Susan Jane (Clark) King of Port Charlotte, FL and Scarborough, ME passed away in the 70th year of her life at Tidewell Hospice House in Port Charlotte, Florida on Tuesday, January 15, 2019 with her husband and daughter by her side. She had been battling two unrelated terminal illnesses for the past few years. Like other challenges that came her way in life, she faced them head on and never backed down.
Susan was the loving wife of Maurice A. “Moe” King, the proud mother of one child, Michelle R. Rochette of Maryland (formerly of Montpelier, Vermont), and the doting grandmother of one grandchild, Megan E. Juenker, of Vermont.
Susan was born in Haverhill, New Hampshire on September 4, 1949, the sixth of eight children born to Harry E. and Thelma E. (Thurston) Clark. She and her seven siblings were raised in Waits River, Vermont – or, as Susan pronounced it, Waits Rivah.
While Susan spent her childhood in Waits River and most of her adult life in central Vermont, she spent her married life with Moe living between Scarborough, Maine and Port Charlotte, Florida. Oh, how Susan loved being a snowbird! She also lived for a time in her late teens/early 20s in West Lebanon, New Hampshire, Campton, New Hampshire and Northborough, Massachusetts.
Susan attended a one-room schoolhouse in Waits River for elementary school and graduated from Bradford Academy in Bradford, Vermont in 1967. In 1989, she graduated from Thompson School of Practical Nursing in Brattleboro, Vermont. She was an excellent geriatric LPN at a central Vermont nursing home for several years before becoming a private care nurse to clients in Vermont, Martha’s Vineyard and Sanibel Island, Florida – all of whom were very dear to Susan’s heart and all of whom adored Susan. She was also the caregiver and legal guardian of her oldest sibling, Sandra, for several years until Sandra’s passing in 2006. When Susan wasn’t nursing, she often had a second job as a waitress. She worked for several years at the Lobster Pot in Montpelier, Vermont and the Steak House in Berlin, Vermont. She was always on her feet and always on the go until corticobasal degeneration – a rare and aggressive form of Parkinson’s disease – took away her ability to walk. She also lost the use of her left arm and hand to the disease.
In the mid-1990s on a visit to the Finger Lakes region of New York where her daughter and granddaughter lived at the time, Susan fell in love with Amish handmade quilts. Upon retirement in 2008, Susan took up quilting as a hobby. She made beautiful quilts for her husband, granddaughter, siblings, several nieces and nephews and new arrivals to the family – a thoughtful and loving tradition started by Susan’s mother who crocheted afghans and baby sweater sets for many of the same loved ones. Susan’s final and most prized quilt, which she gave to her daughter, Michelle, took her two years to complete. The design is of the picturesque Waits River church in the summertime – one of the most photographed churches in New England and where Susan taught Sunday school as a teenager. It’s also where Susan married Moe on June 21, 2008 and where Susan’s large extended family has held countless family celebrations for generations.
Susan and Moe celebrated their 10-year wedding anniversary in June of 2018 which was celebrated with a lovely wedding vow renewal ceremony in their Scarborough home on September 25, 2018. The ceremony was so very important to Susan – so important, Moe joked, that she started planning their vow renewal ceremony the day after they were married.
Susan was first married to Robert E. “Bob” Rochette, Jr. of Northborough, Massachusetts and later from Newmarket and Raymond, New Hampshire.
Susan had an adventurous spirit. She loved traveling and new experiences. Among some of the most memorable were white water rafting and horseback riding in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado with her daughter and granddaughter and, together with her husband, zip lining, an airboat tour through the Florida everglades and landing on the water in a seaplane. She even got her kicks on Route 66 with Moe, her daughter, and granddaughter on a bucket list trip from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon in 2016.
Susan enjoyed a wide range of music. Among her favorites were Cat Stevens, James Taylor, Bob Marley, Willie Nelson, Trace Adkins, The Rolling Stones and Tina Turner. She saw the latter three in concert. She attended Fan Fair in Nashville a few times in the early 2000s where she stayed at the Gaylord and visited the Grand Ole Opry. She also took a Montgomery Gentry cruise.
Susan also loved the holidays, particularly Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. She especially enjoyed having Easter egg hunts, as well as wearing her Santa hat and pretty much any kind of accessory that jingled, blinked or sparkled at Christmastime.
Susan had been a member of the Order of the Eastern Star in the mid-1980s, along with her mother and two of her sisters.
In addition to her husband and primary caregiver, Moe, daughter and advocate, Michelle, and loving granddaughter, Megan, Susan is survived by her sister and best friend, Marcia E. Kenworthy and her significant other, Marc Peach, of Barre, Vermont; sisters Elaine G. Knapp Tomlinson of Littleton, New Hampshire and Beverly A. Blais of Barre, Vermont; brother and sister-in-law, Alan G. Sr. and Suzanne Clark of East Barre, Vermont and Clearwater, Florida; her youngest brother, Craig E. Clark and his significant other, Annette Patenaude, of Derby Line, Vermont and New Smyrna Beach, Florida; her sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Gloria (King) and Stanley Jacobs of Brewer, Maine; her oldest and dearest friend, Marlo Dodge, of Prince Edward Island, Canada; a nephew and niece with whom she had a special bond, Christopher Kenworthy and Katie Kenworthy-Audy, both of Barre Town, Vermont; 28 additional nieces and nephews, several grand- and great-grand nieces and nephews, and many cousins.
Susan is predeceased by her parents; her beloved siblings, Sandra L. (Clark) Hood and Harry J. “Junie” Clark; brothers-in-law, Ronnie Knapp, Sr., Simeon “Pete” Blais and Gene Tomlinson; a niece-in-law, Jeni (Byrnes) Clark, and loved ones Billy Lange and Harold Marsh. She is also predeceased by sister-in-law, Delcina (King) Blaisdell and her husband, Eugene, sister-in-law Lillian (King) Moore and her husband, Alton, and fifteen aunts and uncles.
A memorial service for family and close friends will be held in Vermont at a later date. Inurnment will take place at West Topsham Cemetery in West Topsham, Vermont at that time.
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