Susan Jane Simmons died just after midnight on Thursday, March 13, 2025. Her children, David and Jennifer Stager, sat with her as she made a gentle transition after two decades of illness. Familiar staff at Carleton-Willard Village also ensured her comfort with great care.

The daughter of the late Robert H. Simmons and Elizabeth W. Simmons, Susan was born in Massachusetts in 1945, later graduating from Wellesley College (class of 1968). In college she wrote poetry under the pseudonym Sybil Greene. While there, she met her late husband, Lawrence Stager, an archaeologist. Following a prescient honeymoon on an excavation, they continued to travel to archaeological digs, eventually bringing along their children. Throughout this time, Susan continued to work towards a PhD in American History under the supervision of David Hackett Fisher of Brandeis.

When they later moved to Concord, MA, Susan pivoted to law, receiving her degree from Northeastern, where she benefited from a close community of other mothers making a mid-life career shift. After graduation, she worked for the Medicaid Board of Hearings until illness prompted an early retirement. She remained at home for a decade, often traveling to her children in the summers to be cared for by them in San Francisco and Paris.

A calm, resolute, and loving poet, historian, lawyer, mother, daughter, sister, wife, and friend, Susan modeled great resolve in the face of very challenging circumstances.

She is survived by her children, David Stager and his spouse Kelsey Stager, and Jennifer Stager and her spouse Peter Radavich, her grandchildren Arden and Lyle Stager and Astrid, Lilith, and Soren Stager-Radavich, her brother, Christopher Simmons and his family, and her best friend, Anita Walker.

Services will be private.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in Susan's memory may be made to Creating Legacies .

Arrangements are entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord.