Name/Title
Vallejo Hills Retirement Community - Susan McCown - Bird of ParadiseDescription
The appreciation and expression of beauty has always been at the heart of Susan McCown’s life. She was drawn to ceramics in high school, while growing up with her sister in Vallejo. After starting a family at age nineteen, raising twodaughters with Paul W., she enrolled at Long Beach State College as a ceramics major. She recalls early jobs waitressing at the “Beatnik clubs” in Hollywood.
Susan later married Lee Medeiros, her partner for 41 years, until his passing in 2016. The couple lived in Vallejo, before retiring to a small town near Hilo, Hawaii, where Susan enjoyed and nurtured the beauty of nature on their remote property. As a member of the group, Wise Old Women (WOW), she painted, created pottery, arranged flowers, and learned the art of “Healing Touch,” which she practiced for over twenty years.
Susan, born in Oakland in 1936, has returned to Vallejo to be near her sister Mary Ann, two daughters, Lisa and Carla, and four grandchildren. Now a resident of Vallejo Hills Retirement Community, she enjoys the fellowship there. She has become a dedicated member of the AWE class. Working in oil pastels, acrylic paint and watercolors, she covers a wide range of subjects from nature to politics. Susan got to know classmate Larry McCown and they married in 2018. Larry says of his partner Susan, “She’s an artful soul!”
