Private services for Susan Stuart Dean were held at Leland-Stoneville Cemetery. Susan met her Lord and Savior at the pearly gates of Heaven after a brief illness.
Susan was born in Mobile, Alabama to Claude L. Stuart and Hazel G. Stuart on November 22, 1944. Her family moved to Greenville at an early age, where she lived for all but four years of her life. She attended Greenville Public Schools where her father was a well-known chemistry teacher and she graduated in 1962. While in high school, she was a varsity cheerleader and chosen to be on the football homecoming court. She also was a member of the track team.
After graduation, Susan attended Delta State University where she graduated in three years. While at Delta State she became a member of Kappa Delta Sorority and was a part of the dance squad known as “The Delta Belle’s”.
In the summer of 1963, she met her future husband, Robert C. Dean, who, at the time, was attending Mississippi State University. After a 2 1/2 year courtship, the couple was married on November 27, 1965. Susan and her husband moved to Jackson in 1966 and lived there four years while she taught school in the Jackson Public School System and he served as a tennis professional at River Hills Tennis Club and attended Jackson School of Law. In 1966 the couple was blessed with their first child, a son, Robert, Jr.
In 1970 Susan, her husband and son, Robert, Jr. moved to Greenville where she began her teaching career in the Greenville Public Schools System, where she taught for 29 years, retiring in 1999.
In 1974, Susan and her husband were blessed with another child, Alison, who now teaches in the public schools of Madison, MS, like her mother and grandmother, Margaret Dean.
Susan loved the great outdoors all of her life and she enjoyed growing flowers and feeding her hummingbirds. She and her husband hunted and fished together all over Mississippi and enjoyed each other’s company on at least 1,000 separate occasions, this is no exaggeration. She was an expert with a rod and reel, fishing for largemouth bass, and caught many bass over four pounds. Her best was a 6 3/4 pounder which she caught on a top water lure. She was also a crack shot with her 243 caliber rifle, taking over a dozen bucks, including an 8-point buck with a heart shot at a distance of 350 yards. She was also a master of the jig pole for crappie, beating her husband many times. Her best was a 3 pound, 1 ounce slab that she caught in Grenada Lake while fishing with her husband.
She was preceded in death by her parents, and is survived by her husband of 50 years, her son, Robert, Jr. (Lisa) of Arlington, TN, daughter, Alison Long (Cliff) of Lake Caroline, MS, sister, Carol Mansour (Johnny), grandsons, whom she loved dearly, Walker Dean, Cliff Long IV, and Graham Dean Long, also survived by nephews, Chuck Reece, Michael Reece, Dr. John Mansour and Claude Stuart IV, and nieces, Beth Dean, Susan Katherine Minninger and Ann Dyer Stuart. She is also survived by brother-in-law, Stanley Dean, Jr. (Cheryle), and sister–in-law, Betty Dean Reece (Charles) and a special friend, Joanne Grossi.