Susan Wells Stevenson, beloved wife, mother, and friend, died peacefully in her sleep at home early Sunday morning, Oct. 12, 2025. She was 80. The cause was ovarian cancer, which she vigorously and successfully defied for seven years.
Born Susan Wells Spencer on Oct. 27, 1944, in East Orange, N.J., she was the second child of Charles W. and Doris (Fleming) Spencer. He was a rocket scientist at Bell Labs, and she was a homemaker as well as a part-time hostess at Bamberger’s Department Store in New Jersey. Susan first came to the Vineyard in the mid-’60s on a family vacation, and was smitten by the Island. Ten years later, her young family returned to settle here. She and her husband Tony Scheller raised two boys, nourished by the spirit and variety of Island life. At one point, Susan attained a bus driver’s license so she could haul the Vineyard swim team to their meets.
Susan rode her beloved horse, Flicka, for years, and had a pony, Irish, as well. Susan was an accomplished fisherman, and competed in the Bass and Bluefish Derby with satisfying results and boisterous enthusiasm. She loved gardening and puttering around in her greenhouse.
After her first marriage ended in divorce, Susan worked for several Island attorneys as a paralegal, and ran a typing service, Busy Fingers, on the side. In 1987, she married Ken Southworth of Edgartown, and joined his law practice. Ken died in 2003.
Susan’s greatest love outside of her family was the Federated Church in Edgartown. A devout worshiper, Susan joined the church choir, practically her first stop off the boat, and sang soprano, “to the glory of God” as she would say, for more than 40 years. She was a deacon of the church, and served several terms as treasurer. Susan will be remembered throughout the Vineyard for her loving heart, engaging smile, singular laugh, and huge hugs.
Susan is survived by her devoted husband of 21 years, Bob, of Edgartown; and by her siblings, Nancy Smith of Tampa, Fla., and Rob Spencer of South Dennis. She is also survived by her sons, Gary (Wendy) and their daughter, Holly, and Jeffery (Kristen) and their daughter, Taytum, and by Jeffery’s children from a former marriage, Grace and Tristan; by her loving stepdaughters, Louisa Waterson of Columbia, S.C., and Mamie Dean of Wells, Maine; and last, but hardly least, by her beloved rescue dog, Gus.
A graveside service will be held for the family on Saturday, Oct. 25, at the Edgartown Westside Cemetery. A service to celebrate Susan’s life will be held in the spring.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations are suggested to the Federated Church of Martha’s Vineyard, online at bit.ly/FCMV_donate, and the Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard, online at bit.ly/ASMV_donate.