Susan was one of the first to welcome me when I came to RHS from Jane Addams JR. High. There weren't many of us entering from there and I felt quite alone, but Susan reached out and said, "C'mon, stick with me today." I never forgot her kindness.

I have many, many memories just being with Susan during our formative years at Bryant, Nathan Eckstein, and Roosevelt. We had many adventures together: "wild" slumber parties; taking 2 hours to walk home from school each day; bus trips to a tiny record shop on East lake that allowed us to listen to "banned" 45's as long as we wanted; bus trips to Golden Gardens in the summers; selling Seafair Skipper pins all over downtown Seattle and then spending all of our salaries at the sales at Best Apparel; etc., etc., etc. After high school, we went our separate ways but I will always consider Susan as an essential part of my childhood and am greatly saddened with her passing.

Susan and I kept in touch off and on through the years. From visiting her at her rooming house in San Jose, to her home in Santa Monica, to coming full circle back to 36th N.E., no matter how long since we'd seen each other, we reconnected.  One experience comes to mind. When the Hardy's were still living in So. Cal. we went one night to the Velvet Turtle, a now defunct restaurant chain. We were at the bar having an after dinner drink when the staff closed up and went home. We suddenly noticed we were left alone in the restaurant in semi-darkness and locked in.  We laughed about it for years.
Our last conversation was shortly after Susan had attended Carol Coyne's memorial service.  At that time she expressed the hope that there would be no war in Iraq. About two weeks later I got the call from her daughter. Despite a myriad of health problems, Susan never lost her acerbic wit, her genuine hospitality and empathy. She would have loved going to the big Reunion.

Susan Keene was probably the first girl my age I ever noticed. The year was 1941 and Susan and I were one year old. The Keene's bought our house on 36th N.E. ave. The next time I saw her was in the eighth grade. WOW was she cute and funny. I remember I had a crush on her.