Suzanne Sachs Black

Suzanne W Sachs Black, age 85, passed away on September 8, 2020 in Spanish Fork, Utah. Suzanne was born on June 29, 1935 in Salt Lake City to Karl and Evangeline Wagstaff Sachs. She attended Granite High School, Westminster College, and LDS Business College.

Suzanne loved drama, music, dance, and performance! Her father, Karl, had a beautiful tenor voice and inspired her until his passing when she was 11. Through Suzanne’s final years, each person who interacted with her was greeted with a genuine smile and interest. Her eyes would light up and she would visit and listen, expressing delight, all of this despite health conditions making each breath a chore and each movement made through pain. The show must go on! During final hours as family sang to her, she was leading with her hands and smiling with her eyes.

It was through Suzanne’s involvement in drama that she met the love of her life, Peter Dale Black, whom she married on October 21, 1954 in the Salt Lake Temple. Three months later she became a “mission widow” when Pete departed on his mission to the North Central States mission. While he was gone, Suzanne wrote and directed plays for her summer recreation job as well as a roadshow for her ward. She also directed small skits for a December performance before being called as a stake missionary. As Pete and Suzanne’s young family grew, each child learned the music and joined the performance. Canes, hats, and vests were among the props of Suzanne’s choreography for her children singing “Hello Dolly,” “My Favorite Things,” “The Sunny Side of the Street,” “Consider the Lilies,” “A Mormon Boy,” “I Am a Child of God,” and many more songs in rest homes, retirement centers, family reunions, church events, Christmas shows, etc. Suzanne was especially excited when her children and their families traveled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2004 for her 50th wedding anniversary while she and Pete were serving their mission. They performed a family centered/focused program for the branch there. There are many in Milwaukee that Suzanne and Pete came to know and love.

The instilling of a multi-generational love for music and performance was not limited to formal choir or play practice, but patiently cultivated through a rich involvement in every aspect of Suzanne’s raising of her children. They learned to “Whistle While [they] Work[ed].” Raising her children on an acre plot of ground in the middle of South Salt Lake, Suzanne taught them how to garden, rotate crops, keep them watered, weeded, harvested, preserved, and eaten (the best part!) As Dad noted, it was hard to actually get the newly bottled pickles to their storage locations in the basement if they were still out on the counter when the kids got home from school! And Suzanne won awards at the fair for her bottled cherries so beautifully preserved in natural juice – and again so hard to keep on the shelf! She often dodged apples pitched from the tops of trees to waiting mitts below. She was quick to bring a handful of mud carefully prepared to assuage a child’s bee sting. And the music flowed on around the backyard campfire in which some of the potatoes from the garden were baking in their new foil jackets.

Have you ever eaten a beet sandwich, drunk a vinegar-and-honey “toddy” (with cayenne pepper), or worn a cloth bag full of chopped onions on your chest? Suzanne studied, practiced, and taught everything she could about natural means of getting and staying healthy. She trusted in the Lord’s promises regarding health as found in The Word of Wisdom, Book of Mormon, Old and New Testament, and all scripture.

Her children’s friends and many neighbors grew under Suzanne’s conducting baton and gospel instruction. She “put the music in them” through many years as primary chorister and boys’ quartet/quintet mentor. She often served as organist in the wards she lived in. She spent most Sundays fasting and many hours each week (often on her knees) preparing to teach gospel doctrine classes. Suzanne was a teacher in her home, instilling a love of how God’s hand moved in the founding of our nation, the restoration of the Gospel, and continues in the ongoing work of building His kingdom. Her civic involvement was much more than meetings participation. She was regularly, and earnestly involved in writing to, and interacting with elected representatives and groups working to better the community. Suzanne loved Boy Scout Eagle courts of honor, especially when her boys sang the special arrangement of “The Star Spangled Banner” together!

Suzanne spent time in many different locales throughout her life. She spent time with her father’s family from Germany and served as interpreter for them as they communicated with her mother, Evangeline. Suzanne also spent time with her mother’s family in Mount Pleasant, Utah. She traveled and visited with relatives in Arizona and elsewhere. Her father’s sister, Anna, was like a second mother to Suzanne and was a friend and confidant until Anna passed away in 1980. When most of her own children were grown, Suzanne and Pete moved to Kamiah, Idaho, a community they absolutely loved and served in. Evangeline, her mother, had served a mission in the North-Western states. Kamiah would have been amongst the areas included in that mission. Suzanne felt at home there. When her health would no longer allow that distance from family and care, Suzanne and Pete moved to Layton, Utah, a short distance from family. The work projects on their home were great bonding times for their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. The final move was to Spanish Fork in the home of a son. The final weeks were a beautiful and tender mercy as family gathered round and hospice workers also helped to keep her comfortable.

Suzanne is survived by her husband Peter Dale Black (86), all of her 9 children and their spouses: Karl (Mary), Patrice (Kent Olsen), Anna Lea (Brian Cannon), Evan (Leisha), Benjamin (Susan), William (Audrey), Hugh (Laura), James (Emily), and Stanley (Maria). Suzanne has 53 grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren rejoicing in and celebrating her life and the blessing it has been to have her as grandmother!

Services will be Thursday, September 17, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. at the church building located at 3051 S. 2900 E., Millcreek, Utah. Interment will follow at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park. The family will receive friends Wednesday, September 16, at Wasatch Lawn Mortuary between the hours of 6 and 8 PM and again at the church, just prior to the funeral at 10:00 a.m., on September 17.