Obituary of Susan E. Sprague

Susan (Voltz) Sprague, 62, of Syracuse, NY, passed away peacefully at SUNY Upstate Medical University Hospital on Friday, May 3rd, with her entire family at her side, singing along to all her favorite songs. Heaven simply can't prepare for the beautiful angel they have just received.

She was born January 25, 1962, to the late James and Margaret Voltz, in Syracuse, NY. She attended Most Holy Rosary School as a child and graduated from Thomas J. Corcoran High School in 1980. She also attended Onondaga Community College for Early Childhood Education.

Susan "Susie Q" was a beloved pre-school teacher at both Most Holy Rosary School and Bellevue Heights Nursery for 20+ years. In April of 1997, she was blessed with a "second chance at life" and received a kidney and pancreas transplant from the late Terry Brown of Utica, NY. Because of the selfless act of the entire Brown family in donating Terry's organs, they and Terry gave the Sprague family 27 more incredible years of life with Sue.

Since her transplant, Sue competed fiercely in basketball, volleyball, and bowling in the Transplant Olympic Games of America. She and Doug coached their two children and their friends in T-Ball and Sue self-proclaimed to be one of the "biggest New York Yankees fans in the world." Slowly, because of Doug, she was also becoming a Detroit Lions fan and they would watch every football game together, for better or worse! Sue was always her son's biggest supporter in all of his various writing, acting, and television endeavors. Her daughter, Kristi, was her best friend and always enjoyed catching up on all their "silly reality shows" together.

Sue always had a smile on her face and nothing mattered more to her than family, friends, and helping others in any way possible. She loved making people warm during the winter with her custom-made fleece blankets and throughout the years would send the most inspirational and uplifting hand-written letters and Facebook messages to brighten the days of her endless amount of friends and family. She was also a long-time supporter and advocate for organ and tissue donation awareness. Both Sue and Doug were Co-Presidents of the Transplant Awareness Group (TAG), and Sue was also a volunteer at Upstate Medical University Hospital, working with and counseling organ transplant recipients. She strongly urged families to discuss organ and tissue donation with their families, always stating, "Don't take your organs to heaven. Heaven knows we need them here!"

In addition to her parents, Sue was pre-deceased by her loving in-laws, Raymond and Nancy Sprague, and also her infant niece, Taylor Hess. She is survived by her husband, Doug Sprague, her high school sweetheart, whom she married in 1983. She is also survived by her two "miracle children", Ryan and Kristi. She is further survived by her four loving sisters, Patti (Chris) Bilecki, Cathy (Marty) Byrne, JoAnn (Joe) Simek, and MaryLu (Dan) Hess, as well as her Sisters-in-law, Linda (Brian) Burns and Karen (Jim) Reiss, and several nieces, nephews, cousins, as well as many, many friends from both childhood and Facebook. She absolutely treasured her "fur babies", Layla and Titus, as well as being a "Grammy" to her daughter's pup, Maddie.

Calling hours will be Thursday, May 9 from 4pm-7pm at Most Holy Rosary Church, located at 111 Roberts Ave, Syracuse, NY, 13207. Funeral service will be Friday, May 10, at 10am at Most Holy Rosary Church as well. Burial will follow at Onondaga Valley Cemetery.

A.Dewitt Memorial Funeral Home has care of arrangements.

It has been requested that donations, in lieu of flowers, be made to:

Seventh Heaven Animal Rescue

PO Box 15213

Syracuse, NY 13215

Paypal: Donate@seventhheavenrescue.org

or

Donor Family Network/Team Finger Lakes

3938 South Street Rd

Marcellus, NY 13108

Paypal: dfntfl@gmail.com