Suzanne grew up in Tucson, Arizona. Over a forty-year span, she worked as a broadcast media buyer for advertising agencies in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Tucson. In 1972 she earned an Associate Degree in Art from Los Angeles City College and during the seventies attended California State University at Northridge. At age sixty, she married Tucson broadcaster Bill Mortimer, her Amphitheater classmate from elementary through high school. They reside in Green Valley, AZ with their three dogs, Cody, Tuffy and Chiquita plus a Sun Conure named Birdie.