Sue and John Storey in happier times.
There was barely standing room at Sue Storey’s funeral at St John’s Church last Thursday as devoted family and friends took stock of the passing of an icon.
Those in the know wore ties, tops or scarves in shades of her favoured pink or cerise; and in a nod to a woman who was anything but beige, the same colour flowers sprawled across her casket.
Susan – or Sue as she preferred to be called – was many things to many people. Wife to New Zealand Dairy Board giant John Storey, adored matriarch to the family they shared, loved friend to so many, the ‘lipstick queen’ to one son who said she never felt dressed without applying her favourite shade, one remembered by all for her legendary cooking prowess and hospitality. A woman known for her elegance, intelligence, gutsiness and the warmth that enveloped everyone she met.
As she left at Waikato Hospital on March 13, family came from far and wide, signalling her role as the glue that held them together, sharing a meal of her prized chicken pasta, knowing she was in the rain that gently fell.
Sue was just over a week shy of her 85th birthday when she passed. She had been married to John for 61 years, supporting him and the family they raised, often almost single-handedly.
Much-loved family matriarch Sue Storey was farewelled at St John’s Church last week.
“My off-farm activities, directorships and more… they all became a large part of our life,” he told those at the service. “I would have achieved none of it without someone like Sue at home.”
Sue was born in Auckland in 1941, one of three Clark girls whose forebear was the founder of Hobsonville’s clay industry. Her own parents went to Wairoa, and when they struggled to give the girls the schooling they preferred, her father grew a large crop of potatoes to fund their entry to Nga Tawa School. Sue loved it. She enjoyed most things, with the exception of cross-country, flourished academically and left as the school dux. Then it was off to do a commercial course before working as an executive assistant for a doctor at Waikato Hospital.
John met Sue at a social at the Piarere Hall, which no longer exists. She was dressed up for the annual ski club get-together, he was post-rugby in a well-worn shirt and corduroy trousers, looking slightly worse for wear. The spark was struck, and when John asked if he could take her home as the last dance was called, she said, ‘I came on the bus and I’m going home on the bus’.
He liked her spirit. “She never dropped her standards from then on.”
They wrote weekly as Sue travelled abroad, but when it emerged that two young Danes were showing undue interest in her, John contrived an overseas trip that allowed him to join her. An evening at an Oscar Peterson concert, a hockey game and a weekend away at a frozen-over Lake Niagara, followed by another reunion in the UK sealed the deal. Soon after they returned to New Zealand, they got engaged and married a short time later.
“After a short honeymoon, this lovely city girl was thrust into the demands of farming,” John said. She rose to that challenge, he added, and to the arrival of their children with great aplomb.
They travelled the world together for leisure, and occasionally Sue joined John on his business trips. In between and over many decades, they made wonderful family memories with friends in the Coromandel’s Matapaua Bay.
Sue’s many years in the Te Awamutu area were remembered for her willingness to immerse herself in community life, her support of numerous organisations and groups and loyalty to her friends, and her tennis and walking groups.
John said Sue’s farewell at St John’s held special meaning. It was there that their firstborn, Sarah, was baptised 60 years ago – the first christening in that church. It is also the sister church to the old St John’s, which itself is a sister church to St Paul’s at Rangiowhia, one with strong links to the Storey family for over 150 years.
