Sue Ellen Goldfarb

Oklahoma City - Sue Ellen Goldfarb died unexpectedly on Sunday, June 9th, 2024 due to complications from surgery.

Sue was born November 3, 1951 in Portsmouth, Ohio, one of eleven kids of Henry C. and Dorothy J. Clausing. Though money was tight and living conditions were cramped, there was always much love in their home and she was close with her siblings until her final day.

At Clay High she excelled at sports and academics where she was valedictorian. At Ohio University, she met Alan Goldfarb; she would always speak fondly about how she straightened him out after a courtship began over games of euchre and cheap beer at the local watering hole. They would marry on graduation day, 1973. She would go on to get an MBA at Ohio University.

She moved with Alan to New York City, where she took a job at Ernst & Young, one of the few female accountants in the firm during that era, she always proudly recounted. Every Oscars night, she would also recount that she would have been the one adding up Academy Awards votes for the firm and appearing on stage with an attache case handcuffed to her wrist, if she hadn't chosen to become a homemaker once the family moved to Oklahoma City.

In Oklahoma City, she raised Aaron, Rachel, and Sarah running the school math club, ferrying them to school, and countless sports practices in a pastel yellow Volvo station wagon. She would even earn a coaching license and coach her daughters' soccer team, the Twisters.

By the time the children were able to get themselves around town, Sue had gone back to work, teaching AP Calculus at Putnam City West High School and making a slew of new teacher friends, gleefully helping train the next generation of math nerds. She proudly wore her punny shirt on 3/14 every year.

In recent retirement, Sue found a new passion in pickleball, playing several times a week at Healthy Living Center with her "PB Posse." Damn if she wasn't hard to hit a passing shot on!

She returned to teaching during the pandemic by running the "Grandma Sue Virtual School" for her grandkids Warren and Vaughn.

She loved her children, her grandchildren perhaps even moreso, and gathering the family for spring break and summer trips wherever on the globe her kids would gladly let her pay for. She stoked her children's passions, whatever they were, no matter how ridiculous or non-lucrative they might prove to be in the future. She was never seen without her iPad, constantly playing games, and posting full photo albums of her family on Facebook well after people did such a thing. She literally saved every single piece of art and writing her children made in their lifetimes.

She never forgot anything from her and her family's life and may have sometimes even repeated these stories ad nauseum. Without her, we will have lost many of our memories, but she will never be forgotten.

While in the hospital, Sue and Alan celebrated their 49th wedding anniversary.

She is survived by her husband Alan Goldfarb, children, Aaron Goldfarb (Betsy), Rachel Goldfarb (Asaf), and Sarah Vendittelli (Tony); grandkids Vaughn, Warren, Ellie, and Wilder; her siblings Kenny, Tom, Danny, Lisa, Carla, Marsha, Brenda, Paul, and innumerable nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by her parents Henry and Dorothy, brother Jim and sister Elaine.

A celebration of her life will be planned at a later date.