Obituary of Suzanne Jeanne Dupuy Abbott

Suzanne Jeanne Dupuy was born June 29, 1916 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her parents, Abel and Marthe, had emigrated from France in 1913, her father serving as a manager first for Michelin and subsequently for General Motors. Suzanne and her older sister Madeleine (born in 1913) spent their childhood in Buenos Aires and Santiago, Chile (plus two years in New York, where they saw Civil War veterans march down Fifth Avenue in a Fourth of July parade), learning French, Spanish, and English. Suzanne’s father retired in 1930 in Nice, on the French Riviera, where Suzanne and Madeleine attended high school. The girls were exchange students at Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio, graduating in 1937. Suzanne subsequently received an English degree from the University of Aix-Marseilles, and became an English teacher. After surviving World War II (sadly, Madeleine died in 1942), Suzanne married Roger Abbott in 1945, a young American diplomat who reopened the U.S. Consulate in Marseilles in 1944. Roger and Suzanne went first to Berkeley, California, where Roger finished his Ph.D. The young couple (joined by Suzanne’s mother Marthe) then moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1946, where Roger taught political science at the University. Roger spent one year, 1948-1949, as a Doherty Fellow in Santiago, Chile, allowing Suzanne to reestablish her South American ties. Roger left academia to join the CIA in 1951, and Suzanne and Roger moved to the Washington, D.C. area, where they spent the rest of their lives. They had two children, Alden, born in 1951, and Madeleine, born in 1960. Suzanne taught French in public schools and at George Washington University (where she received an M.A. degree), and then, beginning in the 1960s, joined the CIA as a French and Spanish teacher. Suzanne’s transformation into a “real world Mrs. Polifax” occurred after Roger’s death in 1983. She served as a CIA interpreter throughout Latin America (hearing occasional gun shots and meeting some unsavory characters) and in Turkey, and her cover identities sometimes were a poor match for her knowledge (for example, she was listed as a delegate to a florist’s convention in Peru despite her notorious “brown thumb”). To her children’s relief, Suzanne retired from the “spy business” in the mid-1990s and entered a new phase of her life. Susie oversaw weekly dinners for Alden and his wife Lou and Madeleine and her husband Steve. “Grandma Susie” was a much beloved influence on Roger, Alden and Lou’s son, who was born in 1983. Suzanne also helped nurse her daughter Madeleine back to health after a serious accident in 1998. Suzanne gradually slowed down with the passage of years, but her quiet kindness and capacity for love continued to shine through. She was a gentle soul beloved by all who came to know her. Suzanne’s “last hurrah” was her attendance at grandson Roger’s marriage to Margaret, celebrated at Saint Matthew’s Cathedral in October 2013. Suzanne passed away quietly in her sleep on February 9, 2014. She is survived by her son Alden and his wife Lou, her daughter Madeleine and her husband Steve, and grandson Roger and his bride Margaret. May God rest her soul. The family is requesting that any donations be made to Catholic Charities USA or the Salvation Army. Viewing: Friday, February 14th, 6:00-8:00 PM Advent Funeral Services. 7211 Lee Hwy. Falls Church, VA. Mass of the Resurrection: Saturday, February 15th, 1:00 PM SAINT JOHN THE BELOVED CATHOLIC CHURCH 6420 Linway Terrace McLean, Virginia 22101 Interment: Saturday, February 15th, 2:30 PM FAIRFAX MEMORIAL PARK 9902 Braddock Road Fairfax, Virginia 22032