Sue Foister

died 3 November 2007

Imperial Opera

The biggest-hearted, most generous woman and performer most of us will ever be privileged to know.

I was fortunate enough to work with Sue on many occasions, beginning with A Little Night Music (she was Madame Armfeldt, I was Countess Charlotte) and in many other shows with Imperial Opera - and also when she was Matron Mama Morton to my Velma Kelly in TW4's production of Chicago. Hostess, wardrobe-mistress and of course performer, she was matchless on all counts.

Her cremation service, followed by a memorial service at St Mary's Church in Beddington, were both attended by huge numbers of her fellow performers, from Imperial Opera and many other societies; we got the feeling that the organist at the crematorium had never had such an enthusiastic musical congregation before. Sue knew that her death was approaching, and she planned her own funeral service, giving her own very definite views on what should be included. The memorial ended with the moving In Tears of Grief from the Bach St Matthew Passion, and I take the liberty of including a link to the MP3 of that occasion (file size 6MB). (If anybody happens upon this page and would like a full recording of the service, please feel free to contact me: cassie@tillett.org.uk.)

For anybody using Facebook, a group was set up to share photographs and memories, and has been left in place; simply search for 'Sue Foister' and click on the group.

Click on any of the smaller images below to see Sue in various shows.