Suzanne Barnett

Suzanne (Sue) Barnett, of Haddam, CT, formerly of Ivoryton and Portland CT and, in retirement, Arizona, died on March 3, 2023 at the age of 89. In addition to her husband, friend and companion, Tom, she is survived by her loving and admiring children, Betsey Rose, her husband Mark of San Diego, CA and their sons, Patrick and Andrew; Kathleen Bransfield of Aix-en-Provence, France, Henry Chen of Mountain View, CA and their children, Nicholas and Liu Chen; Joseph “Jay” P. Bransfield III of Piedmont, CA and his two children, Sophie and Joseph Patrick IV; Robert Bransfield, his wife, Cherise, of Nantucket, MA and their daughters, Audrey and Amelia, and Patricia Patel, her wife, Radha of South Salem, NY and their children/stepchildren, Giselle and Stuart Minshull. Also survived by her sister, Annis Pepion Scott, her husband, Don, and two nieces, Karen Ims and Laura Fitzgerald of Scottsdale, AZ. She was predeceased by her sister, Joan Alexander. She also leaves stepsons, Jim and Peter Barnett, their wives, Jane and Paula and five step-grandchildren, Lauren, Stephen, Erin, Matthew and Megan.

Sue was born to John and Dorothy Pepion on January 31, 1934. A graduate of Hall High School in West Hartford (‘51) and Hartford Hospital School of Nursing (‘54), Sue began her career as a Registered Nurse at Newington Children’s Hospital.

Following years as a fulltime mother and wife to the late Joseph P. Bransfield Jr., Sue returned to nursing at Covenant Village in Cromwell, tending to the needs of the elderly. Sue’s last 12 years of nursing were at Connecticut Hospice in Branford, “the first Hospice in the

Country” she would always note with pride. Part of a pioneering team in the Hospice movement in the United States, she considered her service to the dying and those closest to her patients as the most rewarding of her career.

Cherished family vacations consisted primarily of several weeks each summer at Chapman Beach in Westbrook, CT. For the first four years of retirement, Sue and Tom wandered the U. S. and Canada in their RV, countless times waking to the the sights and sounds of water - a pond or lake, stream or river, or one of the oceans. Having sold their home, one of Sue’s young grandchildren referred to the RV as their “house on wheels.” As rewarding as her nursing career had been, she, as a lover of nature, frequently mused that if today’s opportunities for women had existed when she was young, she might well have become a Park Ranger.

A lover of sailing, traditional jazz and games, Sue played backgammon up to her final days.

A celebration of life will take place this spring or early summer. Private interment will follow.

Contribution in memory of Suzanne Barnett would be gratefully received by The Alzheimer’s Association of Connecticut in Southington, CT, or by Middlesex Health Hospice Care.