Susan Speight

SUSAN SPEIGHT was a fighter--when she was small, she fought with her mother about dance lessons and party dresses. When she grew up, she fought along with the politicians in the Texas Legislature for the mental health of families. She led the Texas Association for Marriage and Family Therapy in their battle for good family mental health practices. She fought for the Texas Family Trust Fund out of the Attorney General's office and for improvements in the Texas Family code as it relates to divorcing families, along with the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. As a respected and well-known family therapist in Clear Lake, she fought for her therapy clients and trainees--always trying to coax them into strength and resiliency. In all of these arenas--family, political, and professional, she won. Tragically, on August 12, 2004, after 56 years of fighting and winning, Susan fought against death for two days and lost. The injuries she had sustained in a jet-ski accident were too severe even for her strong and determined will. But Susan was much more than a fighter. Susan was a playful and mischievous adult. In fact, she was the preferred playmate of most children who knew her. Susan adored her three shared children, five grandsons, and eight nieces and nephews, and all of them brightened under the intense and unwavering light of Susan's love and attention. In fact, Susan thought everyone should play, regardless of age--whether they liked it or not. She loved to play games of all kinds--Canasta (she lost), volleyball (she won), softball (she won), and swim races (she won). She also loved to play with grown-up toys--computers, cell phones, big televisions, snow skis, jet-skis, and swimming pools. Susan loved adventure--whether it was exploring a Central American jungle or hiking in New Zealand or simply spending a day at Disneyworld. But, for Susan, the adventure was incomplete without the company of people she loved because more than almost anything, Susan loved people and people loved her. She was a compassionate, attentive listener with an amazing ability to sort through a problem and sort out a solution. Once she discovered a solution, she was strategic and persuasive and utterly irresistible. She just completed a course as a Galveston Bay Area Master Naturalist which was a new adventure for her. Last weekend, she attended her first meeting as a board member of Dickinson Beautiful. Susan had a keen mind and an amazing will, and she loved a challenge. She not only graduated as a National Merit Scholar from Castleberry High School in River Oaks, Texas, in 1966, she was also a champion swimmer in both high school and college. In fact, she held swimming records for many years. After high school, she earned her bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Texas and then she worked for three years on a Master's in Genetics, and, finally, found her true calling at the University of Houston Clear Lake with a master's in Marriage and Family Therapy. Susan was a gifted teacher. As a teenager, she taught swimming and later, as a Marriage and Family Therapist, she taught, trained, and supervised many therapists both young and old. Susan was a respected leader. She led the way to change and innovation in her profession. She and Pam Barton and Leslye Mize founded Interact Counseling and Consultation, Inc. in Clear Lake. Together they created an innovative, cutting edge therapy practice that served the community for many years and Susan inspired much of its direction. Susan loved adventure and people. She was a teacher and leader and friend. She was a mother and grandmother, a daughter and sister and aunt. Susan is survived by a large and loving family which includes her life partner of 25 years, Pam Barton, of Dickinson; her parents Jack and Carolyn Speight; sisters, Sally Culver, her husband Kevin, and their daughters Courtney, Caroline, and Megan; Stacey Bass, her husband David, and their children Lauren, Hillary, and William; and brother, John Speight, his wife Kathryn, and their sons Jason and Justin, all of Fort Worth; shared children, Joseph Linbeck, partner Misty Moye of Houston; Janet Barkis her husband Chris, sons Stephen, Matthew, and Nick of McKinney; Nicole Grayban, her husband Glen, sons Joshua and Zachary of Friendswood; and many other relatives and friends. Memorial service for family and friends will be held Sunday, August 15, 2004,at 6:00pm in Susan's backyard. For details, see memorial website at www.susanspeight.org. In lieu of flowers, donations may be given to: Human Rights Campaign, Houston Galveston Institute, Dickinson Beautiful, I Have A Dream Foundation of Fort Worth, or/and the University of Houston Clear Lake. Crowder Funeral Home Dickinson, Texas