Lasting Memories

Constance Sutton
July 19, 1955-Oct. 17, 2024
Menlo Park, California

Connie Sutton, a treasured mother, a partner, and friend, died at Stanford Hospital on October 17, 2024, after a courageous battle with CNS lymphoma. She is survived by her son, Colin E. Sutton, her partner Norm MacKay, a beloved doodle, Izzy, and by many, many friends and cousins. She was predeceased by her husband, George W. Sutton, and by her parents, Jack and Alta Shanahan. Connie grew up in Redwood City, attending St. Pius School and Woodside High School. She met her future husband taking sailing lessons at the yacht harbor. She went to UC Davis, making lifelong friends and graduating in 1977. Later that year she and George were married and made a home first in Redwood City, then Menlo Park. When they weren't working, they traveled and sailed, and with great joy welcomed their son, Colin, in 1993. In her professional career, Connie was a travel writer for Sunset Magazine, an archivist for the environmental non-profit, Pacific Conservative Center (PCC), and a librarian in Menlo Park. As a children's librarian at the San Mateo Public Library, she delighted children and parents alike at "story time," where she acted out any number of books, with her extensive menageries of animal puppets and stuffies. Connie was beautiful woman, inside and out, genuinely interested in the lives and activities of her friends and relations, keeping up with their children, grandchildren, and even pets. She loved cooking and gardening and was passionate about the natural world and environmental causes. She is dearly missed, but her spark of beauty and fun remains, to inspire us to treat each other and the earth with gentleness and love. A celebration of life will be held at a future date.