Susan Pesco

Susan Kent Niemiller Pesco was a kind, gentle and loving person, who spent her life helping people. She was a dedicated and loving wife to two husbands, three children, four stepchildren and fifteen grandchildren.

Susan was born in Syracuse to Lindley Coates Kent and Betsy Littlehales Kent and was raised in Ithaca with her brother Rob. She attended Oberlin College in Ohio where she received a Bachelor of Arts in English. While there, she married Robert Niemiller who was studying to be a minister. She taught high school English for a year before having her first child. Her three children were born in Ohio and raised in Connecticut.

Susan was dedicated to raising her children. She loved them unconditionally and was a hard worker who never complained. Susan ran the household, worked several part time jobs including driving a school bus, selling Tupperware, and working as a receptionist at St. Vincents Hospital. She also helped to serve the parishioners of Calvary Episcopal Church.

Susan was called to help others. At thirty-three she went back to school, studying at the University of Bridgeport and received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing, while continuing to raise her children and run the house. After graduating she worked part-time at St. Vincents’s Hospital on the surgical unit.

In 1982 she divorced and moved back to Ithaca, where she worked for the Tompkins County Health Department until she retired and where she spent the remainder of her life. In 1988 Susan married Tony Pesco, the love of her life and they spent time taking care of family, traveling the United States, England, and Italy, and spending time with their children and grandchildren.

Susan had many hobbies, including reading, knitting, gardening, singing, and playing the piano. She was a substitute organist at Calvary Church. She had a beautiful soprano voice and sang in the choir at St. Johns Episcopal Church in Ithaca growing up, and in the Congregational Church’s choir with Tony. She also performed in Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Ruddigore” in college.

Susan cultivated gardens in both Bridgeport and Ithaca. She loved growing flowers and vegetables, and she always had sprigs of mint to add to freshly brewed iced tea. Susan knit beautiful things for her family, including ponchos for her young daughters, a wedding afghan for her eldest daughter, and baby sweaters for several of her grandchildren. Susan also loved doing puzzles. Susan was a devoted friend- when she made friends they became friends for life. She loved spending time with her oldest friend (from kindergarten) as well as girls from high school and her roommates from college.

One of Susan’s most beloved places to spend time was at Locustwood cottage, a summer cabin built by her grandparents in 1919 at Skaneateles Lake. She spent all her summers growing up, connecting and reconnecting with cousins and other family and friends who visited. She loved swimming in the Lake even when the water was on the colder side. After college she visited whenever she could and brought her children and grandchildren so they could know and love their extended family.

Susan was a sweet, kind, loving and giving soul who will be sorely missed by everyone who knew her.

Funeral Servies will be held on Monday August 26, 2024 at 11:00 am at the First Congregational Church in Ithaca. Burial to follow at Pleasant Grove Cemetery.