Susan Ellen Thomsen

1-4 pm at The Legacy Room at Davenport Memorial Park Cemetery, 1200 E. 39th Street in Davenport.

She was born on March 11, 1946, in Clinton, Iowa. She was married to Ronald Thomsen, and the two made their home in Camanche, Iowa for many years. She later remarried Gary Roewe and made her home in Davenport.

Susan earned her Master’s degree in speech pathology from the University of Iowa. She went on to serve as manager of Speech Services at the Area Education Agency in Clinton, Iowa.

Susan co-authored the SPARC series with Kathy Donnelly, published by LinguiSystems around 1980. Though written as clinical manuals for speech pathologists, the SPARC books became widely used by special education and classroom teachers for oral language development, vocabulary building, and structured communication tasks – and remain in use by teachers today.

Above all, Susan was known for her warmth. She was loving, kind, and accepting, and had a gift for making people feel good simply by being around her. She taught her children to be kind and accepting to others, and that lesson was one of the greatest gifts she gave her family. Before her illness, Susan was active and loved to run, bike, and hike - she rode in RAGBRAI several times and once hiked Half Dome. She also loved reading and spending time with family, and she especially cherished reading to her grandchildren.

Susan is survived by her husband, Gary Roewe, of Davenport, Iowa; her children, Grace (Clint) Mueller of Atkins, Iowa, Luke Thomsen of Manchester, Iowa and Kate (Cory) Determann of Mount Juliet, Tennessee, from her marriage to Ronald Thomsen, of Camanche, Iowa; her sister, Laurie (Doug) Knickrehm; her brothers, Joe Whalen (Mark Denney) and Al (Darcy) Whalen; her 10 grandchildren, Gabe and Nathan Kramer, Tess, Taelyn, and Tyce Thomsen, and Will, Whalen, Weston, and Wren Determann: her step-children, Krista (Brian) Verdun of Pontiac, Illinois, and Ben (Annie) Roewe of Morton Grove, Illinois; and her step-grandchildren, Dylan, Nolan, and Aaron Verdun, and Penelope and Calliope Roewe; and many nieces, nephews, great-nieces, and great-nephews.