Surely no one in Lawrence ever experienced higher highs or lower lows than Sue Seurer.
Mrs. Seurer, who died on Monday at the age of 57, was the mother of Frank Seurer, the most prolific passer in Kansas University football history.
She was also widowed by one of the highest-profile murder cases in Lawrence history.
After Seurer signed with Kansas University in the late ’70s, Frank Seurer Sr. and his wife followed their son from Huntington Beach, Calif., where he had a been a prep standout at Edison High. The Seurers opened a barbecue restaurant near the Malls Shopping Center.
On Aug. 2, 1983 less than a month before Seurer enrolled for his senior year at KU Frank Seurer Sr. was found stabbed to death in the restaurant. Brian Keith Bell, a restaurant employee, was later convicted of the murder and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
According to Tim Seurer, one of Mrs. Seurer’s three sons, Bell was granted a parole last year despite annual pleas by the Seurer family to leave him in prison. The Seurers stopped going to Bell’s parole hearings a few years ago, Tim Seurer said.
“We went every year religiously,” he said. “Every year we had to rehash every negative aspect of what happened. We couldn’t keep reliving it. We had to move on. We suffered every time we had to do it.”
Tim Seurer, the youngest Seurer son, recently moved with his wife and two children to Eudora from Las Vegas, primarily because most of his family lives in this area.
Frank Jr., who threw more passes (934), completed more passes (467) and compiled more passing yardage (6,410) than any other KU quarterback, lives in Olathe and is a fireman in Lenexa.
sister Beth Clement lives in Lawrence. Brother Troy Seurer, who played linebacker at KU for a couple of seasons, is in Prescott, Ariz.
Tim Seurer said his mother was a “picture of health” last Saturday while she was baby-sitting his son. However, she suffered a brain aneurysm on Sunday, and died on Monday.
Mrs. Seurer, who worked for a Lawrence hardware store at the time of her death, never remarried after her husband’s murder.
“Her whole life was her grandkids,” Tim Seurer said. “One thing about mom material things were so trivial to her. She just loved being with her grandkids.”
A memorial service is scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday at Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home.
