Obituaries

Sue Ann Reisel (nee Caldwell), 86, of St. Louis, Missouri, entered the presence of the Lord on March 28, 2026 at Southmore House, a Carehaven home in Overland Park, Kansas.

A faithful Christian with the heart of a servant, Sue was an avid gardener, a creative spirit, and a lover of animals. She is survived by daughters Lisa (Chris) Short and Greta (Judkin) Browning, and granddaughter Bethany Browning. Aunt, cousin, and friend to many, she is preceded in death by husbands Kenneth D. Griggs and Richard J. Reisel.

Sue was born in St. Louis on June 11, 1939, to Romie T. and Gladys (Daws) Caldwell. Sue grew up with her older brother Charles “Chuck” Caldwell in south St. Louis, where she graduated from Shenandoah Elementary, Blow Middle and Cleveland High Schools (Class of June 1957). Sue graduated from Washington University in St. Louis (A.B., Class of 1961, Journalism major).

After graduation, Sue wrote advertising for Sears in St. Louis at the Kingshighway and Natural Bridge office and later at Stix, Baer & Fuller, where she was a copywriter for fashion, housewares, and furniture advertisements. She also wrote rotogravure ads for dishes and Broyhill furniture. While at Sears and Stix, Sue had the opportunity to model in some of the ads, in addition to writing the copy. Her writing career gave her a lifelong command of a rich vocabulary, and she was a stickler for proper grammar. She stopped working in advertising to raise her family.

She met her first husband, Kenneth Griggs, at Washington University, and they were married after graduation. Ken passed away in 1968. In 1971, Sue married Richard Reisel, also a Washington University graduate. She and Richard were married nearly 49 years at the time of his death in 2020. She had two daughters, and some very cherished dogs, who were part of the family.

Sue was devoted to her family and valued her roles as wife and mother. She ensured that everyone had what they needed to succeed, from home-cooked meals, to handmade Halloween costumes, to crisply-ironed shirts and pants for work. As a mother, her daughters attest that she was a hard act to follow. Her work was often unseen, always demuring to others’ ambitions and slow to prioritize her own.

Sue volunteered at the Missouri Botanical Garden for forty years (1981-2021) and became a Master Gardener through the University of Missouri Extension. She served as a MBG docent, was a member of the Master Gardener’s Speakers Bureau, regularly staffed the Plant Doctor desk at Kemper Center for Home Gardening, and collected weekly bloom data. She was also a member of The Lady Bug Garden Club in St. Louis and chairwoman of the Program Committee. Later in her life, she gave educational programs about plants that she researched and developed to area garden clubs and consulted on home landscape design. With such an extensive knowledge of plants, it is not surprising that anything could grow at Sue’s house–indoors and outside–and she was often able to nurse seemingly dying plants back to life; plants were her children, too. She continued a practice of gardening shared by her mother, and she passed her same love of plants and their care to her daughters and granddaughter.

Sue was a mover throughout her life, even though she was challenged by Parkinson’s in her later years. As a child, she started dance training, including ballet, with Robert and Cookie Dugger at Dugger’s School of Dance. As a teenager, she participated and performed in classes and musicals at the Du Quoin Egyptian Music Camp in Illinois. She was introduced to contemporary dance at Washington University through classes with Annelise Mertz. She was active in the Washington University Dance Workshop and served as president her senior year. After she graduated, she taught dance lessons in addition to her full-time job. She shared her passion for dance with her daughters, whom she introduced to dance through ballet and tap lessons. As an adult, Sue continued to take dance, participating in Jackie Sorensen-style aerobic dance classes. She also took up jogging, and later in life, did yoga. It is likely that she would have loved to have lived her life as a musical, just so that she could sing and dance her way through it. She was always ready to dance. Even as a very spry septuagenarian, she enjoyed dancing in the kitchen to the tunes on Johnny Rabbit’s late night radio show on KMOX.

Sue brought whimsy, humor, and a creative spirit to everything that she did. Flowers cut from the yard in vases in the kitchen, stylish Christmas tree decoration themes, and hunting Easter eggs in the living room were just a few examples. Life was full of possibilities, and she saw them in shades of gray rather than black and white. She was the wind beneath all of our wings and left her imprint on the lives of her family.

Burial at Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum. Donations can be made in her name to the Missouri Botanical Garden.