Suzanne Warner Pierot

1923 - 2023

Suzanne WarnerPierot, born June 5, 1923 in San Francisco to the late Rutherford M. and Leita Marie Harpold Rau, died Sunday, January 22, 2023, age 99. Suzanne grew up in Hollywood, and at the age of 17 she was landing and publishing interviews with such people as Orsen Wells, Peter Lawford and Rita Hayworth. At 20 she was working for top press agent Russell Birdwell, who assigned her to his client, Howard Hughes. She was put in complete charge of opening the movie "The Outlaw" in San Francisco, and was sent to London to fight the censors and represent the film there. She was then 23. She stayed in England for 16 years. During this time she married, had a son, Michael, and opened her own public relations business which handled all the American stars performing in the London Palladium, including Johnnie Ray, Frankie Lane, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra. She was also one of the seven founders of the first commercial television in England, raising the needed money herself, and being the only woman at the first board meeting. In 1961 she returned to America and spent the next decade in Stamford, Connecticut where she (again) married and had a daughter, Elena, and devoted full-time energies to her large, shady acreage, and being a wife and mother. By 1969, she was widowed, and by 1971 she was married again, and moved to Scarsdale, NY. Her interest in gardening grew, and resulted in her founding the American Ivy Society in 1972. She wrote her first book two years later, 'The Ivy Book', which went into its second printing four months after it was off the press. Her second book, 'What Can I Grow In The Shade?' was followed by 'Suzanne's Garden Secrets' and Suzanne's Cooking secrets. In 1984 following the death of her husband Jacques Pierot III, she built a woodland home in Woodstock, NY, where she 'tamed the natural landscape' and became an expert on Hosta, Astilbe, and Ferns. This garden has been featured in Martha Stewart Living, and it remained part of the Garden Conservancy's Open Days directory of the 100 best private gardens in America. Suzanne was a gourmet cook, founder of the Gourmet Society in Connecticut, member of the International Wine and Food Society, and one of 50 charter members of Les Dames d'Escoffier, an elite society of cookbook authors, heads of cooking schools and outstanding hostesses. Suzanne Warner Pierot was President Emeritus of the American Ivy Society, a board member of the Horticultural Society of New York, a Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society, and was vice-president of the International Geranium Society (Connecticut branch). Survivors include her brother, Henri Nier, son, Michael Mullally of Willow NY, Daughter, Elena Sinozich of Providence, RI four grandchildren, Lea and Steven Marsland, Ryan Mullally, and Tara Eddy. She was predeceased by her husband Jacques Pierot III in 1984. Funeral Service will be held privately, and the burial will be in the long Ridge Union Cemetery, Stamford, Ct. Expressions of condolence and memorial photos may be shared with the family at SeamonWilseyFuneralHome.com.