1965, and their son, Craig, was born in Bozeman in1972. The couple divorced in 1975.

In her first career, she was a middle school “Life Science” teacher in Dayton, Ohio, Bozeman,Montana, and Sparta, Illinois. She said she began her teaching career at the absolute best time,when the nation was filled with heady optimism for science education fueled by overflow dollars from the space race.

After teaching for many years, she embarked on a new trajectory, earning a Master’s Degree in Nutrition at Colorado State University. She was a Registered Dietitian and retired after working for more than a decade in the Infectious Disease Clinic at Denver General Hospital during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

In her retirement, she rekindled her expertise at bridge, regularly attended the theater and P.E.O. meetings, and loved to go out to eat with friends and family—particularly breakfasts,since she was a morning person. She also dearly loved to care for her granddaughter, Ella, from infancy through early childhood.

She is survived by her son, Craig Michael Lee (Jennifer Borresen), granddaughter, Ella Claire Lee,brother, William Alfred Stoever, nieces, Susan Stoever and Mary Gulotta, grandnieces and grandnephews, and admiring, loving friends.

Her cremains will be interred in Oakland Cemetery in Carbondale, Illinois.

Susan was a lifelong dog owner and rescued shelties. In lieu of flowers or other remembrances,please consider donating to your local animal shelter and please take a few moments to listen to early morning bird song, which was her absolute favorite.