She died as she lived-a fighter to the end. Sue was one of the most competitive people I ever knew. She knew exactly what she wanted from life and she went out and got it.
Born April 9th, 1924 to Alwine [Mezzuli/Meschul] & Otto Heinrich Schenck. Her mother died 8 days after she was born from inferior care in a public hospital in Frankfurt, Germany.
By the time of war creeping up, Sue was not quite 17 and working in a factory. Her boss had responded to her comments about leaving that she would do whatever he told her to. She would then enlist in the Kriegsmarine-German Navy-lying about her age, and be accepted as one of many secretaries to Admiral Karl Dönitz. As she would later tell, the saying: (later used by Marlene Dietrich) "Enjoy the war, the peace time will be hell" became the motto of the folks in her group-about 200 women with over 20,000 men passing through their center. They partied and enjoyed life...and would never see any of the men who passed through there again. Most went out in two man subs, but the rest would all die on missions.
When she came to America, she worked real hard, learned both the language and the customs and passed all the tests for citizenship...being more proud of her naturalization than most people I have met.
She would work for Mr. Beckman-a friend-Beckmann instruments and was briefly married to a fellow German Named George Blei (b. 16 Aug 1903/md. 2 Jun 1948 in Chicago/d. 19 Mar 1987 in San Diego, Calif.)& divorced him around 1949. She met dad after she had followed a fellow ski bum/German girlfriend to So. Calif.(both worked for Beckman & transferred out here) around 1953, Through mutual friends, she would meet and marry dad and would quit work to be a mother. But she never failed to go back and reapply to see if she was still in demand and always was offered. In fact, she ended up-on a whim-going for a Firemen's Fund Insurance commercial and got hired for a 1/4 second shot...she had torn up the contract when it arrived figuring it was a joke. She approached life that way.
So in the end, her suffering was made the worse as she held on for her only son-not wanting to leave him alone.
At her request, she was cremated and sits on a 19th Century book shelf overlooking her son. At his death both will be set next to Robert Lee Sr.@ the Forest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills.
Born April 9th, 1924 to Alwine [Mezzuli/Meschul] & Otto Heinrich Schenck. Her mother died 8 days after she was born from inferior care in a public hospital in Frankfurt, Germany.
By the time of war creeping up, Sue was not quite 17 and working in a factory. Her boss had responded to her comments about leaving that she would do whatever he told her to. She would then enlist in the Kriegsmarine-German Navy-lying about her age, and be accepted as one of many secretaries to Admiral Karl Dönitz. As she would later tell, the saying: (later used by Marlene Dietrich) "Enjoy the war, the peace time will be hell" became the motto of the folks in her group-about 200 women with over 20,000 men passing through their center. They partied and enjoyed life...and would never see any of the men who passed through there again. Most went out in two man subs, but the rest would all die on missions.
When she came to America, she worked real hard, learned both the language and the customs and passed all the tests for citizenship...being more proud of her naturalization than most people I have met.
She would work for Mr. Beckman-a friend-Beckmann instruments and was briefly married to a fellow German Named George Blei (b. 16 Aug 1903/md. 2 Jun 1948 in Chicago/d. 19 Mar 1987 in San Diego, Calif.)& divorced him around 1949. She met dad after she had followed a fellow ski bum/German girlfriend to So. Calif.(both worked for Beckman & transferred out here) around 1953, Through mutual friends, she would meet and marry dad and would quit work to be a mother. But she never failed to go back and reapply to see if she was still in demand and always was offered. In fact, she ended up-on a whim-going for a Firemen's Fund Insurance commercial and got hired for a 1/4 second shot...she had torn up the contract when it arrived figuring it was a joke. She approached life that way.
So in the end, her suffering was made the worse as she held on for her only son-not wanting to leave him alone.
At her request, she was cremated and sits on a 19th Century book shelf overlooking her son. At his death both will be set next to Robert Lee Sr.@ the Forest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills.
