Burgundy and Gold

Sue Wells

Department President 2009/2010

Sue was born in Peoria Illinois, and is the second in the family of six girls and one boy, born to Howard and Belle Burtle.  The family moved to California in 1956.  All of her sisters, along with her mother Belle, are members of the Ladies Auxiliary VFW.  Unfortunately, Sue’s father passed away in 1976 and her brother was killed a few years ago, in a mine accident.

Sue is from a very military family.  In this very large family, Sue has many uncles (one who was a POW during World War II), cousins and nephews, a son and 3 grandsons, who were in the military along with one niece who just joined the Air Force.  Sue is eligible for the Ladies Auxiliary Veterans of Foreign Wars through both of her grandfathers who were in the Army during World War I.  She chooses to have her eligibility under her father, who served in the Navy Sea Bees during World War II, assigned to the island of Attu Alaska, building flight lines for our military planes.  Further eligibility comes through her husband, Denis Wells, who served two tours of duty in Vietnam, her grandson Stephen Shaw, who served two tours of duty in Iraq and her grandson Christopher Sexton who just returned from Afghanistan.  This long military history is why Sue chose the California VFW Service Department as her Special Project this year.

Sue is a charter member of Thom Jenkins Auxiliary 9454 in Coulterville and is now a life member of Auxiliary 8327 in District 13 where she holds the position of Secretary-Treasurer.  Sue made her home in Livingston when she and Denis married in 1998, combining their families to include 8 children (all 5 girls are members of the Ladies Auxiliary VFW), 18 grandchildren (3 are members of the Ladies Auxiliary VFW) and 12 great grandchildren.  They both feel blessed to have such a large and loving family.

Sue attended elementary school in Illinois, high school in Gardena California and college in Modesto California.  While Sue has worked in many fields throughout her life, she is retired from the Property and Casualty Insurance field, but retains her Insurance License, just in case she needs something to do when she is out of office.

denisue@gvni.com or president@lavfwca.org