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Many who overcome physical difficulties and suffering turn their disadvantages to good use by patience and fortitude, but their good works are not always noticed by the world.
This is not so in the case of a Beaver County woman, who has used a tragic experience in her life as a stepping stone to advancement in her chosen field.
Mrs. Susan J. Hoefling, R.D. 2, Mercer Road, known all over Beaver County for inspiring poetry and as "Centennial Sue" at the 1968 Beaver Falls Area Centennial Celebration, has been honored with a degree of humane letters.
Her doctorate is from L'Univerite Libre (Asie) and the International Federation of Scientific Research Societies, and was signed and sealed at Karachi, Pakistan.
Mrs. Hoefling wrote to Washington, D.C. and said, "It is hard for me to grasp that a predominantly Moslem country would honor a Christian .... to learn there are the same attitudes the world over .... there are peoples who do believe in brotherhood and love, and live their belief."
Mrs. Hoefling is named in the "Who's Who in International Poetry," first and second editions, in 1966 was honored with a medal and medallion for being named Elegiac Poet for United Poets Laureate International-, on United Nations Day in 1967, in the Philippines, she received the Greatness and Leadership Award.
Despite years of illness following fire and explosions which claimed 133 lives at Cleveland, Ohio Clinic, where she was a student nurse in May, 1929, Mrs. Hoefling has used her experience to foster brotherhood and love with her poems.
Sue Hoefling leads a quiet existence now, taking care of her large home and assisting her husband, Charles, in his office there.