Suzanne Rudolph Lilien

Suzanne (Garber) Rudolph Lilien died October 8th, 2024 in Largo, Florida during the calm before the storm of Hurricane Milton and with her children Lisa, Thomas, and Richard Rudolph at her bedside. She was ninety years old.

Suzanne was born on December 28, 1933 in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of the late Anne and Manuel Garber. She and her younger sister, the late Judy (Garber) Weiss Shroyer, were raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota where Suzanne attended St. Louis Park High School and later graduated from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor's degree in education. She met Jerome Howard ("Jerry") Rudolph, her future husband, at a teenage dance when he fell in love with her at first sight and proclaimed to a friend, "That's the girl I'm going to marry."

After their marriage, they moved to Manhattan Beach, California where Jerry interned at Harbor General Hospital and Suzanne worked as a kindergarten teacher. Jerry then served as a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California where their daughter Lisa was born. Sons Thomas and Richard were born in Rochester, New York where Jerry did his residency and began his medical practice as an obstetrician-gynecologist. Together, Suzanne and Jerry raised their children in Pittsford, New York.

Among Suzanne's wide circle of friends and acquaintances, she was known for her beauty, intelligence, elegant style, and sense of humor. On a dare she once stopped traffic at a busy intersection in downtown Rochester to perform an impromptu dance she had seen on a tv commercial. She also performed on and briefly hosted a local children's television show. An avid reader, she always had a stack of books nearby and exercised her lifelong talent for art with her lovely drawings and watercolor paintings.

Widowed at age forty-five, Suzanne reinvented herself as a docent at the Memorial Art Gallery. She also worked for the Nan Miller Gallery and volunteered to decorate the walls of the children's wing at Strong Memorial Hospital with her colorful murals. Suzanne married a second time to Dr. O. Michael ("Mike") Lilien and relocated to St. Petersburg, Florida where he was the chief of staff at the Pinellas County VA hospital. Suzanne and Mike further pursued their love of art by creating sculptures and paintings in their own art studio.

Having settled in Boca Raton, Florida in their retirement, Suzanne and Mike enjoyed playing tennis, alpine skiing, attending lectures, and traveling throughout Europe and the Middle East. She performed a leading role in a community theater production of Barefoot In The Park and indulged her "secret fantasy" of dancing as one of the Radio City Rockets by participating in her local dance group. After the death of her second husband, Suzanne maintained an active social life and continued to paint her beautiful watercolors of flowers and plants. In her later life, she liked evenings at the symphony and Caribbean cruises with Dr. Hugh Beckman, her companion of fifteen years.

Suzanne lived with a life-force as powerful as the hurricane that coincided with her death. She was deeply loved by her children who committed themselves to her care at the end of her life, her nine grandchildren, and the large extended family who remain devoted to her memory with the hope that she is dancing once again.

Suzanne is survived by her daughter Lisa (Oliver Berrett), sons Thomas Rudolph (Julie Ansell) and Richard Rudolph (Kristy), grandchildren Kyra Hurwitz Goodman (Jeff Goodman) and Gabriel Hurwitz; Tessa and Tobias Rudolph; Alexa, Justin, and Jenna Rudolph and step-grandchildren John Mark and London Roesch.

At Suzanne's request, there was no funeral service. Memorial donations may be made to the Arthritis Foundation or hurricane relief organizations such as the Red Cross, Americares, or Project Hope.