When Sue Larson saw something that needed doing — expanding access to libraries, working for women's advancement, starting senior tennis and poetry groups, helping older people plan for death — she would step right up and do it.
"She would see a problem or a challenge and then go for it," said her son Jim Larson, of Minneapolis. "She was a consummate professional in starting things and getting them so they could continue on their own."
Larson died Dec. 8 of vascular dementia at Parkshore, a senior community in St. Louis Park where she had lived for about 10 years. She was 98.
Sue Miller grew up in Minot, N.D., one of five children raised by her mother after her father died when she was 6. At a time when most women did not pursue education beyond high school, she attended the University of Minnesota, where she earned a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1946.
She volunteered throughout college as a member of the Young Republicans, where she met Raeder Larson. They married in 1949, settled in St. Louis Park and had five children.
In the 1960s, Larson talked the Edina and St. Louis Park schools into keeping their libraries open during the summer and helped lead campaigns to open public libraries in those communities. She also worked to establish a Minneapolis bookmobile, Jim Larson said.
"She did so many things, we could barely keep up with her," he said.
During the Vietnam War, Larson switched parties and became a Democrat, her son said. But she also worked as a paid staffer on Republican Rudy Boschwitz's first run for the U.S. Senate in 1978.
