Susan Elaine Zerger, 84 , passed away on April 23, 2024 at Lakepoint Of El Dorado.

Susan Elaine Zerger was born on December 8th, 1939 in Inglewood, California to parents Melvin and Lucille Smith. She grew up in Rancho Cucamonga riding horses and singing in the choir in high school. She took her education seriously and graduated high school with honors. From there, she moved to North Newton, Kansas to attend Bethel College for nursing in the fall of 1957. There she met her future husband, Vernon Merle Zerger on a blind date through mutual friends—she knew by the second date that this was the man she would marry and grow old with. Sue and Vernon waited until she graduated nursing school in August 1961 and were married the next day. They had 4 children together: Steven, Jonathan, Mark, and Julie. They moved to a farm in rural McPherson, KS where she was able to show horses and have a huge garden, while Vernon raised chickens and farmed wheat. Sue was a nurse for 15 years before she left for a job at the NCRA oil refinery, where she worked for 23 years until she retired at age 59. Sue also had a lifelong love of traveling, and was able to have many adventures including Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and RV trips around the United States. In her retirement, she became a Master Gardener and volunteered with the city garden as well as the McPherson Opera House restoration project. Sue and Vernon were together for almost 45 years before Vernon passed away in 2006. Sue leaves behind 9 grandchildren: Amber, Josh, Zack, Ashley, Samuel, Hannah, Megan, Jacob and Landon. She also had 5 great grandchildren.

Sue always upheld her values of hard work, family, and love of learning and trying new things. She will be missed by her family and friends.

Fun memories from Mom in her own words

The last time I saw Mom we both knew this would probably be the last time we would see each other in this lifetime. Mom was talking about the celebration of life arrangements in her typical no-nonsense manner with Jon and I. Janet came up with a good idea why don't we talk about her fun memories so Jon and I interviewed her. When we get older our memories mean more to us than anything. So here goes memory lane. We asked what she liked about Dad. She loved his laid-back even-keeled temperament. She also loved his kindness and sense of humor. She also loved how he loved music as much as she did.

Her favourite memories of her father were going into the California desert and taking pictures of the wild donkeys with him. Also, she remembered when she and Grandpa made a sign together for the annual Grape Festival and dance contest in her home town of Alta Loma in the middle of the grape vineyards. She enjoyed working in his machine shop with him and they built by hand a swimming pool when she was only about 12 years old. When she was 13 she bought her first horse and announced to her father that she had bought a horse. He laughed and said I guess we better make a pen for the horse.

Her favourite memory of her mother was her unconditional love. Her mother was also a lot of fun to hang out with. She remembered one time when she and her sister Eileen took a train trip with Mom to San Francisco stayed the night at a hotel up there and came back the next day. She also went on a lot of trips together to Chinatown in Los Angeles one of the biggest in the United States. They all loved Chinese food.

Her favorite memories of our Dad Vernon were her canoe trips down the current river in Missouri and the boundary waters in northern Minnesota. She also loved all of the traveling they did including the camping trips. Another favorite memory she had was the time that Dad, Mom and Steve travelled Europe together with some people from the Brethren church in McPherson. We spent time in France, West Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy.

Mom had many interests and hobbies. She was an avid horse rider and owner of about 10 horses at one time. She loved to go to horse shows and specialized in Arabian horses. She was a master gardener and loved plants, especially flowers. She also volunteered time to help with the city garden of McPherson. She was a pioneering member of the Save the  McPherson Opera House Society.  She loved camping and went on many camping trips with Dad and also with the family.

Mom's Favorite Christian song was How Great Thou Art one of Steve's favorites too. Also Amazing Grace and In the Garden.  Mom also loved Karen Carpenter of the Carpenters and Barry Manilow.

Mom's Favorite movies were Gone with the Wind and Out of Africa.

The above notes were a few memories from Mom in her own words .