Suzannah Neighbour

Suzannah Neighbour, for many years a resident of Prescott and of Santa Ana, California, passed away quietly in Prescott on October 26, at the age of 87.      An accomplished artist and former teacher, Mrs. Neighbour was a native of Virginia, where she grew up with her two sisters and worked her way through Madison College by teaching ballet.  She was teaching second grade when, at Virginia Beach, she met Hugh Neighbour, the young naval officer who became her husband.      When Hugh was ordered to wartime duty aboard an aircraft carrier in the Pacific, the couple moved up their wedding plans and married in May 1943.  On a cross-country train trip, during which they stopped briefly to visit Hugh?s relatives in Northern Arizona, Suzannah fell in love with the American West which later became her cherished home.      She taught school in San Diego until the end of World War II, when they settled in Santa Ana, Hugh?s hometown.  While he embarked on a successful career as a builder of custom homes, she settled into a new role as homemaker and mother.  With little traffic on the streets of Orange County, she went nearly everywhere by bicycle, seeing no need to begin driving until she was nearly 40.      While raising two sons, Suzannah was an active Cub Scout leader, Little League supporter, altar guild member at Episcopal Church of the Messiah and art docent, while continuing to develop her own artistic skills, particularly in creating small paintings and her distinctive modeled-clay ?santos.?      After moving to Prescott with her husband in 1991, she was active in both St. Luke?s Episcopal Church and Prescott United Methodist Church.  Suzannah took special delight in taking art into public school classrooms here, as a member of Prescott Art Docents.  She was a longtime member of PEO.      Surviving are her two sons, Robert, an airline pilot residing in Florida, and Hugh, a U.S. diplomat presently posted overseas; three grandchildren, and Suzannah?s younger sister, Jody.