- Margery Conway Van Susteren, widow of the late Circuit Court Judge Urb an P. Van Susteren, died June 10 in Washington D.C. of congestive heart failure. She was born on June 14, 1911, in Auburn, N.Y., daughter of the late Dr. Michael Patrick Conway and Elizabeth (Delaney) Conway. Her father was a prominent physician who was long active in New York Democratic Party politics. Mrs. Van Susteren graduated from the College of New Rochelle (N.Y.) and received a master's degree in library science from Columb ia University. She had a lifelong interest in travel and writing. She was aboard the French passenger ship Isle De France, the first ship to cross the Atlantic at the outset of World War II. The ship, in its historic voyage, blackened portholes and took a zig-zag route from France to New York City to avoid German submarines. Later during the war, she was an Army librarian at a U.S. Army Air Corps base in Syracuse, N.Y., where she met Mr. Van Susteren, then an Air Corps captain. The couple married on the base on June 23, 1945. After the war they moved to Appleton, where Mr. Van Susteren whose hometown was Little Chute began a law practice and became involved in Republican Party politics, serving as the 1946 campaign manager for the late U.S. Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy. Mr. Van Susteren, in 1965, was named county judge by then-Gov. Warren Knowles. Judge V an Susteren died in 1989. Mrs. Van Susteren in 1991 authored a book titled "Prince," an account of her daughter Greta's encounter and eventual "adoption" of a black water spaniel on Mackinac Island, Mich., where the family regularly vacationed. Mrs. Van Susteren lived in Clearwater, Fla., and frequently visited Washington D.C., while maintaining a home in Appleton.
Survivors are her daughter Greta Van Susteren, a legal-affairs analyst and host of two news programs on CNN; another daughter, Dr. Lise Van Susteren, a psychiatrist in Washington D.C.; a son, Dirk, a journalist in Montpelier, Vt.; two sons-in-law, John Coale and Jonathan Kempner, lawyers in Washington D.C.; a daughter-in-law, Marialisa Calta, a writer in Montpelier; and five granddaughters, Aliza Kempner, 13, Delaney Kempner, 11, and Piera Kempner, 10, all of Washington D.C., and Hannah Van Susteren, 16, and Emma Van Susteren, 13, both of Montpelier.
A funeral mass was offered June 15 at Holy Family Church in Auburn. Mrs. Van Susteren was buried at a family gravesite at St. Joseph's Cemetery in Auburn, near Owasco Lake, where her father and, later, the Van Susteren family owned a summer home. Mrs. Van Susteren was a member of the parish of St. Bernard's Catholic Church in Appleton. Contributions in her name may be sent to COTS Inc. (Community Outreach Temporary Services), a program for the homeless. The address: P.O. Box 1645, Appleton, Wis., 54914.
|
1911 - 2001 (89 years)
Obituary
