Susie Graham Jacobson, advertisement administrator, equestrian and spouse of previous television anchor Walter Jacobson, dies
Susie Graham Jacobson was a Chicago marketing administrator who was simply active in Chicago charities and soon after became an accomplished amateur equestrian.
“She retired from marketing to complete her horses. The horses had been a great deal a part of her life, and she ended up being an animal lover who had this kind of soft heart,” said her husband, longtime Chicago radio and television news anchor and commentator Walter Jacobson. “Every time she went up to … the barn. And she liked being 62 years old and competitive (at riding).”
Jacobson passed away of problems from the mind damage on March 31 at a rented house in Wellington, Fla. after dropping the earlier time while walking her golden retriever, happy, her spouse said. A Gold Coast resident whom additionally had a true house in Beverly Shores, Ind., Jacobson was in fact in Wellington contending in horse programs.
Born Susan Norris Graham in Chicago, Jacobson spent my youth in Northfield and had been the child of Florence Graham, the mind pro and manager associated with the A.C. Nielsen Tennis Center regarding the Winnetka Park District. Jacobson had been a tennis whiz and rated nationwide among the list of top 30 players that are junior the U.S. through the time she ended up being 12.
At 14, she ended up being the very first woman included within the Chicago District Tennis Association’s SuperExcellence system during the Midtown Tennis Club. The following year, Jacobson had been 1st girl ever invited to work through with brand brand brand New Trier West’s men tennis group.
Jacobson’s school that is high profession culminated with her winning the state singles name. After graduating from brand brand New Trier western, she ended up being among the women that are first by Yale University to relax and play tennis, and became the captain of Yale’s women’s tennis group.
“Tennis has helped my markings,” she told the Tribune in 1977. “It’s an outlet. I’d get bananas without one. You can’t learn on a regular basis. You want something different.”
After graduating from Yale with A english level in 1978, Jacobson relocated to nyc, where she quickly started doing work for exactly just exactly what would get to be the DDB Needham advertisement agency. She then relocated to DDB Needham’s Chicago workplace within the 1980s.
In 1989, an old DDB Needham colleague and buddy, Mary Haderlein, recruited Jacobson to have a task during the J. Walter Thompson USA advertising agency in Chicago, where Jacobson first had been a free account manager then, in 1994, a vice president that is senior.
“She had boundless power and she ended up being an extremely charismatic person,” said Haderlein, whom now operates Chicago-based Hyde Park Group, an innovation company that is strategic. “She ended up being one of the individuals that would light a room up whenever she joined. She had a great deal kinetic power.”
In 1995, Haderlein recruited Jacobson to participate her during the Grant/Jacoby advertising agency in Chicago as a vice president and administration manager, overseeing clients that are multiple. The following year, Grant/Jacoby promoted Jacobson to senior vice president and person in the agency’s administrator committee.
While at Grant/Jacoby, Jacobson pitched and won the account for Head sports, Haderlein stated. In 1999, Head’s then-parent, HTM Holdings, hired Jacobson as the Chicago-based director of advertising communications.
Jacobson left HTM in 2003 to the office for Haderlein during the Hyde Park Group as being an account director that is senior.
Jacobson and her husband came across at a meeting at a riding stable in Michiana Shores, Ind., Walter Jacobson stated. They married in 1995.
“She had been a companion that is perfect Walter,” said Walter Jacobson’s longtime WBBM-Ch. 2 anchor partner, Bill Kurtis. “She ended up being pretty, sweet, smart, hard-working and additionally they had been designed for one another. She had been extremely enthusiastic about horses, and he supported her for the reason that, and she arrived house to maintain Walter, who had been continuing to follow his profession.”
Kurtis’ wife, Donna Los Angeles Pietra, called Susie and Walter Jacobson “co-anchors in life.”
“She ended up being supportive of everything he wished to do, nonetheless it had been a status that is co-equal russian wives in which he supported her too,” Los Angeles Pietra stated. “She actually liked the away from doorways and nature and she possessed a passion that is particular the equestrian life and horses, and while which was not (Walter’s) interest, he truly supported it and ended up being delighted that this is one thing she desired to pursue.”
After retiring through the Hyde Park Group in 2005, Jacobson started training being an equestrian, working frequently having a trainer and investing several hours along with her horses every day at a farm in north suburban Zion. Jacobson additionally had begun contending in divisions for amateur riders who will be 50 and older.
“She ended up being very specialized in her horses, and also the horses had been this kind of crucial section of her life,” said Jacobson’s trainer, Meagan Murray-Tenuta. “That ended up being her thing. And she rode really competitively. It’s very sad for me personally because we’d gotten actually far inside her training and she simply had a wonderful circuit down in Florida, and she had been having so much fun using the horses.”
Jacobson had been volunteer and fundraiser for Chicago charities like the Anti-Cruelty Society, where she had offered regarding the board that is governing Los Angeles Rabida Children’s Hospital in Chicago, where she had started the women’s board, the provider Club of Chicago and PAWS Chicago.