Roxann "Sue" Thoreen

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, January 6, 2023, at St. Peter’s Catholic Church for Roxann “Sue” Thoreen, of St. Cloud. Roxann “Sue” Thoreen, 85, passed away December 31. The Very Reverend Kermit Holl will officiate. Private burial will take place at the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery, Little Falls.
Visitation will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Friday, January 6 at St. Peter’s Catholic Church.
Sue was born on August 12, 1937, in Hastings, to Leo and Ione Weiland. She was the third of five children. She married Gerald “Jerry” Thoreen on August 3, 1957, at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Minneapolis. After living in Baltimore, St. Louis and Minneapolis, they moved to St. Cloud to raise a family. Their 65 years of marriage came to an end only when she became a widow last year.
Sue is survived by four children, Julie (Phil Birkedal), David (Julie Koshgarian), Sarah, and Michelle; four grandchildren, Clare Birkedal, Donte Wolf (Alexis Wolf), and Henry and Samuel Thoreen; and by her ever-vigilant and faithful dog, Charley, who never left her side. Sue is preceded in death by her parents; infant children, Jennifer, Thomas, and John Thoreen; two sets of twin brothers, John and Jerry, and Donnie and Ronnie Weiland; and by her husband, Jerry Thoreen.
An artist at heart, Sue was drawn to beauty in nature, in literature, and in daily life. She took pleasure in Minnesota’s changing seasons, painting watercolors and photographing scenes near her home, attuned always to the deer, eagles, and songbirds in her surroundings. She knitted the most intricate sweaters this side of the Atlantic. She was an accomplished cook and home decorator, whom her family fondly called “Martha.” She read voraciously, especially contemporary American fiction; when she discovered new writers, she read every one of their books, sharing them with family and friends. She also liked word games and jigsaw puzzles, and when it was time for a friendly game of dominoes, she was merciless.
A 32-year cancer survivor, Sue was a fighter. And she was active, canoeing on the Sauk and Crow Wing Rivers, sailing at local lakes and around Lake Superior’s Apostle Islands, and biking and figure skating into her 70s. In her later years, she became a sports fan, one especially devoted to the University of Minnesota basketball team.
While family was the center of Sue’s life, she was active in the St. Cloud community, especially through St. Peter’s parish, where she served as a Eucharistic minister and on many committees. After the fall of Saigon, she and her husband, Jerry, along with other members of the parish, sponsored three refugee families from Vietnam and Laos, helping them to settle in St. Cloud, beginning lifelong friendships of mutual support, respect, and love.
Her skates laced up, she is spinning her way home. Godspeed!
In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Sue Thoreen would be welcome, online or by mail to either Central Minnesota Community Foundation, 101 7th Ave. S., #100, St. Cloud, MN 56301, http://www.communitygiving.org/donate/sue-thoreen-fund or to Smile Train (smiletrain.org) or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (stjude.org).