Sue Harnetiaux

Sue Ann Harnetiaux was born in Yakima, Washington and grew up in Harrah, in the Lower Yakima Valley, on the family's generations-old hop ranch. She was one of seven children of Jim and Nadine St. Mary.

After graduating from high school, Sue Ann attended Gonzaga University in Spokane where she earned a teaching degree with an emphasis on primary education, to which she would devote the better part of her professional life. While at GU, Sue Ann flourished everywhere on campus: participating in student government, serving as a dorm R.A., and as a member of the Gonzaga basketball cheerleading squad.

Gonzaga would also be where Sue Ann met her future husband, Bryan, and they fell in love. They were married the day after graduation, and celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary this past May. They would have three wonderful, devoted children, Ben (Sharon Morrison), Ryan (Katie Harnetiaux), and Trish (Jacob A. Ware), and four grandchildren – Isabele, Reilly, Austin and Leo.

Sue Ann was a loving, all-in mother to her children, and this gift carried over in her professional and personal life. She was surely meant to be a grade school teacher, and was fully committed to each and every student she taught in her 32 years at Hutton Elementary, on Spokane’s South Hill. A fierce advocate for all children, she championed individual thought and development through enhanced education. This passion is also reflected in her involvement with a group of parents who worked diligently to obtain approval of APPLE, a unique alternative elementary education program still operating in the Spokane School District.

If you didn’t know Sue Ann, here’s a sliver of what you missed: she had a great capacity to live in the moment, in all aspects of her life. For decades, the vegetable garden she grew was a paradise. She loved a thick slice of tomato on her BLT. You could often find her at the Spokane Civic Theatre, onstage, backstage, or in the audience supporting both her husband and the arts. Her favorite word was marsupial. AND she knew how to have fun. Anyone who ever watched her dance, would see the unbridled joy that animated her life. This would be true, even through the last 5 1/2 years when she encountered daily hardship resulting from Parkinson’s disease, cancer, and permanent neuropathy in her feet.

Surrounded by family, Sue Ann died at home on Sunday, August 9, 2026. Her singular spirit is now everywhere and we know she is dancing.

A memorial mass will be held on August 27th at 11am at St. Aloyisius Catholic Church, where she and Bryan were married. A reception will follow nearby. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Community Cancer Fund or Northwest The Parkinson's Foundation.