“To ride on a horse is to fly without wings.” - Anon.

She was sweetness and kindness personified.

Susan Crooks Cornick of Halifax, Massachusetts, passed away on June 28, 2025 in Boston after a series of health setbacks in recent years. She was 80 years old but was always a young and vibrant girl in spirit.

Susan was born in Newport News, Virginia, and lived in Yorktown and Norfolk before attending Randolph-Macon Women’s College in Lynchburg. She was of Virginia but she found her true self in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she moved and thrived in the social and cultural scene of the 1960s.

Early in her career, as an instructor with the Audubon Society, she may have achieved her greatest fulfillment teaching young people to love the natural world as much as she did and to appreciate and protect our shared environment.

As family and friends know, Susan’s connection with, and understanding of, horses was profound. She and her horse, Talisman, were inseparable for over 25 years. She was always happiest on horseback – in Massachusetts, the Adirondacks, and especially at the 7D ranch in Wyoming, a family affair.

Her townhouse at the Twin Lakes community in Halifax, Massachusetts, was a constant source of comfort during her later work life and retirement years. Spring couldn’t come soon enough for Susan, who loved to bring her garden to life with her discerning choice of colorful flowers that would please the eye and attract butterflies...as well as the compliments of passersby. And she provided endless horticultural advice, and a steady stream of flowering plants, to her neighbors, who cherished her as much as she did them.

Susan is survived by William (Bill) Manning, her companion of over fifty years. He was her true love, as she was his. Bill looked after Susan through her many illnesses and hospitalizations. He gladly served as her chauffeur/chef/nurse in her time of need, and planned their Fall foliage trips and other adventures during her better days.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Julian Shepherd Cornick and Shirley Gannaway Cornick Campbell; her stepfather, Merrick Irwin Campbell; and her sister, Ann Cornick Timberlake.

Susie is survived by her sister, Margaret Cornick Holland (Sam) of Richmond, VA; nieces and nephews, Mark Shepherd Dixon (Jennifer) of Richmond, VA, Lauren Dixon Irvin (Travis) of Richmond, VA, James Harfield Timberlake III (Michelle) of Fairfax, VA, and Elizabeth Cornick Timberlake (Tim) of Alexandria, VA; grandnieces and grandnephews, Kathryn Dixon, Emma Dixon,  Shepherd Irvin, Margaret Irvin, Julianne Timberlake, Emma Timberlake, Henry Hodgson and James Hodgson; first cousins, Jane Cornick Dominick of Cody, WY, Robert Bruce Cornick of Yorktown, VA, Frank Gannaway Lea of Ashville, NC and Joseph Davis Lea (Amy) of Blowing Rock, NC.

We were all lucky to know her. And to have had her for as long as we did.

Send to someone

Share this obituary with others

https://everloved.com/life-of/susan-cornick/obituary/

Copy