Susan Sunada

Susan Sunada, 91, died Sept. 19, 2014, at the home of her daughter, Sheila Newlin, in Riverton. She is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Riverton.

Sunada was born Aug. 15, 1923, Devil's Slide, Utah. Her father was a section foreman on the Union Pacific Railroad and her mother was a nurse.

She attended schools in Granger, and John Marshall High School in Los Angeles. In 1941 she graduated at age 17 from Los Angeles City College with a degree in pre-nursing. On March 7, 1943, she married George Sunada in the Congregational Church in Green River.

They moved to Logan, Utah, in 1953. Her husband worked as a commercial artist for Sears. Susan was a photo-journalist for the Deseret News. She had a history and crafts booth in the annual "Festival of the American West" in Logan. Her research, titled  "Japanese-American Pioneers in the Intermountain Area," is with the special collections at Utah State University.

Their two daughters and son graduated from Utah State University.

Awards she earned included "outstanding correspondent" for the Deseret News in 1973,  the Governor's "Asian American Community Leadership Award" in 1996, and the "Utah Woman of Achievement Award," presented by former Utah Governor Mike Leavitt in 2003.

Sunada and her husband moved to Riverton, in 2003. She is survived by daughter Sheila (Doug) Newlin and family of Riverton; daughter Cheryl (Chandler) Whitelaw and  family and daughter-in-Law Sheryl Sunada Monson (Kay) and family of Orem, Utah;  and sister Bunny (Mas) Ogimachi  of Long Beach, Calif.

She was preceded in death by her son, Lt. Col. Roger Sunada and her husband George.

Online condolences may be written to http://www.thedavisfuneralhome.com.