She died as she lived-a fighter to the end. Sue was one of the most competitive people I ever knew. She knew exactly what she wanted from life and she went out and got it.
Born April 9th, 1924 to Alwine [Mezzuli/Meschul] & Otto Heinrich Schenck. Her mother died 8 days after she was born from inferior care in a public hospital in Frankfurt, Germany.
By the time of war creeping up, Sue was not quite 17 and working in a factory. Her boss had responded to her comments about leaving that she would do whatever he told her to. She would then enlist in the Kriegsmarine-German Navy-lying about her age, and be accepted as one of many secretaries to Admiral Karl Dönitz. As she would later tell, the saying: (later used by Marlene Dietrich) "Enjoy the war, the peace time will be hell" became the motto of the folks in her group-about 200 women with over 20,000 men passing through their center. They partied and enjoyed life...and would never see any of the men who passed through there again. Most went out in two man subs, but the rest would all die on missions.
When she came to America, she worked real hard, learned both the language and the customs and passed all the tests for citizenship...being more proud of her naturalization than most people I have met.
She would work for Mr. Beckman-a friend-Beckmann instruments and was briefly married to a fellow German Named George Blei (b. 16 Aug 1903/md. 2 Jun 1948 in Chicago/d. 19 Mar 1987 in San Diego, Calif.)& divorced him around 1949. She met dad after she had followed a fellow ski bum/German girlfriend to So. Calif.(both worked for Beckman & transferred out here) around 1953, Through mutual friends, she would meet and marry dad and would quit work to be a mother. But she never failed to go back and reapply to see if she was still in demand and always was offered. In fact, she ended up-on a whim-going for a Firemen's Fund Insurance commercial and got hired for a 1/4 second shot...she had torn up the contract when it arrived figuring it was a joke. She approached life that way.
So in the end, her suffering was made the worse as she held on for her only son-not wanting to leave him alone.
At her request, she was cremated and sits on a 19th Century book shelf overlooking her son. At his death both will be set next to Robert Lee Sr.@ the Forest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills.
Born April 9th, 1924 to Alwine [Mezzuli/Meschul] & Otto Heinrich Schenck. Her mother died 8 days after she was born from inferior care in a public hospital in Frankfurt, Germany.
By the time of war creeping up, Sue was not quite 17 and working in a factory. Her boss had responded to her comments about leaving that she would do whatever he told her to. She would then enlist in the Kriegsmarine-German Navy-lying about her age, and be accepted as one of many secretaries to Admiral Karl Dönitz. As she would later tell, the saying: (later used by Marlene Dietrich) "Enjoy the war, the peace time will be hell" became the motto of the folks in her group-about 200 women with over 20,000 men passing through their center. They partied and enjoyed life...and would never see any of the men who passed through there again. Most went out in two man subs, but the rest would all die on missions.
When she came to America, she worked real hard, learned both the language and the customs and passed all the tests for citizenship...being more proud of her naturalization than most people I have met.
She would work for Mr. Beckman-a friend-Beckmann instruments and was briefly married to a fellow German Named George Blei (b. 16 Aug 1903/md. 2 Jun 1948 in Chicago/d. 19 Mar 1987 in San Diego, Calif.)& divorced him around 1949. She met dad after she had followed a fellow ski bum/German girlfriend to So. Calif.(both worked for Beckman & transferred out here) around 1953, Through mutual friends, she would meet and marry dad and would quit work to be a mother. But she never failed to go back and reapply to see if she was still in demand and always was offered. In fact, she ended up-on a whim-going for a Firemen's Fund Insurance commercial and got hired for a 1/4 second shot...she had torn up the contract when it arrived figuring it was a joke. She approached life that way.
So in the end, her suffering was made the worse as she held on for her only son-not wanting to leave him alone.
At her request, she was cremated and sits on a 19th Century book shelf overlooking her son. At his death both will be set next to Robert Lee Sr.@ the Forest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills.
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