Mineral Point - Susanne Grogan Southwood, of Mineral Point, died Sunday, May 6, 2012 after a fight with cancer.

Born in Burlington, Iowa, February 17, 1940 to Eugene Darwin Grogan and Dorotha Wells Grogan, Susanne was an exceptional student and an accomplished pianist and church organist. She worked towards an Iowa State cosmetology license while still in high school, maintaining her license for over twenty years. She graduated from the University of Iowa in 1961 with a Bachelor's in English. She married her first husband Arthur Southwood III the same year, and daughter Kate was born in 1964.

Susanne began writing professionally while still a student at Burlington Community College writing radio commercial copy at National Research Bureau. She moved to Chicago shortly after college, where she worked as a copywriter at Spiegel and later at Benefit Trust Life Insurance Company, where she became Vice President of Advertising. Susanne was listed in Who's Who of 1973 for her accomplishments in advertising.

Susanne began working in direct marketing at The Bradford Exchange, where she started as a copywriter in 1977, becoming Creative Director and later Vice President of Creative. Under Susanne's leadership, the Bradford Exchange Creative Department won numerous industry awards, including a number of Tempo Awards from the Chicago Association of Direct Marketers and four Echo awards from the Direct Marketing Association in one year alone.

Susanne started her own direct marketing company, Delta Direct, in 1993, after which time she also did pro-bono work for several years for Saint Scholastica Academy in Chicago, where her daughter had been a student.

Susanne married her long-time partner, Thomas Barker in 2003. They lived in Evanston, IL and in Highland Park, IL before moving to Mineral Point in 2006. Susanne was a gourmet cook who loved to entertain, a voracious reader, a world traveler, and a doting grandmother who took great pride in her two granddaughters' scholastic and musical accomplishments, traveling on average two times a year to visit them, her daughter, and son-in-law in Oslo, Norway.

Susanne was extremely involved in church work, both at Trinity Episcopal Church in Highland Park, IL and at Trinity Church in Mineral Point, where she served on the vestry. She also completed a four-year course of study in EFM, or Education for Ministry.

Susanne is survived by her husband, Thomas Barker; her sister, Patricia McArdle; her brother-in-law William McArdle; her daughter Kate Southwood; her son-in-law Aksel Hauglie Johnsen; and her two granddaughters, Maren and Inger.

A memorial service will be held at TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH in Mineral Point on Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 11:00 a.m., with lunch after the service arranged by the Ladies Guild. A memorial service and burial to be held in Highland Park, IL will be announced later.

Memorial donations may be made to the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center, Madison, WI., and Mineral Point EMT.