Susan Grant Rodgers

Susan Alice Grant was born in a tiny hospital in tiny Brigham, UT on April 23, 1943 to parents Alice Burkinshaw Grant and Byron Eldredge Grant. From those humble beginnings, she moved with her parents as a child to Rancagua, Chile, where she lived until she went to Mills College in Oakland, CA in the early 1960s, and later gave birth to her only daughter, Tabetha, in San Francisco in 1966.

Susan lived a life of adventure and always had a story to tell about being raised in Chile, her travels through Europe, the diplomats and politicians that visited her parents on a regular basis, the oh-so amazing cocktail parties (with her dressed to the nines, naturally!), and dating the son of a political rival that her father absolutely did not approve of. She spoke 4 – or was it 5? – languages, and loved meeting new people so she could tell her stories again from the beginning to a new and captive audience.

In 1979 she met the man who would forever change her life, James W. Rodgers. They met on a plane and it must have been one heck of a conversation, because in 1980 she packed up her daughter and her house in Charleston, SC and moved to Atlanta to marry him. She started teaching Spanish at Central Gwinnett High School, and spoke very fondly of her students, and they of her. Susan and Jim spent 43 years together before he passed in 2023.

Susan loved to entertain, to garden, to travel, and to teach. She had a wicked wit and sharp sense of humor, loved collecting “treasures” as she called them (or “knicky-knacks” as Jim called them), loved her cats, loved every one of the dozens of raccoons on the deck, and loved watching musicals – especially Mama Mia – over and over and over. She loved gardenias and camellias from her garden and had vases all over the house full of them. She couldn’t wait to decorate for Christmas every year with her hundreds of nutcrackers, reindeer, and crystal Christmas trees. She loved her daughter and son-in-law, her niece, her “Lunch Bunch” friends, and her step-children, and most of all she loved being sassy to all of them. And at the end, all she wanted was to be beside Jim again.

She is preceded by her mother, Alice “Alie” Grant; her father, Bryon “Buck” Grant; her brother Bruce Grant; and her beloved husband Lt. Colonel James “Jim” Rodgers. She is survived by her daughter, Tabetha (Pat Busha); niece Jeanine Grant; nephew Cary Grant (Kathy) and their extended families.

A private, graveside service was held on Friday, August 29th at Gwinnett Memorial Park. There will be a Memorial Service held at Wages and Sons in Lawrenceville at a date to be determined.

In lieu of flowers, her family asks that donations be made to Good Mews cage-free, no-kill cat shelter: https://www.goodmews.org/ .