Dog owners encounter likeminded folks in this dog-friendly town, and thus I met Suki right on my block as she walked her poodles while carrying a two-pound Chihuahua in a sling ‘round her neck. During that brief conversation I became anxious to learn more.
Suki’s grandfather was sixth generation McCoy of the famous Hatfield-McCoy feud. She grew up in Tucson, Arizona, amidst saguaros and creosote bushes. Her grandma, parents and large extended family all lived in a small house in the desert, surrounded by coyotes and other wild critters. Grandma followed the kids around with a hoe used for chopping off rattlers’ heads.
Suki excelled as a scholar and athlete. With her excellent grades, she received free tuition to the University of Arizona, where she graduated with a degree in nutrition and dietetics. She was welcomed to UCSF as an intern and got her first job there, as a dietician specializing in eating disorders.
“I met Dr. Kim Norman through an eating disorders patient at UCSF’s Langley Porter Institute,” Suki tells me. “I love to learn. I became part of Dr. Norman’s team in the mid 1990s and worked 10-12 hours, six days a week for years.
“My first husband had come to California with me. After that fell apart, I took two months off for a Spanish immersion program in Guatemala. There I attended language school and kayaked Lake Atitlan every day. Afterwards, I couldn’t get back into my work.”
With her huge network of medical professionals, Suki established a private practice as a registered dietician in San Francisco. One day she met Alex Kline, a private investigator and brother of actor Kevin Kline.
“Alex needed office help at first, but then asked me if I wanted to do some investigative work,” Suki says. “So for three years I had two jobs.”
Suki worked on a huge environmental case against One Shot sign paint containing lead. She traveled the state cataloging paint inventory and interviewed people at car shows who were licking the paint. When she testified in court, the defense attorney thought he had her cornered.
“What makes you an expert at reading a paint label?” he asked.
“I’m a registered dietician with specified training in reading labels,” was her quick retort.
Suki met her current husband, Jon, also an investigator, and they both became employed by the San Francisco City Attorney. Suki did intense all night surveillance work from a truck with handmade blackout curtains and chased suspects through city streets on her motorcycle. In one case, she had to hunt down a local gangbanger as a witness (I won’t use the name — too scary). Her husband found him hanging with his gang while getting a haircut on the sidewalk and served him. The guy pleaded the Fifth in court and they served him again. The man was found dead two weeks later. (Is this not just like on TV?)
“The next witness was this huge Samoan guy,” Suki tells me. “The investigator I hired was the guy Magnum PI was based on. I found out about a meeting he was to attend and mentioned it to the Bayview police. Turned out our guy was the focus of a tri-state manhunt as the biggest meth producer/trafficker in Hawaii. The officer called the FBI and they scooped him up before we could serve him.”
After a dark time in which both her mom and father-in-law died of cancer, Suki decided the PI work was too depressing. Hired by Sue Eldredge (a Stanford pioneer in youth development), Suki became finance director of Community Network for Youth Development in SF. When their funding dried up, she began evaluating youth programs through See Change, Inc. She then headed up operations at The Ada Initiative, an advocacy agency for women working in technology.
In 2015 the house she had rented in the city for 14 years was sold. “I applied to 100 places on Craigslist,” Suki says. “Only six called me back. We saw four – –they were awful. Then we found this converted barn on a vineyard on Los Amigos Road. I brought the three dogs along and the landlord didn’t blink an eye.”
Suki works from home as a fundraiser for the Family Independence Initiative (FII.org), a poverty alleviation non-profit in Oakland. FII helps create networks of families in a community, monitors their goals and gives access to capital. She still works long days, but she takes breaks to walk the dogs around town.
“We love to kayak, but had never seen Healdsburg. I had no idea it was such a cool place. I’ve signed up with Gail Jonas’ Neighbors Network and want to get involved in helping the homeless. I love the farmers’ market, walking around town and the weather. I’m so glad we came here.”
Welcome to Healdsburg, Suki.
Shonnie Brown is a local author and memoirist who is interested in fostering connections between people and their community. Shonnie writes personal and family histories through her business, Sonoma LifeStories, and is also a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She can be reached by email at
sh*****@so***.net
or on the web at www.sonomalifestories.com.
