Hedy Sue Johnson

Hedy Sue Johnson, Sue to her family and friends, was born on May 31, 1935. She lived a rich, full life until the age of 85, when she departed this world, to a better life. During her lifetime, she was someone’s daughter, someone’s sister, aunt, cousin, wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She was a friend, to many.

As a young woman, she was an athlete who was extended a basketball scholarship to college while in High School. She married once during her lifetime, to Lee Anderson Johnson, Sr., the husband who will be next to her here at Lakewood, in her final resting place. Sue began her family at an early age, growing quickly into the role and responsibilities of a wife and mother. She was hard-working and industrious, while raising her three children, Lee, Jr., Debbie, and Cassie, as she supported her husband, Lee, in his business, aviation and outside activities.

There is a story about a former mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who was touring a larger building project with his wife. The story goes that the couple ran into a former beau of the mayor’s wife, who was a carpenter on the project. After a few pleasantries were exchanged, they walked away and the mayor turned to his wife and said, “just think, if you had married him, you would be the wife a simple carpenter.” The mayor’s wife replied, “no, if I had married him, he would be the mayor of Philadelphia.” That was Sue. She was the wife and mother who tended the hearth and the home fires, who made other things possible. She was the woman behind the man.

Sue kept an immaculate and beautiful home and loved growing and tending to flowers and plants. Sue had a “green thumb” and knew a great deal about horticulture. She was active, over the course of decades, in the Madison Garden Club where, as a consummate gardener, she cultivated friendships and planted the seeds of affiliation and love that would grow into lifelong relationships. She is survived by her three children, her many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, her many friends, and lots and lots of houseplants.

She was a person who believed that God intended for people to provide care and to tend to others. She believed that if God didn’t intend for this to be, he never would have started human nature in a garden. Sue believed in another simple carpenter, one who changed the world. As we come together today, we celebrate the culmination of her life, as she lives now in glory, to a new life, reborn, in a better place.

Her favorite Bible verse was the 23rd Psalm. As you might expect, she loved the imagery of the green pastures.

Psalm 23 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

As we honor and commemorate her passing, let us be thankful that Sue is dwelling in the house of the Lord, where she can now reside, forever.