Suzanne Brinton Strong

Suzanne (“Sue”) Brinton Strong passed away peacefully on September 30, 2026 after suffering a stroke two days earlier. In her characteristic caring and thoughtful manner, she lingered long enough for all her children and grandchildren to be able to tell her good-bye.

Sue was born in Grantsville, Utah on February 24, 1930, to Wilder Huffaker Brinton and Bernice Anderson Clark. She was the second of two children. She greatly admired and looked up to (in every sense of the phrase) her older brother Boyd. She often spoke fondly of her father who she referred to as Daddy. Her mother was her near constant companion until her death. Sue’s growing up years were spent in Montana where her father worked as a mining engineer. She and her brother would explore the woods on a regular basis and pursued many outdoor activities with their dog Pal on guard to watch for bears, moose, snakes and other outdoor creatures. When not outdoors she was knitting, sewing, doing needlework and helping her mother with a quilt. Her mother, grandmother and aunts taught her these various skills, but much of her success and skill was learned on her own.

Just before her senior year of high school, her family moved to Boulder Colorado. It was there that she met a young sailor who was in the V-12 program of the Navy and had been sent to Boulder to attend the University of Colorado. His name was Kline Duncan Strong and a few years later she married Kline in the Idaho Falls Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints.

Throughout her life, Sue served in many callings in this church, including two years with Kline in the Europe Mediterranean Area office. She loved her Savior and did her best to follow Him.

Sue was the ultimate creator and caretaker of others. She expressed her love through the countless things she made with her own hands. She knit 51 Christmas stockings, made 36 blankets for her grandchildren, and cross-stitched 13 wedding samplers. Every stitch was an expression of her love, patience, creativity, and thoughtfulness.

Sue loved her family and friends fiercely. She had a unique ability to make each person in her family feel loved, valued, and truly seen. She raised three amazing children and helped establish a pattern of family unity and influence that extends to all of her posterity. Her grandchildren will always fondly remember birthday lunches followed by shopping trips, evenings playing Enchanted Forest and Penguin Run, and seeing Sue on the sidelines or audience of anything they were participating in.

Sue’s mind was a vault of information. She was endlessly curious, intelligent, and interested in the world around her. Even the week before her passing, she recited a poem she had learned in kindergarten. Sue was tremendously kind, compassionate, thoughtful, intentional, precise, funny, clever, witty, intelligent, organized, creative, curious, and simply wonderful. She had a way of doing things with care and purpose, and she brought that same care to the people she loved.

As Kline often said, Sue was “practically perfect in every way.”

Sue is preceded in death by her husband, her parents, brother and her son-in-law, Richard Hutchison.

She is survived by her three children and two of their spouses, Richard and Jan Strong of Sandy, UT, Greg and Deena Strong of Millcreek, UT and Debra Hutchison of Murray, UT. She is survived by her 13 grandchildren Jeremy (Susie) Strong, Matt (Bree) Strong, Nick (Lara) Strong, Creighton Strong , Jenny (Derek) Bradley, Kristi (Jay) Taylor, Shellie (Jeff) Herrscher, Stacy (Dustin) Butcher, Amy (Scott) Asay, Katie (Ricky) Irion, Andrew (Katie) Hutchison, Emily (Eddie )King, Stewart (Jessica) Hutchison, 36 great grandchildren and 1 great great grandchild.

Funeral services will be held Saturday October 10, at 12 noon at the Big Cottonwood 2nd ward, 2054 E. Donelson Lane (5165 S). A viewing will be held prior to the services from 10:00-11:45 AM.

Sue’s funeral will be available by a live stream.