The family would relocate to Kansas in Susan’s early childhood, moving first to Valley Falls and later Harrington. She would attend high school at St. Mary of the Plain in Dodge City, where she played trumpet and drum in the school band, as well as participate in the Bugle Corp, and act as the senior editor for St. Mary’s school paper.
Susan attended Phillips University in Enid, OK for two years, where she studied geology, before enlisting into the Women’s Army Corps at Ft. McClellan, AL in 1972. She would later travel to Nuremburg, West Germany and act as a Personnel Clerk and Barracks Sergeant. Susan was very proud to have served and to have made Specialists 5 within 2 years. She would be honorably discharged in April 1978.
Susan married David W. Rader on March 11, 1989. The couple would celebrate the birth of their daughter Hayley, a source of great joy, as well as David’s achievement of becoming a licensed architect. Over the years, Susan would be involved with the Girl Scouts as a Group Leader and later assisting with public relations for the Oklahoma Western Division. She was also proud to have graduated from UCO with a B.A. in Geography.
Her faith in Christ inspired her to write a “religious autobiography” titled You Don’t Have to Move the Washer to Make Toast, sharing her story in her own words with hope to inspire others.
She is preceded in death by her parents and sister Patricia Jamison.
Susan is survived by her husband David W. Rader; daughter Hayley E. Boothe; sisters Christine Elaine Strawn, and Sarah Weiler.
A service to celebrate Susan’s life will be Monday, March 8, 2021 at 2 p.m. at Trinity Baptist Church, 620 N. Cemetery Road with interment following in Spring Creek Memorial Cemetery, 14300 N. County Line Rd., Oklahoma City, OK.
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