Susie Sue Price Buse

She was born on Jan. 26, 1939, in Ketchikan, Territory of Alaska, to Virgil Clifford Price and Virginia Lee (Glass) Price, who preceded her in death. She leaves her husband of 51 years, David R. Buse of Arlington, daughter Shannon Buse of Stanwood; sons, Kevin Buse of Arlington and Bill (Kami) Broderick of Mill Creek, brother Jim Price of Whidbey Island; sisters, Annie (Mike) Bowen of Arlington and Kathie (Paul Egly) Trudelle of Bellevue, four grandchildren, Luke and Lee Hayden and Danica Buse and Savannah Buse, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Susie or Sue, as she was known to friends and family, was a 1956 graduate of Roosevelt High School, Seattle, an Honors student active in opera, senior court and Job's Daughters, where she was elected queen. She earned her B.A. in education in 1960 from the University of Washington, where she was a member of Delta Zeta Sorority. During college, she performed as an on-camera storyteller on Seattle's public television station. She taught second grade in Marysville, English and speech at Arlington High School (along with coaching drama), first-and-second-grade combined in Trafton and English at Arlington Junior High School. She helped establish the Arlington Christian School, where she taught English and speech and coached drama. She retired from Masters Touch School in Arlington, but kept active with the drama program at Arlington Free Methodist Church until she became ill in December. During her long and successful, career, she was instrumental in staging "South Pacific" and "Arsenic and Old Lace" among others, at Arlington High, and "Tom Sawyer" and "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" among others, at Arlington Christian School, as well as dramas such as "He's Alive" at Arlington Free Methodist Church. Over the years, she collected and maintained a large costume wardrobe.

Susie loved her students with a passion, encouraging them to go beyond where they thought they could go, both in their education and their personal lives. Her yellow Suburban was often filled with children being shuttled to the ski slopes, to school events and ballgames and, more than once, to the hospital for repairs of injured body parts. Her house was always open to the children and families she loved.

She was a member of the D.A.R., Whidbey Island Chapter, and she and her husband are 30-year members of a Bible Study group at Arlington Free Methodist Church, where they worship.

A seaplane pilot and horsewoman, Susie shared many adventures with her husband and family, including flying in the family's plane throughout the Western states and above the Arctic Circle, landing at Circle Hot Springs, Alaska, where she had learned to swim as a child; cruising the waters of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska in the family trawler and, in later years, traveling with her husband by motorhome.

Susie loved the beauty of God's creation, from the hummingbirds and the roses and rhododendrons blooming, the sunrises and sunsets, and whether traveling by plane or boat or on horseback, she reveled in seeing the majesty of mountains and glaciers and waterfalls - all of Nature and the landscape - and enjoyed, as well, quietly looking through the windows of the family home in rural Arlington at the wonders that God had surrounded her with. She will be greatly missed by her loving husband, family and friends as they continue the journey through this life, until they join her in Heaven.

There will be a viewing Tuesday, July 19, 2011, 12 noon to 8 p.m. at Weller Funeral Home 327 N. MacLeod Ave., Arlington, WA 98223. A memorial service will be held Wednesday, July 20, 2011, 3 p.m. at Arlington Free Methodist Church, 730 E. Highland Drive, Arlington. The burial will be private.

Arrangements under the direction of Weller Funeral Home, Arlington, WA.