Susan Margaret Batiste Quanbeck, an Air Force wife and homemaker, who lived near Middleburg, Virginia, died on March 2, age 73, at the Winchester Medical Center from the complications of cancer.

She was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 7, 1933, the youngest child of Wilford Norman Batiste and Mildred Erickson Batiste. The family moved to Madison, Wisconsin in her childhood where she graduated from West High School in 1950. She then attended the University of Wisconsin where she was a dance major and a member of the Alpha Phi Sorority. In 1952 she met and married then Captain Alton Quanbeck who was stationed as a fighter pilot at nearby Truax Air Force Base. Coverage of her marriage was the feature article in the bride's issue of McCall's magazine, June, 1953.

She gave birth to her sons, Alton and David, at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York and to her daughter, Karen, in Denver, Colorado during assignment to the newly established United States Air Force Academy. In 1958 the family moved to Los Altos Hills, California, where her husband studied at Stanford University. In 1960, they returned to the site of the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs for a four year tour. In 1964 with her husband's orders to the Pentagon the family moved to a farm near Middleburg where she lived until her death.

With her move to Virginia, she hunted with the Middleburg Hunt and rode in combined training events on her favorite horse, Red Rock Reuben, which she had purchased in Colorado. She later became an active tennis player and recreational skier.

She had a close bond with Emmanuel Church in Middleburg where she has served as Junior Warden, as Lay Eucharistic Minister, and on the Altar Guild. She was especially gratified by her completion of the Education For Ministry curriculum under the tutelage of now Bishop Mark Andrus. She held offices as President of the Stanford Officer's Wives Club and on the Board of Directors of the Middleburg Tennis Club and was a long time member of the Middleburg Garden Club.

Susan is survived by her husband of 54 years, Alton Harold Quanbeck of Middleburg, son Alton Harold Quanbeck, Jr. of Lexington, Kentucky, son David Batiste Quanbeck and daughter, Karen Susan Quanbeck, who both live on the family farm near Middleburg. Her brother, Colonel John Batiste, died in 1979, and her sister Mary Murchison now lives in Holden Beach, North Carolina. She is also survived by five grandchildren.

The family requests that memorial gifts be directed to Emmanuel Episcopal Church, P.O. Box 306, Middleburg, VA 20118.