Susan Fay McGinn passed away peacefully at her on home January 9, 2017. She came into this world on November 18, 1934, in Roswell, New Mexico; the third child and second daughter of Louis Elwyn Fay II and Mildred Foster Fay. The family eventually moved to Jefferson, Iowa, where Sue grew up.
Sue attended Jefferson High School where she played on the intramural basketball team and in the drum ensemble. She went on to attend the University of Iowa, where she earned her degree in education. One significant highlight of her college days was playing percussion in the marching band at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
Sue moved out West after graduation, taking a teaching position at an elementary school in Garden Grove, California. It was here that she met and married James Arthur McGinn, a Marine Corps Officer, and fighter pilot stationed at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. Sue’s first son, Patrick Michael, was born here in 1962.
She followed Jim over the next 20 years as his military career moved the family from one duty station to the next. Kelly Ann (Key) was born in 1963 at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Daughters, Mary Alice (Vickers) and Margaret “Peggy” Sue (Abbott) were born in 1966 and 1967 respectively at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. As the family continued moving every three years or so, Sue was the glue that kept the family organized and together, shepherding her four kids through school, sports, extracurricular activities and life in general.
Sue and Jim separated in 1982 after he completed his tour of duty at the Naval Academy and they eventually divorced. Sue remained in the Annapolis area and made this town her new home as she continued raising her three daughters, working in real estate law, tutoring and substitute teaching, sponsoring numerous midshipmen and volunteering in the local community. She was a skilled seamstress, played a mean game of bridge, loved to attend Annapolis Symphony Orchestra concerts and rarely missed an Iowa Hawkeyes football game.
She is preceded in death by her parents; her older brother, Louis Elwyn Fay III; her older sister, Jane Ecklund and her former husband. She is survived by her younger sister, Dee Rife; her four children; her grandchildren: Stewart Welter and Carson Key, Charles James (CJ) Vickers, Callie Jane Vickers, Carl Jacob Vickers, Cooper John Vickers and Leo Vickers, Shelby Abbott and Lauren Abbott; and her great-grandson, Jaxson Welter.