Susan Norma Djuric

Susan Djuric, a retired teacher and devoted naturalist, died at her home in the Sweetwater Oaks neighborhood of Seminole County, Florida, on Saturday, October 24, 2020, from metastatic renal cell carcinoma. She was 78 years old. Susan’s love of the natural world was fostered in her youth from the deck of the “Miss Susan,” her father’s houseboat on the Mississippi River, but she would come to appreciate the wild beauty of her adopted home in Central Florida. For nearly fifty years, she tended her gardens as habitats for native plants and wildlife, especially birds. Her profession, however, was teaching, and after a career as a junior high school history teacher that was cut short when she had her first child, she eventually returned to the classroom after her children were grown to teach three- and four-year-olds at her church’s preschool. Throughout their lives, her own children were the beneficiaries of all of her passions. Susan Norma Aberle was born on September 24, 1942, in St. Louis, Missouri, the second child of Henry Otis Aberle (1908-1983) and Norma Adelia (Strathman) Aberle (1910-1999). Her father, a welder, was in charge of the fabricating department at Fulton Iron Works and later president of Jones & Lockhart Welding, a metal fabrication firm. Susan grew up in the St. Louis suburbs of Ferguson and Overland and graduated from Ritenour Senior High School in 1960. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in history and education at Lindenwood College in St. Charles, Missouri, she taught at Hazelwood and Pattonville Junior High Schools from 1964 to 1970 while taking graduate school courses in history at Washington University and Saint Louis University. In 1968, Susan met Jovo Djuric, an aerospace engineer at McDonnell Douglas, on a skiing trip in Aspen, Colorado, sponsored by a St. Louis collegiate club. They married the next year. A son, Nikola Richard, was born in 1970, and a daughter, Christine Suzanne, in 1972. In 1978, Jovo transferred to Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin), and the family moved to Central Florida. While raising her children, Susan volunteered in her children’s schools and as an adult swimming instructor, a Sunday school and vacation bible school teacher, and a Girl Scout and Cub Scout leader. As her children entered high school, she renewed her teacher’s certification and became a substitute teacher at Sweetwater Episcopal Academy and in the Seminole County public schools and then a full-time teacher at the Christian Child Center of Wekiva Presbyterian Church, where she taught from 1994 to 2001. Susan was one of the earliest members of Wekiva Presbyterian Church, which was founded in 1977, and was elected an elder and served on the session from 1992 to 1995. A group of ladies from church who called themselves the Lunch Bunch were among her closest friends. Susan’s interest in both nature and history was stimulated by constant travel. She saw the world during her lifetime, beginning with a 4½-month grand tour of Europe on her own after college, then on annual camping trips with Jovo and their children to every U.S. state and Canadian province and hundreds of national parks and historic sites, and later on voyages to over seventy countries on all seven continents. Susan was preceded in death by her parents and her brother, Richard Henry Aberle (1935-2017). She is survived by her husband; her son and daughter-in-law, Michelle, and their children, Madeleine, Henry, and Joseph, of Atlanta, Georgia; her daughter and son-in-law, Erik Anderson, and their children, Erika and Agnes, of Baltimore, Maryland; her sister-in-law, Susan Aberle, and nephew, Michael Aberle, of Santa Barbara, California; her niece, Danielle Haque, of Mankato, Minnesota; and her brother-in-law, Nikola Djuric, of Schererville, Indiana. A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. on Sunday, November 1, 2020, at Wekiva Presbyterian Church, followed by burial in Bellerive Gardens Cemetery in Creve Coeur, Missouri, at a later date. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to WMFE, 11510 East Colonial Drive, Orlando, Florida 32817, or Wekiva Presbyterian Church, 211 Wekiva Springs Lane, Longwood, Florida 32779. The family of Susan Djuric invites you to leave a message of condolence on the Tribute Wall created in her memory.

Susan Norma Djuric

September 24, 1942 - October 24, 2020