Susan McAllister LaGraff

Susan McAllister LaGraff, 81, of Jamesville, NY, and Sarasota, FL, died on March 28, 2024, at her home in Sarasota of complications from lung surgery.

 

Susan was born slightly before her identical twin sister Sally on May 21, 1942, in Concord, MA, to parents Gordon and Florence (Hoff) McAllister.  Susan and Sally were known among friends and family as The McAllister Twins.  A certain level of local celebrity accompanied them throughout their lives, even in Sarasota.  Susan lived her early childhood in Carlisle, MA, until her family, which included her older brother Don, relocated to Troy, OH.  Upon graduating from high school, she moved to Boston to study nursing at Peter Bent Brigham.  Through her brother Don, a Harvard student, she was introduced to John E. LaGraff, an MIT student, whom she married in 1962.

 

In 1966, Susan and John moved to Oxford, England, with their two young children John and Tom.  The family car-camped in Europe each summer in their Morris Minor and on August 20-21, 1968, were blissfully camping near Prague when Russia invaded Czechoslovakia.  They raced a (fortunately) non-hostile armored brigade to the Austrian border to escape.  

 

In 1970, the family relocated to Syracuse, NY.  While working full time at Upstate Medical Center and raising her children, Susan earned BS and MS degrees in nursing from Syracuse University.  After becoming an early Certified Nurse Practitioner, she co-founded a software startup that was among the first to develop an electronic patient care plan system.  Later, she worked as a compliance manager for Interim Home Healthcare.

 

Susan and John traveled frequently, including annual visits to Cuttyhunk Island, MA, where Susan had enjoyed many childhood vacations, and to a house they co-owned in Gersau, Switzerland, overlooking Lake Lucerne. 

 

After retiring, Susan and John split their time between their homes in Jamesville (summer) and Sarasota (winter), the latter where Sally and several cousins from Carlisle also resided.

Susan was an astute and witty observer of human behavior.  She enjoyed tennis (earlier in life) and golf (later in life), and was an amazing gardener (Dahlias!).  She also was a formidable Scrabble player who passed on her skills to her children and grandchildren, to whom she was known lovingly as Ooma, a name everyone in the family came to call her.  She loved chocolate, chocolate chip cookies, ice cream, and Coca-Cola (not necessarily in that order nor all at the same time), and we loved her Norwegian coffee cake, Chewy Noels, and pies.

 

Susan was preceded in death by her identical twin Sally (Roland) Reich, brother Don (Carroll) McAllister, and parents. She is survived by her husband John E. LaGraff, her sons John R. (Quynh) LaGraff of Niskayuna, NY, and Tom (Kristi) LaGraff of Redondo Beach, CA, her grandchildren Luc LaGraff, Giac LaGraff, and Thai (Truc) LaGraff, her brother-in-law, and many cousins, nieces, and nephews.