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Susan Ann Trefzger was born on August 26, 1933 at Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati Ohio. Susan�s parents Franz and Marie Trefzger and her older sister Mary Patricia were living at 3949 Regent Avenue in Norwood Ohio in the home of Marie�s mother and father because the family had just returned from a six years stay in Europe where Franz, a tenor, had been studying Opera. They stayed at the Niland home in Norwood while Franz went back to school to get a degree in Education and Marie worked to help support the family. Susan attended Williams Avenue Public School through the third grade then was sent to St. Ursula Academy where she continued her education and graduated from High School in June 1951. ( It might be of interest to note that one of her classmates was Mary Metz a cousin and a descendent of Mary Elizabeth Metz that married John Berger in 1865.) In 1943 the family along with Mammaw, Marie�s mother, moved to Clifton into a large house they bought not far from the University of Cincinnati.
Although her sister Patricia attended the University, Susan chose Edgecliff College as a freshman, where her father was one of the professors. After two years at Edgecliff, Sue married Mike Shiels in the fall of 1953. They spent the following two years in the Navy, he was a Navy pilot, and after his enlistment was up they moved back to Cincinnati. Living on Lookout Drive in Hyde Park Mike completed his final year at Xavier University and found a job with a manufacturing company. While in the Navy two children had been born to Mike and Sue: Paul Michael in Jacksonville Florida, and Elizabeth Ann in Pensacola Florida. In 1959 while living in Cincinnati Patrick Francis was born.
With three little children in tow Sue and Mike moved to northern Michigan in 1961 and built a house on the lake at Conway Michigan where for the next twenty years they raised the three children plus David Charles who was born in 1965. It was a great place to bring up a family; beautiful summers and snow filled winters that included boats, water skiing, snowmobiles, fishing, and skiing.
In 1982 Sue and Mike were divorced and the house was sold. The older children were off to other parts of the country, Paul to California, Betsy to New Mexico, Patrick also to New Mexico, and David the youngest to Michigan State University. Sue remarried and she and her new husband Brian Burbank, who worked for the FAA, moved to Oklahoma City while he taught there at the FAA Academy and Training Facility.
After four years they divorced and Sue moved to Albuquerque, and New Mexico has been her home ever since. In January 1991 Sue moved to Santa Fe, where her daughter Betsy lives, and bought a home.
As for her professional life, Susan worked for 35 years, mostly in accounting and management. In Michigan Mike and Sue owned and managed a Hertz Rent A Car Franchise for 14 years. In Oklahoma City Sue worked for the Hertz Corporation International Office, then at the Hertz office at Will Rogers Airport. After moving to Albuquerque she worked for 4 years in a large downtown hotel and in Santa Fe worked at Yates Hogan Architects, then for five years in the accounting office at the Georgia O�Keeffe Museum.
The family is active, spread out and growing. Paul is an engineer living in Albuquerque with his wife Liz and two children Suzanne and Victor. Betsy is an accountant and lives in Santa Fe with her husband Mark and son Matthew. Patrick is an artist and lives in Flagstaff Arizona with his wife Jann and two children Elsa and Perry. David is a financial analyst for General Electric and has moved around a lot but at the moment is living in Austin Texas with his wife Teresa, and son Kyle and daughter Kelley. Keegan, David and Teresa�s youngest son, died in December 2002 a month before his eight birthday.
�We have had two family reunions at Berger Hill so that the ties with past generations would not be lost. The grandchildren can not believe the wonder and sheer fun of the place. They spend hours in the pool, play baseball, picnic and chase around just like their mother or father, grandmother, grandfather and great grandmother and great great grandfather
did before them. It is a wonderful heritage.�*
* by Sue Burbank
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