Sue Ellen Schwenn

I had the pleasure of working with Sue at Famous Footwear. She was always so kind and helpful, and very easy to talk to. Her smile in this photo is exactly how I remember her from our working days together. My condolences to her family, and may she rest in peace. Missy McCorison

We're so sorry to hear about the passing of Sue. May the special memories you made together help you through this difficult time.

My husband, Jerry, and I would like to extend our condolences to the Russell and Schwenn families. As a much younger person I recall that Sue was a very pleasant and sweet girl. We met at my Uncle Herb's and Aunt Leone's cottage on Lake Butte des Mortes in Wis. My brother, Warren Schultz, was kind enough to inform us of Sue's death. We are sorry that we will not be able to travel to Oregon to attend the services. Please convey our sympathy to her mother. Joyce, who is an amazing woman, too. The fruit does not fall far from the tree. May God console you at this sad time and give your family peace and blessings. Tena Franzen nee Schultz

I'm so sorry to hear of Sue's passing. I worked with her both at Famous Footwear and Labcorp. I was often the beneficiary of those amazing baked goodies as well as the always full candy dish on her desk. She talked so much of the boys and Ben--so proud of her family. I loved hearing the stories! State Fairs, sports, moving on to new jobs, so much joy she had to share. My thoughts and prayers are with you all. Michelle Glasgow

In 10 years of working with Sue at Famous Footwear, Sue was always caring, committed, kind, pragmatic, hard working, and practical. I think I only saw her lose her cool one time…in the middle of the shared services implementation... A project that clearly warranted a lot more losing of one's cool... That one time for Sue was in the middle of when HQ (BWS) had 8-10 of our FF team spending weeks and weeks away from our families, working in St Louis to implement the complex systems that would eventually take away our jobs and the jobs of our friends. The systems that would eventually allow HQ to move our work from our home in Madison to the mothership in St Louis. We were anxious, tired, frustrated… The writing was on the wall…and yet we soldiered on because that was our job...i think especially Sue. We all lost our cool at some points on that grueling journey... Sue finally lost her cool (such as that was😂)...And she emphatically exclaimed "This isn't fair!"... Before refocusing her energy on figuring out how to get done what was being asked of her. That was it. Cool focused committed... and Rolling up her sleeves to get solving. ... It was a moment when a little swearing and anger would have worked well... But Sue wasn't like that. She just took a breath and rolled up her sleeves. She did that everyday for every one of us. I remember thinking at that moment... That 1) whoa! This is really bad if Sue's talking like that!😂 and 2) how lucky we are to have people like Sue in the world because we knew she was actually worrying about everyone else and not herself. Similarly, in my time with Sue I know she cared about every payroll check her team produced because she knew that 100k+ families depended on those checks... She would get it done Even if she had to sacrifice to complete her work because she needed to take care of her people. Sue always saw the human side of things... With patience, understanding, and love... And I loved that about her. I've met thousands of people in my life and career... The vast majority have been lovely good humans. But few have been so genuine in their selfless caring as Sue Schwenn. Sue helped me grow and mature in this area personally through her example and loving challenging... She helped me be a better human (still working on this) and I am so very grateful to her for that... I'm glad we were in each other's lives. I'll miss her smiles and caring. The world needs more Sue Schwenns♥️