Susan Mae Kalman

It is with broken hearts that we announce the passing of Susan (Susie) Mae Kalman of Diamond Springs, California on July 12, 2024. She passed away after a long battle with cancer at the age of 71 in her own home, next to her sister, Kathy Hanson.

Susie was born to Harry and Lois Kalman in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on August 13, 1951, and was the first grandchild on both her mother’s and father’s side of the family. She had two brothers, Timothy and Jeffery, and a sister, Katharine. When her mother passed away in 1971, her father married Carol Kalman in 1972 who came with her own two children, Michael and Dawn. Susie continued to be the oldest child in the family.

Susie graduated from Edgewood High School in West Covina, California in 1969. She went on to graduate with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting from San Diego State University, California in 1981.

Susie was an amazing person who embodied many gifts. She was very sharp and became a Certified Public Accountant in 1985. She was a corporate accountant and controller, primarily in the Bay Area, with clients including Kaiser Permanente, Otis Spunkmeyer, Lautze & Lautze and California Mortgage and Realty. Her skills included internal audits, corporate tax returns, budgeting, conversions to software accounting programs and payroll.

In her “spare time” she was also the Business Manager for the San Francisco Choral Society, where she sang as an alto for over 20 years. Singing was one of the great loves of her life. She took private voice and piano lessons for several years. Susie not only sang alto solos during the many years of her practices with the Choral Society but traveled the world and sang at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco with the Choral Society, at Carnegie Hall in New York City with the Masterworks Choral of San Mateo, with the Berkshire Choral Festival in various locations including the Salzburg Cathedral in Salzburg, Austria and in Massachusetts. She also sang with a choir that performed in Russia.

On another musical note, Karen Bohn (who was Susie’s best friend since high school and roommates with her three separate times afterwards) can’t hear Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sounds of Silence” without reminiscing about how desperately she wanted the lyrics to the song at that time. They weren’t on the record jacket, so the two girls sat in the living room in West Covina and played the record over and over while Susie, who was learning shorthand in high school at the time, took shorthand notes of the song and then transcribed them for Karen so she could then write the lyrics out in longhand.

Susie was an inveterate reader. She regarded her books as her friends. Her bookshelves, in multiple rooms in each of her homes, were all double stacked (a row of books in front and in back on each shelf). Her detail-oriented, accounting brain led her to alphabetize all her books by author.

Susie loved to camp at Yosemite National Park in California with Dawn and Steve Kellogg. They enjoyed the giant, ancient sequoia trees while hiking and the gorgeous sights of Yosemite Falls and Half Dome. Later in time, Susie would fly Dawn and Steve’s children, Laura and Dylan to spend time with her.

She was delighted to travel with her cousin, Scotti Fritts to New York, New York. Scotti’s son, Aaron Baker and her granddaughter Carli Baker also traveled with them. Susie was excited to see a Broadway show and the Statue of Liberty in person. They even went to the new baseball stadium to watch the New York Mets.

She loved to travel and Annette Dawson was her “go to” travel buddy. They flew to South Africa and took a jeep twice a day to a reserve to feed elephants and cheetahs. Luckily, they had a smart driver who diverted the jeep from an upset rhinoceros that was charging at them!

Susie and Annette also traveled to Egypt where they took a cruise on the Nile River together. They were also able to see the Avu Simbel Temples, Simbel Karnak (a huge monument to the gods and pharaohs), carvings of the Valley of the King and Valley of the Queen, and The Great Pyramid of Giza in Cairo.

Susie and Annette had many more adventures including an Alaskan Cruise up the inland passage, a cruise on the Mediterranean Sea where they toured Rome, the Greek Islands, Turkey, and Athens. They drove down to Susie’s father’s house in Bahía de Los Ángeles, Mexico to fish. The two of them also traveled to Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New Mexico.

Susie’s last expedition took place on a Caribbean cruise to the Dominican Republic, Bahamas, and the Grand Turk Island with her sister, Kathy Hanson, her brother-in-law, Tom Hanson, her best friends Karen Bohn, Ray McLaughlin, and Annette Dawson. Kathy admitted that one of their favorite times was in the Bahamas, where they swam with pigs and fed them apples and sliced hot dogs! Of course, Susie and Kathy loved going to zoos together, perhaps that is why this was such a great time for the two of them!

Susie was a very unique individual who was also very generous, thoughtful, caring, and kind. When a piano was brought into the home at age 18, Susie paid for her sister, Kathy’s piano lessons. Kathy was 9 years old at the time.

Susie loved her family and friends dearly, who felt the same towards her.

Susie is survived by her brother, Jeffery Kalman, sister, Katharine Hanson (husband Thomas), and her stepsister, Dawn Kellogg (husband Steve). She is preceded in death by her parents Harry and Lois Kalman, stepmother Carol Kalman, brother Timothy Kalman, and stepbrother Michael Millam. Interment will take place at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Covina Hills, California near her parents, maternal grandparents, and cousin.

A memorial service will be held on September 14, 2024 in Diamond Springs, California.

Susie, you will be forever in our hearts and forever loved by us all.