Susan Beatrice (Priess) Norris

Susan, God’s Child, Minister, and Ordained Priest

Susan Norris, known as Susy, was intelligent, thoughtful, and articulate, with a strong memory and an easy command of language. She was a dedicated priest, a careful liturgist, and a chorus director who knew Episcopal hymns and show tunes by heart. She was also a generous hostess and a skilled cook, creating homes where people felt welcome. She lived a life shaped by conviction, service, and care for others.

Susy attended DePauw University, where she studied sacred music, deepening her lifelong love of liturgy and the church’s musical tradition – foundations that later shaped her ministry.

During the first five years of her life, she was raised in Missouri by her mother, Alice, while her father, Harold, served in Army intelligence during World War II. Growing up as an only child with a single mother during her formative years left her with a lasting belief in women’s strength and capability and a confidence that stayed with her throughout her life. It was likely the beginning of her path toward the Episcopal priesthood, at a time when the ordination of women was still uncommon.

She did not believe much in obstacles. If something stood in the way, you kept going until you crossed it. She lived that way herself and raised her children with the same expectation. She opposed injustice and worked consistently to ensure that the dignity, needs, and rights of all people were upheld.

Family mattered greatly to Susy. Raised in Missouri, she was close with her sister Nancy, despite their five-year age difference, and often told stories about their great aunties, her grandmother’s chicken farm, and the many adventures of Girl Scout camp, a time she loved and returned to often in memory. Her “adopted” sister Ann, present throughout many of these stories, remained an important part of her life for more than 70 years. These early bonds shaped the way Susy understood family, not only as inheritance, but as something tended and chosen.

Graduate school brought Susy to New York City, which she loved for its energy, food, theater, music, and general chaos. She attended the Union Theological Seminary School of Sacred Music, where she met Scott, beginning a partnership grounded in love, affection, and mutual respect. Their life together was rooted in friendship, faith, and shared purpose; they were devoted Episcopalians. During this time, they adopted their first cats, Humphrey and Constance, known as Mousey, and welcomed their daughter Anne.

Madison, New Jersey, became the place where Susy and Scott began raising their young children and shaping their family’s early years. There they welcomed the birth of their son John on July 7, 1977. During these years, Susy earned her Master of Divinity degree at Drew University and began navigating the ordination process, pursuing her call prior to the Episcopal Church’s formal approval of the ordination of women.

In New York and New Jersey, Susy formed friendships that would remain central to her life. Ann and Roland became, in every meaningful way, family. Together they raised children, shared summers, and discovered Chincoteague, Virginia, a place that would later become Susy and Scott’s home. Over the years, Susy continued to gather people into her life with care, holding friends and family close.

After ordination and brief service at two churches, Susy found a home at Grace Church in Plainfield, where she served as assistant priest and was known to many as Mother Susan. She assisted the Rector in parish leadership and ran after-school choir programs for community children, drawing on her musical background and steady presence. It was during her years in Plainfield that she officiated the wedding of close friends the day after learning of her father’s death, asking only that it not be mentioned.

She later served for many years at Grace St. Paul’s in Mercerville, a calling to a community she loved, where her ministry deepened and expanded. There she walked with parishioners through baptisms, funerals, ordinary Sundays, and difficult seasons, bringing steadiness and clarity to her work. For several years she also directed the Diocese’s Deacon Formation program, mentoring and guiding those preparing for ordained ministry. Many of the deacons she formed remained grateful for her counsel and example. She also served on the Diocese’s Standing Committee on Constitution and Cannons. For the wider Episcopal Church, she was active on the committees dealing with LGBTQ issues which led to the adoption of the trial marriage liturgy suitable for same-sex marriages.

She was attentive to those around her. On one Maundy Thursday at Grace St. Paul’s, she spent hours sitting with a parishioner newly diagnosed with cancer. She could also be direct. When a teenage parishioner tried to avoid serving as Crucifer during Holy Week because it conflicted with baseball season, she said, “It is Holy Week. I will see you at Stations of the Cross whether you’re wearing baseball pants, suit pants, or no pants. I honestly don’t care. I’ll see you there.”

Over the years, Susy managed her family with quiet competence, overseeing the day to day, navigating the realities of home and work, and cooking meals despite a demanding schedule. Later, she designed the family home on Chincoteague Island. After retiring there, she continued to serve local churches, played bridge with neighbors, transformed the yard, welcomed visitors, and volunteered her time filing books at the island bookstore. Her granddaughter Betsy brought her particular joy. Together they baked, read, explored Little Beach, jumped waves, and rode on the bow of her wooden skiff, the Betsy Bea.

Susy is survived by her husband, Scott; her children, Anne and John; her granddaughter, Betsy; her sister, Nancy; and her cats, Lady Edith, Billie, and Bing.

She gave her time and attention freely and expected much of herself. She served her family, her church, and her communities with steadiness and faithfulness. She will be remembered for her presence, her clarity of purpose, and the many lives she touched.

Memorial services will be held at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, in Jenkins Bridge, Virginia, on Saturday, March 14, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. and at Grace Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church in Mercerville, New Jersey on Saturday, April 25, 2026. at 11:00 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Union Theological Seminary, New York City; Episcopal Relief and Development; The Nature Conservancy; or Grace Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church, Mercerville, NJ. 

Memory tributes may be shared with the family at www.williamsfuneralhomes.com.

Arrangements by the Williams-Parksley Funeral Home.