Suzanne Florence Wilson was born December 30, 1930, in Birney, Montana to Ernest and Mary (Standing Elk) Hardground and passed away Tuesday, January 30, 2018, at home in Weatherford, Oklahoma surrounded by family, at the age of 87 years, and 1 month.

Suzanne was raised in Birney, Montana where she attended school at St. Labre and in Hammon, Oklahoma where she graduated from Hammon High School. She made her home in Denver, Colorado in 1954 when she moved there on a relocation program. Suzanne was instrumental in laying down the groundwork for Denver Indian Health, where she interviewed heads of households and assisted Indian families new to city life. Suzanne is a lifetime member of the White Buffalo Council and served on the Mayor's Indian Advisory Board and the DMNH Native American Resource Group.

Suzanne's hobbies are reading mysteries and watching documentaries about the foreign people and cultures of foreign countries. She most treasured pastime is researching beadwork. Her beadwork is displaying in many museums, including the Denver Museum of Natural History and Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. She will be remembered as a mother who loved her family and loved and honored life.

Suzanne is survived by two sons, Marvin Frank Wilson and his companion Irma Brown of Clinton, OK, and Roger L. Wilson and companion Helen Interpreter of Denver, CO; two daughters, Ruth Ann Gardipe of Thornton, CO and Patricia Sue Wilson of Weatherford, OK; one brother, Horace Howlingwater and wife Stacey of El Reno, OK; one sister, Josephine Walkingnight of Hammon, OK; and twelve grandchildren; twenty-four great-grandchildren; and thirteen great-great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents; brothers, Roy, Jess, George and Jerome Howlingwater, and Francis and Tommy Hardground; sisters, Katie Medicinebull, Eula Howlingwater, and Dorothy Goodblanket; and granddaughter, Dana Wilson.