Susan M Sheehan

Susan Sheehan ObituaryVisit the Going Home Cremation & Funeral Care by Value Choice, P.A. - Woodbine website to view the full obituary.Susan Sheehan (nee Sachsel) died peacefully at her home in Washington,DC on Wednesday, February 18, 2026 following a long illness. She was 88 years old and had lived in the same home that she moved to in 1966 with her late husband, Neil Sheehan.Susan was born on August 24, 1937 in Vienna, Austria to Kitty and Charles Sachsel and moved to New York City with her parents in 1941. Her father died in 1942 and Susan was adopted by Kitty's second husband, Dr. Lazar C. Margulies. She graduated from Hunter College (high school) in 1954 and received a BA from Wellesley College in 1958.After graduating, Susan moved back to New York City and joined Esquire Magazine as a fact-checker and began work as a freelancer for several other magazines. In 1961 she became one of the youngest staff writers at The New Yorker, where she wrote both short pieces and later longer factual articles on subjects including welfare, imprisonment and foster care. Eight of the articles published in The New Yorker were later published as books. Susan was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction for "Is There No Place on Earth for Me?", which focused on a young woman's struggle with schizophrenia.In 1964, Susan was introduced to fellow journalist Neil Sheehan, who had just joined The New York Times from United Press International, where he served as Saigon correspondent. They married in Djakarta, Indonesia on March 30, 1965 and moved to Saigon six months later, when Neil was assigned to cover the Vietnam War for The Times. He was appointed to the Washington bureau of The Times in 1966 and the couple settled in Washington, DC. They were instrumental in each other's writing careers and remained married until Neil's death in 2021.Their children, Maria Gregory Sheehan and Catherine Sheehan Bruno were born in 1967 and 1969. In addition to The New Yorker, Susan contributed to The New York Times, The Washington Post and McCall's. She was also a contributing writer for Architectural Digest and wrote many pieces for the magazine.In 2002, Susan and Howard Means joined forces to write The Banana Sculptor, the Purple Lady, and the All-Night Swimmer, about hobbies. Her last book, Our Washington, DC: America's Hometown in Transition, an anthology about the capital of the United States, was published in 2025.Susan is survived by her daughters, Maria and Catherine, and her grandsons, Nicholas and Andrew Bruno. She was delighted that everyone lived in the same zip code. Susan loved her work and stayed in touch with many friends and family throughout email, and also enjoyed travel with her family.Susan will be remembered as a devoted mother and grandmother, as well as a wonderful writer.Services will be held privately and in lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Medecins Sans Frontieres.Read The Full ObituaryTo plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.