Sue Austin Branch

Sue Austin Branch died peacefully on Saturday, September 19, 2020, less than a month short of her 91st birthday. She was exactly where she wanted to be- in her home in Austin, Texas, in the bed she had slept in since 1951, her daughter Susan at her side.

Sue was born October 11, 1929, the sixth and final child of Thomas and Ida Irene “Susie” Austin in Ireland, Texas. After graduating from Evant High School at the age of 16, Sue began working full time as a courier, then a bookkeeper, a secretary, and finally achieving a masterful knowledge of the mortgage banking industry. In 1971, she became the first female Vice President of Lumberman’s Investment Corporation in Austin, eventually a V.P. of Temple Inland Corporation and Guaranty Bank. She retired at the age of 78 in 2008.

In 1951, Sue married Ben Hal Branch, and she treasured the 38 years they had together before his death in 1989. She gave birth to their only child, Susan, in 1963.

Sue will be remembered lovingly for her wry humor, her generosity to family, friends and the arts, her faith, her strength and humanity, and for her many colorful expressions that inspired laughter even in the toughest of times. Most recently, she felt “Like I have been drug backassward through a brushheap and beaten in the face with a buzzard gut.”

She was predeceased by her husband Ben Hal Branch, her parents, her sisters Charlie Mays, Irlada Pagel and Kathryn Austin, and brothers Robert Austin and Travis Austin.

Sue is survived by her daughter Susan Branch Towne and her son-in-law Robert Towne, her niece Leslie Irons, and her great nephews Andrew Troup and Alexander Troup and his family, as well as countless beloved friends, former colleagues, and her most precious miniature poodle Mr. B.

A private service will be held at 10:00 am Friday, September 25, 2020. The service will be live streamed at https://www.facebook.com/WCFFunerals.