Susan Schagane Foster

Our beloved mother, Susan Schagane Foster, peacefully passed on Thursday, June 30, 2022. She will be reunited with her husband, and the love of her life, Robert, who left us in 2016. After a four-year relocation to Savannah, the last year has been spent in Atlanta with family, which brought her much joy and comfort.

She was born on January 7, 1947 and adopted as a baby by Chester and Margaret Schagane and raised in Flint, Michigan. In 1971, she married Robert Foster, who she met while attending the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. Susan is survived by her four daughters, Jennifer (Jenny) Foster King, Katherine (Katie) Foster Sagstuen (Brian Peek), Margaret (Maggie) Foster (Shawn Askew) and Abigail (Abby) and her seven grand children, Gillian, Jacob, Emerys, Isabella, Hunter, Laney, and Everleigh.

Sassy, she was known by her grandchildren, will be greatly missed, but we know she’s up in heaven, playing golf and bridge, gardening, arranging flowers, and playing with our dogs. We will miss her smile and her laugh and the twinkle in her eyes and her cheering at her grandkids’ sporting events and her “Donald Duck” voice, among countless other things. But we have the memories. The many Sunday dinners at the Club or Mick’s (her reaction after our father would spill his milkshake every time we went to the latter); her elaborate bows on our Christmas presents; her love of holiday decorations (the number of Fall scarecrows our parents had was legendary or ridiculous, depending on your interpretation); the nightly viewings of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune (which continued until the end); spending April 15 (which happened to be our father’s birthday, in addition to being Tax Day) in line at the post office; her “pinch” when we were misbehaving at church; coaching or managing our soccer teams growing up; being the head scorer at our swim meets growing up. Somehow, she and our father were able to make it to pretty much every swim meet, soccer game, basketball game, tennis match, water polo game, and whatever other sport we may have played, even with four very active daughters and each having demanding careers. Growing up, her love surrounded us and it will continue to do so. She was our best friend and her unconditional love helped us through so many trials and tribulations.

Our Sassy was one of the smartest people we know and she broke glass ceilings in the accounting world of Atlanta - she was among the first female students to earn an MBA from Emory’s Business School in the early 1970s, after graduating with a degree in Economics from the University of Miami. She was also one of the first women to join one of the big accounting firms in Atlanta as an accountant. She eventually started her own successful tax accounting practice so she could spend more time with her family; that practice continued until she retired in 2013.

After retiring, she enjoyed playing more bridge, spending time with her family (especially her grandchildren), gardening and arranging flowers, traveling, and going to the symphony. She was always up for trying anything - getting tickets for the whole family to the Women’s World Cup in Canada (we have no doubt she would have been one of the first ones to buy tickets for the World Cup when it’s in Atlanta in a few years); standing in the queue at Wimbledon or going to the U.S. Open, even though she had no interest in tennis; going to every Olympic event we could; hot air balloon rides, horseback riding in Puerto Rico, or helicopter rides, among many other adventures. She loved going to the symphony with our father and their tradition became going to Waffle House afterwards; she was willing to go to pretty much any concert, even if she had never heard the artist before. Sassy, know that adventures will continue.

We know that she is finally at peace, which will give us comfort during this difficult time.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Atlanta on Saturday, July 9, 2022 at 11:30 am, with an interment following at Green Lawn Cemetery in Roswell. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in her memory to the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration or the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.HMPattersonOglethorpe.com for the Foster family.