Obituary for Suzanne Usher Henderson
Published in The Roanoke Times on
February 23rd, 2014  Suzanne
Usher Henderson passed away Sunday, January 19, 2014, at her home in
Lindenhurst, Ill., surrounded by her loving family following a courageous
seven-year battle with ovarian cancer. Born July 30, 1958, in Schenectady,
N.Y., Sue was the daughter of Dorothy Lane Usher of Littleton, N.H., and
the late Thomas Eugene Usher. She is survived by her sons, Dylan and Graham
Henderson, both of Roanoke; sister, Nancy Usher Goodrich and husband, John,
of St. Johnsbury, Vt.; brother, James Thomas Usher and wife, Jennifer, of
Topsfield, Mass.; and an aunt, Barbara Toby, of Arvada, Colo.; several
nieces, nephews, cousins, good friends and associates. During her early
years in Schenectady, Sue participated in the swim team and the Girl Scouts
where she became a First Class Senior Scout, finding joy in both horseback
riding and the outdoors. Following the family's move to Roanoke, she was
involved in many activities including chorus, track and volleyball,
excelling in the latter. She was a 1976 graduate of Cave Spring High
School, continuing on to attend Florida State University on a volleyball
scholarship, where she completed her education in 1980 with a degree in
criminology. She continued her interest in volleyball where she coached for
a time at Roanoke College and later moved on to volunteering as a coach
with the women's volleyball teams at both Cave Spring and Hidden Valley
High Schools as well as the Roanoke JOs. As a competitor she played in
various leagues on teams in both women's and mixed events in both Roanoke
and Chicago. Sports were always a big part of her life as a competitor and
as a spectator. She was big fan of the Virginia Tech Hokies, the Milwaukee
Brewers and the Green Bay Packers. As her sons grew and became interested
in sports, she never missed a game and was a fantastic soccer team mom for
many years. During her time, Sue served as an integral member of the
Southwest County Soccer Association board which in time developed into
Valley AFC. Her first position was with Allstate Insurance Company at the
operations center in Roanoke. She was a valued employee of 25 years where
she developed a passion for her craft and worked her way into a managerial
position for Allstate's national subrogation department in Roanoke, later
managing a hand-picked subrogation group as part of Allstate's National
Catastrophe Team from the Allstate headquarters in Northbrook, Ill. She was
honored multiple times with awards for excellence in the field of insurance
subrogation with the help of her teams from both Roanoke and Northbrook,
for whom she had tremendous regard. Family togetherness was important to
Sue and she enjoyed nothing more than spending time with them in the
outdoors, whether it was gardening or traveling, picnics or working on a
new home project, games or reading a story to her boys on the front porch
swing. An excellent cook and wonderful hostess, Sue was very caring to
those that crossed her path and always was there to lend a hand. She will
be missed by many.
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