Obituary of Helen Suman

SUMAN, Helen Russell beloved mother, grandmother, mother-in-law, "cuzzin" and friend passed away on February 20, 2018. She was born on June 22, 1932, in Rapid City, South Dakota, to Jesse Louis Russell and Mae Keziah Peterson Russell. Helen had an older half-sister, Ruth Russell Joy. In April 1945, when her father retired from the Rapid City Black Hills and Western Railroad, Helen moved west to California with her parents. They arrived by train at Union Station in Los Angeles and took a bus up to Ventura where her father started a new career in the hotel business. Helen began the eighth grade in September 1945 at Ventura Junior High School and went on to graduate from Ventura High School in June of 1950. She attended Ventura Junior College for her freshman year before returning to the Midwest to spend her sophomore year at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. (Her mother graduated from St. Olaf in 1925 and had been the assistant dean of women.) A lover of the sun and sea, Helen returned to Ventura after a year at St. Olaf, where she did a year-long research project for the California Youth Authority at the Ventura School for Girls. The focus of the project was to better understand what skills could help young women gain employment. For her final two years of college, Helen attended the University of California at Los Angeles where she pledged Chi Omega. She graduated with a degree in fashion merchandising in 1955. Helen met George O. Suman, her future husband, at a beach party in Ventura in the summer of 1953. The two later reconnected on a visit home from San Francisco, where she was in Emporium Capwell's (which later became Macy's) management training program, in the spring of 1956. They were married on September 15, 1956. Their first child Edward Russell Suman arrived on July 1, 1957. Less than a year later, their second child Anne Kimberly Suman was born on June 2, 1958. As Helen loved to say, she, George, and their two children lived an exciting life as corporate gypsies: In 1960 the family moved to Ventura when George, who worked for Shell Oil Company, was transferred from Los Angeles. In 1961, the family moved to Bakersfield before being transferred back to Los Angeles in the spring of 1964. A year later, in 1965, they relocated to New Orleans where they lived until 1970 when the family settled in Houston. Helen returned to California in 1988 to Corona del Mar where she became very involved in the singles group at the Presbyterian church and worked in the management office at South Coast Plaza Mall in Costa Mesa, California. Drawn to the beauty of the high desert, Helen moved to Tucson, Arizona, in August 1994, where she lived for 24 years. She was active in the community including the president of the Sun City Oro Valley singles group. She never remarried as she cherished her independence. Helen, who was lovingly known to her family as "Bama," loved to travel, could hold an intelligent conversation on almost any topic, embodied endless curiosity, was a fierce advocate for education and experiencing new things, and lived her life on her terms. She also had a great sense of humor, telling her family on one occasion, "You all look beautiful-you must have good genes." In short, Helen lived an abundant and well-loved life. She is survived by her son, Edward Suman and his wife, Susan Gates, her daughter, Kimberly Suman Claucherty and her husband, John Claucherty; her granddaughters, Ava Suman, Taylor Bushman, Tavaner Sullivan; her grandson-in-law, Matthew Sullivan; and her niece, Linda Joy. Arrangements by ADAIR FUNERAL HOMES-Avalon Chapel.