The Life of Carolyn "Suzanne" Griffith
Suzanne was born to Caroline “Carrie” Ida Grant and Owen Cunningham Grant in Arkansas City, Kansas in 1944. Suzanne and her younger sister of two years, Martha Nell Grant Thomson, spent their childhood at Chilocco Indian School in Oklahoma and on the Navajo reservation at Shiprock Indian School in New Mexico where her parents were teachers. She spent her adolescent years in Anadarko, Oklahoma where her parents continued to teach at Riverside Indian School. Suzanne graduated from Anadarko High School in 1961 and enrolled at the University of Oklahoma where she met and married Clyde Griffith on September 1, 1963. Suzanne completed her undergraduate degree from the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelors in Psychology, studied Graduate Social Work at the Virginia Commonwealth University and completed her Masters of Social Work from the University of California at Berkeley, and embarked on a lifelong career dedicated to service.
In 1971, Suzanne and Clyde moved to southwest Missouri in the Ozarks for Clyde’s first call within the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America where they raised their two children, Caroline Lurene “Laurie” Griffith and Christopher Edward Griffith. While in Missouri, Suzanne and Clyde co-founded a nonprofit bookstore, Suzanne organized and taught in the area’s first pre-school for children ages 3-6 (The Learning Place), and she facilitated private counseling services in the region.
In 1976, Suzanne and Clyde moved to Pennsylvania, where Suzanne worked for 20 years with the Presbyterian Children’s Village, first as Clinical Psychiatric Social Worker, and eventually as Associate Director. In 1996, Suzanne took early retirement as she began to battle autoimmune diseases which took their toll on her physically, but never mentally.
Suzanne was a storyteller, a reader and an historian with a passion for social justice and a drive to understand people. In early years, she channeled her love of creativity into sewing for herself and family and later Suzanne perfected the intricate art of counted cross stitch to the delight of family and friends in receipt of her beautiful work. Each item usually took her one to two years of daily attention to complete.
In addition to Suzanne’s dedication to service through empowering young people, she also had a passion for genealogy and history. Suzanne believed that geneology grounds us in the past, enlightens our path in the present and helps us forge a way into the future. Suzanne was a woman of faith, having grown up in the Presbyterian Church, and came to understand that geneology also frames the basis of all major religions in that it asks the questions, “Where do I come from? Why am I here? and What will happen to me?”
The idea that our forebears overcame personal hardships and sacrifices to survive motivated her to understand her own place in the world. She tirelessly documented the stories of her family including the eight Cherokee families from which she was descended who arrived in Indian Territory as a result of economic and racial discrimination against the members of the Cherokee Nation. Many of these families were forced to Indian Territory on the Trail of Tears. Suzanne was given the Cherokee Name Su-sa-ni A-li-s-go-la-di-s-gi at birth and was a Great, Great, Great Granddaughter of John Ross, first and longest serving Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation who served during the turbulent years surrounding the Trail of Tears removal of the Cherokee people from the Georgia-Tennessee area to Indian Territory. Suzanne is also a descendent of Nancy Ward a Ghigau , or Beloved Woman of the Cherokee.
Suzanne will be sorely missed by family and friends and is survived by her spouse, Clyde Griffith of Broomall, Pennsylvania, her daughter, Laurie Griffith ( and spouse John Kaznak) of Louisville, Kentucky, her son, Christopher Griffith (and spouse Shari Aronson) of Minneapolis, her sister, Martha Nell Grant Thomson (and spouse Milton Thomson) of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, her cousins Jerry Darter (and spouse Mary Darter) of Edmond, Oklahoma, Ann Daniels of Fort Smith, Arkansas, Donna Roberds of Fort Smith, Arkansas, and Mike Daniels of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, her niece, Shalom Thomson (and spouse Aki Dedes) of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, her nephew, Philip Thompson (and spouse Nicole Desforges) of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, her brother-in-law, Gary Griffith (and spouse Lisa Clark-Griffith) of Tulsa, her sister-in-law, Kathy Griffith Call (and spouse, Dan Call) of Tulsa, Oklahoma, her sister-in-law, Carol Griffith Lawson (and spouse Richard Lawson) of Tulsa and many grand nephews, nieces, step-grandchildren, and cousins of whom she was keenly proud to know as she followed their stories.
---
No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. - Jeremiah 31:34 (NRSV)