Susan Wells-Souza, 71, musician, spouse, mother, and consummate learner, passed away on September 23.

She is survived by Robert Souza, her husband of 39 years and a fellow musician whom she met teaching at a community music school, and her children, Gabriella (John) Emmett of Baltimore and Abraham (Grace) Souza of Chicago. She once said that having a family was the most important aspect of her life, and she did not take the responsibility lightly. She loved her husband and children with a lion’s fierceness, and was instrumental in shaping her children’s passions, teaching them to keep their eyes open and their feet always walking forward.

Susan was born in Geneva, Nebraska, on Aug. 13, 1948—Friday the 13th, to be exact, and she warded off superstition and called the number her good luck charm. She began studying music at a young age, playing on the upright piano in her family’s living room.

After graduating as salutatorian of her class at Geneva High School, she attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she took courses in music, and became friends with artists and creatives, including Kimball Wells, an art professor. They married when she was a sophomore, and his work at various colleges and universities took them across the country for the next four years. During this time, as the Vietnam War raged, she became interested in politics and attended anti-war protests. This fervor to stay connected to the world and current events continued throughout her life.

In 1971, the couple moved to St. Louis, and Susan received her bachelor’s degree at Webster University and her masters in piano performance at Washington University. She taught music at schools across the city, including Block Yeshiva High School, and the St. Louis Conservatory and School for the Arts (CASA). Kimball passed away in 1978 from kidney failure due to diabetes, and Susan remained in University City, where she would live for the rest of her life.

It was at CASA that she met Robert Souza, a trumpet player and teacher. On their first date, they realized they had both been listening to the St. Louis Cardinals broadcast and were reading the same set of books on World War II (in fact, they were in the process of reading the same volume). They married in 1980, and took numerous trips across Mexico and the Caribbean, where they took up scuba diving. In 1986, following Gabriella’s birth, they moved to Toluca, Mexico, where Robert became the principal trumpet in the Symphony Orchestra of the State of Mexico. They remained there for two years, and Susan maintained a life-long love of Mexican culture. The experience also invigorated her Catholic faith. Upon her death, she had been a parishioner at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis for more than 20 years.

Susan performed, taught, and held various positions with musical groups and organizations throughout St. Louis including the University of Missouri-St. Louis; City Academy; De La Salle Middle School; and St. Katherine Drexel School. As accompanist with the St. Louis Children’s Choir, she toured Scandinavia and Scotland. She and Robert were frequent musical collaborators and performed on recitals at the Community Music School in Webster Groves.

She loved gardening, cooking, her dogs, watching tennis matches, reading, and writing. She prayed every morning while drinking coffee with lots of cream. She cut out recipes from magazines and the Post-Dispatch and kept them stacked on her kitchen counter, making dinner every day while listening to the news. She loved to visit her children, and her last international trip took her and Robert to the island of St. Michael in the Azores.

In 2009, following a year of tests and puzzling results, doctors determined that she had a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She told family members that she would be so happy to live 10 years, and she did. She died at home surrounded by her family on a beautiful evening, facing her garden.

She is survived by siblings and siblings-in-law Judy Ousey of Geneva, Nebraska; Bill and Margaret Cumberland of Georgetown, Texas; Mary and Roger Bruning of Lincoln, Nebraska; and her dog Annie.

A memorial service will take place at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis on Friday, October 4 at 10 a.m., with a wake in the All Souls Chapel at 9 a.m. In lieu of flowers, Susan asked that donations be made in her name to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.