"SUSAN STROUPE!"

 “SUSAN STROUPE!”

This Tuesday is our daughter Susan Stroupe’s birthday – we give thanks for her!  She has been such a gift to us over these many years, from her quick delivery at birth to her recent navigation of our summer trip to New York state to see human rights sites.  She traveled in David’s shadow for awhile, being almost 3 years younger than him.  Having different gender identities cut down some of the rivalry between them also, but soon Susan began to develop her own identity and path.  She was born in Nashville, but we moved to Decatur when she was 6 months old, and she found her place here.

When she was in the first grade, she had the magnificent Debbie Miller as her teacher, and they quickly bonded.  Ms. Miller contacted us to see if we would allow Susan to star in the school play (grades 1-5 at that time).  We were flattered, but we replied, “Are you sure Susan can do this?  She’s so shy, and she would have so many lines to memorize.”  Ms. Miller answered:  “I don’t think that you have to worry about that – she comes alive on the stage, and she not only has all her lines already memorized;  she has memorized everybody else’s lines as well.  She is already acting like an assistant director.”  We agreed, and of course, Susan was wonderful in the play.  Her love for all things theater was born and nurtured there.  

She surprised us many times, including her driving test, which she took as soon as she was eligible.  I had taught her to drive, using the lower parking lot at the church to teach her parallel parking with two plastic garbage cans as the markers.  When we went for the test, she aced the parallel parking, and indeed the tester told her to go ahead and finish up after that.  I was fearful at the rapid conclusion, thinking that she had somehow failed, but the instructor was so impressed (and so hot – the ac in our car was not working), that she gave her a 93 on the test.  She has shared her skills of parallel parking with many friends in Baltimore, where it is a necessity. 

At her high school graduation, she earned salutatorian, and she won the Atlanta Journal Constitution Cup as the Outstanding Senior of Decatur High, considered the crowning achievement of the class.  She wanted to get out of the South for weather reasons (too hot) and for spiritual reasons – she was tired of the blatant white supremacy, the acceptance of patriarchy, and the lack of sensitivity to gender identity, so she went off to cold Minnesota to attend Macalester College in St. Paul/Minneapolis.  It would be one of several places where she would move which gave us opportunities to visit and experience new locales – later there would be Albuquerque, Westfield New York, and Baltimore, with internships in Los Angeles and Vermont in between.   During one of our visits to Minnesota, we went up to the headwaters of the Mississippi River, which began with a little overflowing from Lake Itasca to become the mighty River in American history.  I was amazed to walk across the beginnings of the Mississippi, since it is a mile wide in my hometown of Helena, Arkansas.  

She has been in Baltimore for 14 years now – wow, I had not counted those up before.  She has acted and directed in many plays there, has helped to form a cooperative for an immersive theater company (Submersive Productions), and she has been blessed so far to find day jobs that are related to the theater.  She joined Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church, sings in the great choir there (along with Taylor Branch, among others), taught several confirmation classes for the youth, was elected to be an elder on the Session and now serves as co-clerk of the Session. She teaches part-time at University of Maryland in Baltimore County, and she is working on expanding the theater canon from an all-white men’s club to include many other varieties of playwrights.

She has blessed our lives in so many ways, including our trip this summer to central and upstate New York to see human rights sites that included Harriet Tubman’s home, Susan B. Anthony’s home, Gerritt Smith’s home in tiny Peterboro, the Shaker Heritage Society, and John Brown’s Farm in the Adirondack Mountains.  We also took a side jaunt to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown – quite a trip.

    So, in this week, we give thanks for the great Mary Susan Stroupe!  She is a powerful gift to us and to many others – Happy Birthday, Susan!