Susan A St. John Parsons

March 26, 1942 - September 5, 2025.

Susan St. John-Parsons died on September 5th, 2025 at Mt Sinai Morningside Hospital in Manhattan. Susan, the daughter of James and Anne Hussey of Forest Hills, Queens, was the beloved wife of 45 years to Donald St. John-Parsons, who predeceased her in 2015, and the adored mother of Fiona and cherished grandma of Miranda (16) and Alice (13). A native New Yorker and a true intellectual, Susan spent her entire life in New York City, where she excelled at all things academic, graduating first in her class and winning prizes at almost everything she studied. Susan obtained a Master's Degree in medieval English literature from Columbia University and was an Instructor in English Composition and Literature at the City University of New York with a plan to pursue her PhD in English Literature at Columbia. However, always intellectually curious and a true example of a working mother, she opted to make a career switch when Fiona was young and pursue the field of computer programming. She excelled at that too, securing work in data processing at Columbia, from where she eventually retired as a Lead Application Systems Developer. Not to be deterred in other arenas despite her busy schedule, Susan was civic minded and served on the PTO at Fiona's high school and was also a familiar figure within the CO-OP community, Morningside Gardens, where she had lived with Donald since 1972. She actively participated in many aspects of Morningside Gardens life, including winning election to serve on the Morningside Gardens Elections Committee in 2012. And when she became a grandmother, that became her favorite role of all. Witty, lively, bright, and a quintessential New Yorker with her love of the arts, books, and ideas, Susan was both elegant and fun. An inspiration to her family and a joy to her friends, no one who met Susan forgot her.

A woman of quiet but steadfast religious faith, Susan's funeral mass will take place at 11AM on September 13th, 2025 at the church she attended for many decades, Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church at 529 West 121st in Manhattan. Susan's remains will be returned in part to her family plot in Newport, Rhode Island and in part to join Donald's remains, which she and Fiona returned to his native Gloucestershire, England shortly after his death. In lieu of flowers, Fiona would welcome donations in Susan's memory to Smile Train, a children's charity both she and Donald supported throughout their married life.