Suzanne “Suse” Dalbec Johnson, who died of ovarian cancer at age 67 on Nov. 29, spent more than 30 years as a floral designer for weddings and holidays, and exhibited a brio that friends and family found astonishing in a working mother of six.
A service will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday at Lakewood United Church of Christ, 100 Carr St. in Lakewood.
The eldest child of U.S. Navy officer Stanley Roy Dalbec and his wife, Lolette Dalbec, she grew up in Kailua, Oahu, in Hawaii.
Her class was the first to graduate from Kailua High School, where the dress code was stricter than at her elementary school, which allowed students to go barefoot. She adopted her lifelong nickname, “Suse,” from the local spelling and pronunciation (“Susie”).
After two divorces, she married Carl D. “Swede” Johnson, who helped raise her children from her previous marriages.
The contrast between Suse John son’s ebullient personality and her relatively stoic husband was illustrated by their reactions when their youngest son acquired a music poster featuring a surly-looking, long- haired lad in a shorts-and-tie school uniform.
“Dad didn’t know who it was, and he was worried,” Robert Mills said. “Mom had to tell him, ‘Swede, that’s AC/DC.’ She knew who AC/DC was. The woman had a good vibe on her.”
Though her childhood in Hawaii left her permanently enamored of the Pacific Island traditional music that her family will play at the memorial service, Suse Johnson maintained a lasting fondness for old- school rock ‘n’ roll.
Her daughter Rhonda Mills plumbed the depth of her enthusiasm when Johnson accompanied them to the Rolling Stones’ Hallo ween 1994 concert at California’s Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.
“When Mick Jagger burst onstage singing a raucous rendition of Buddy Holly’s ‘Not Fade Away,’ she jumped on her chair and screamed like a schoolgirl,” she said. “There was my 55-year-old mother on the seat, and she was 16 again. A mother of six children!”
She devoted the same enthusiasm to the floral arrangements and wedding cakes she designed, mercilessly rejecting cake layers that looked perfectly fine to her son.
“If a cake had one flaw, even a minimal flaw you could hide with icing, she gave it to us,” Robert Mills said. “I don’t know how many pounds of carrot cake I’ve eaten in my life.”
Survivors include her husband, of Lakewood; sons Michael McCullough of Price, Utah, Colin McCullough of Lakewood, Craig McCullough of Denver and Robert Mills of Thornton; daughters Malia Torres of Long Island, N.Y., and Mills, of Los Angeles; brothers Stanley Dalbec of Honolulu and Peter Dalbec of Redding, Calif.; sisters Barbara Willey of Dallas and Patricia Dubet of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; 10 grandchildren; and three great- grandchildren.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-954-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
