Susan Kay Otto

A Celebration of Life will be held at the Gilbertson Funeral Home, Devils Lake ND on June 24, 2023 at 1:00 p.m. A time of fellowship will follow the service at the Cobblestone Inn in Devils Lake. 

Susan Kay Otto 71 of Devils Lake ND passed away peacefully in her home at Odd Fellows Assisted Living Facility on Friday, March 10, 2023. 

She was born on April 7^th 1951 in Moorhead MN.  Susan’s hometown was Harvey ND but she attended and graduated high school from Grand Forks School for the Blind.  After high school Susan attended and graduated from the University of North Dakota receiving a degree in teaching.  She taught home economics at Fort Yates ND. Susan went back to UND in 1978 majoring in Special Education. After college Susan worked for the majority of her career with the developmentally disabled. After an injury prevented her from continuing with this work, she attended Lake Region State College and graduated with a degree in business.  Susan was an exceptional teacher, a kind and loving caregiver, and a true friend to all.

Susan was a woman of many talents. She loved to do crafts of every kind, from sewing, to crocheting, to creating stained glass.  She was very creative and could make something beautiful out of next to nothing.  Susan was a wonderful cook and loved to bake as well. She was an avid reader and loved fantasy fiction, especially books involving dragons.  After she retired, she would review books from new authors for fun.   She loved board games.  She especially loved Scrabble, Ticket to Ride, and Catan but she loved them all and would eagerly learn the rules of a new board game.

Susan is reunited in heaven with her parents Theodore Otto and Genevieve Otto (Harvey, ND), her brother Gary Otto (Climax, MN), her sister Marge Pister (Ulysses, KS), her dear friends Liz Nelson (Crary, ND), and Ellen Berg (Plainfield, NJ). Even though we are losing her and our hearts are aching they are welcoming her into heaven with much love and are holding her in their arms.

Susan is survived by her sisters, Judith (Philip) Grenz, Dothan, AL, Mary (Wade) Martwick Garden City, KS, Lorraine (Colin) O’Shea, East Grand Forks, MN and Sharon (Oliver) Otto-Tafelmeyer Sawyer, ND and many aunts and uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews, and dear friends Charlene Gray and Debbie Lien, who will forever miss her kind gentle spirit, her smile, laughter, her sense of humor, her generosity, and all the love she shared with us. She will remain forever in our minds and hearts.

A service will be held in the spring at the Gilbertson Funeral Home in Devils Lake ND with burial at St. Cecilia’s Cemetery in Harvey ND.