Suzanne "Sue" Bender

Suzanne “Sue” Bender, age 59, of Rogue River, died Thursday, May 14, 2009 at her home.

A memorial service will be at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, June 13, 2009 at Hawthorne Memorial Gardens. Hull & Hull Funeral Directors are in charge of arrangements.

Remembrances may be made to Providence Hospice, 1111 Crater Lake Avenue, Medford, Oregon 97504 or American Cancer Society, 31 W 6th Street, Medford, Oregon 97501.

Sue was born October 30, 1949 in Gilroy, California to Vincent & Carole LeClair. She was raised in the San Francisco Bay area and in 1968 graduated from Del Mar High School in San Jose, California. She attended Eastern Oregon College for three years. On August 21, 1971 in San Jose she married Richard Bender. For 19 years she worked for National Semiconductor in Santa Clara, California. In May 1976 a son, Darren was born and in May 1979 her second son, Kevin was born. In 1991, she moved to Windsor, California and in 2005 moved to Rogue River. From 2005 to 2008 she worked at Grants Pass High School and later worked at Rogue River Middle School until her illness.

Her hobbies included cooking, entertaining, camping, traveling, swimming, spending time with others, and helping people.

Survivors include her husband, Richard Bender of Rogue River; two sons, Darren Bender of Redding, California and Kevin Bender of Bend, Oregon; a sister, Louise Steele of Healdsburg, California; a brother, James LeClair of Medford and three grandchildren.