1931 – 2013

OCEAN PARK — Susanne Vance Crowley, 81, died on Thursday, Sept. 12, with family by her side, after a brief battle with cancer.

Sue was born in Portland on Dec. 3, 1931, the daughter of John Crowley Jr., and Bernice Vance Crowley. Beginning at the age of 10, Sue was raised in Auburn by her sister and brother-in-law, Helen Crowley Andrews and Warren Andrews. Sue attended Auburn schools and graduated with a nursing degree from Central Maine General Hospital School of Nursing in 1953. In her early career, Sue worked with infants at hospitals in Washington, D.C., and Salem, Mass.

For 21 years, Sue was married to Norman Brackett. While Norm’s work kept the family on the move, Sue raised four children and established homes in Nahant, Mass., Beverly, Mass., Ballston Lake, N.Y., East Boxford, Mass., West Boxford, Mass., Bedford Hills, N.Y., Bedford Village, N.Y., Marshfield, Mass., and Marshfield Hills, Mass.,

During the 1960s and ’70s, Sue was an active member of various Protestant churches and taught Sunday school. Sue resumed her nursing career in the 1970s, providing geriatric care and developing her interest and skills in caring for the dying. Sue expressed her zest for life through painting watercolors and dancing, including dancing with the Liz Lerman Dancers of the Third Age modern dance troupe in Portsmouth, N.H., in 1992.

Sue lived in Ocean Park for the last 19 years. From 1997 to 2011, she worked as a foster grandparent at the Fairfield School in Saco.

Sue was a loving, kind-hearted person. She paid close attention to national and world events, and donated generously to a wide variety of organizations devoted to legal, environmental and political causes, such as health care and medical research, disaster and hunger relief, child advocacy and protection, and gun control.

Sue is survived by daughters, Debra Brackett of San Francisco, Calif., Janice Brackett of South Gardiner and daughter and son-in-law, Paula Brackett and Timothy Swallow of East Boston, Mass.; son, Stephen Brackett of Arlington, Mass.; grandson, Arlen Finseth of Gardiner; and granddaughter, Frida Swallow of East Boston, Mass.

The family would like to thank the caring and supportive staff of Hospice of Southern Maine and Gosnell Memorial Hospice House.