Susan Anders Niznik

Susan Anders Niznik was born December 13th, 1931 in Winchester, Illinois to Bert and Margaret Anders. With beginnings shaped by a large and loving family in the midst of the Great Depression, Susan became a woman who would break any and every mold. She credited many of her eccentricities to growing up with 5 younger brothers, the only daughter of the town sheriff and, briefly, Mayor. In the 1950s, she balanced a modelling career at Marshall Field’s and single motherhood of her son, Steven. Later, a mother to Kristine now as well, and during a time when women were just beginning to bank money under their own name, she became the HR director for Sky Harbor International Airport. Susan fought and survived breast cancer against terrible odds, and remained irrepressible. She became a school librarian and then the owner of her own bookstore before retiring. During every stage of her life, no matter her individual goals and dreams, the part of her life that mattered most to Susan would always be her family.

As a woman who was fiercely independent and ambitious, Susan found and lost love more than once before meeting her match in Jerome “Jerry” Niznik. Together, they built a family in Peoria, AZ, and had been together for six decades at Jerry’s passing in 2025. Susan would tell her grandchildren about the endless orange groves in the West Valley when they arrived, how they watched the city build up around them. She did not believe in locked doors, so that her grandchildren could run home to Nanna’s at any hour and know that they would be welcome – and on Fridays, there would be pizza. She was the axis on which her family spun, and she would have it no other way. She was an incredible storyteller, a multitasking driver who frequently drove while simultaneously drinking Pepsi from her red solo cup and eating her corndog from Wienerschnitzel, and the first person you could call if you needed help burying a body (as far as we know, no one has ever needed this particular support, but Susan could also keep a secret with the best of them). She was also one of the funniest people you would ever meet.

Her hobbies included making friends with everyone, dancing to the music in the shopping center, and telling every clerk all about her children’s, grandchildren’s, and great-grandchildren’s accomplishments. She made sure her descendants, especially the girls, valued the opportunity to be educated, explore the world, and embrace love in every shape that it comes. She was an artist, endlessly putting together scrapbooks and quilts and somehow always making time to sew her grandchildren elaborate Halloween costumes. She filled her life with the things she loved: bickering with her husband, embellishing stories, old doomed romance films, road trips to Mexico, Southwestern Native art, books, big rings, bigger hair, fast cars, handsome men, putting things in jell-o that should not be in jell-o, and most of all, holding her family as close as possible. Susan was never a woman to act her age, and so, her passing at age 94 still feels much too soon. Late in the evening of August 8th, Susan joined her husband Jerry Niznik, son Steven Wille, and brothers Jerry Anders, Monty Anders, Wayne Anders, and David Anders.

She is mourned by many, first and foremost by: her daughter Kristine Nordstrom; her grandchildren Jeff and Crystal Wille, Emma Wille, Anna Wille, Miranda Nordstrom, and Dakota Nordstrom; her great-grandchildren Drake Wille, Caden Wille, Elowen Cole, and Imogen Nordstrom; her last remaining brother, Chaplain Don Anders; many nieces and nephews and lifelong friends.

Susan, thank you for your enormous heart, your unwavering spirit, your fierce and unconditional love. We will always run home to Nanna’s.