Teresa Irene (Sullivan) Chanatry

Teresa Irene (Sullivan) Chanatry died peacefully in Albuquerque on Monday, January 23, 2023, after a brief illness; she was 97. Teresa’s life journey (and adventurer’s spirit) actually began in Cook County Hospital in Chicago on New Year’s Day 1926 when her parents, Isabel and George Sullivan, ventured from the family farm near Vermilion, Alberta, Canada, to seek a safer birth (no, it wasn’t for census reasons). Returning to the farm, Irene, as she was also known, grew up attending the one-room Vermilion schoolhouse until school year 1941–42, when she moved to an aunt’s in Cincinnati to complete high school. However, with the advent of WWII, she returned early to Canada in summer 1942. With high school unfinished, some in her family felt she should have a more religious education and arranged for her to attend a “teaching convent” school. One week later, her dad showed up in the horse and buggy—she would have nun of it! After completing 11th grade, at age 17, she moved to Edmonton to work for “the Americans,” actually US Engineers working the Alcan (Alaska) Highway—they had her at “lunch tickets and a PX card!” The following year she moved as the youngest employee with the American presence to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, 1200 miles northwest of Edmonton.  Postwar, in 1945, she moved to St. Louis to live with a different aunt, finally earning her high school diploma while enjoying the likes of Stan Musial and Enos Slaughter during many St. Louis Cardinals games. While working there, she had a letter from a former boss from Whitehorse who was then in New Mexico, having left the Yukon in 1944. She’d gone to Santa Fe, NM, (though, of course it was really Atomic Energy Commission [AEC] in Los Alamos, during the Manhattan Project). She worked at the AEC Field Office in Albuquerque and thought Teresa would like New Mexico (no truer words spoken). In early 1950, Teresa took the plunge and made her way to Albuquerque, taking the job with the AEC. It was also where her life would take a different trajectory.

At the Kirtland Air Force Base (AFB) Officer’s club, she met the New York son of Syrian immigrants, West Point grad, and Air Force man Fred Chanatry. As later stories would confirm, Teresa was quite a catch, but Fred’s magic somehow corralled the Albertan filly. Fred’s assignment to Sculthorpe, England, in early 1953 forced the couple’s hand, and Teresa would follow Fred—but not before an epic rail/sea journey. She left from Albuquerque out to California, up the western coast into and across Canada, down to New York, and aboard the SS United States (on one of its earliest sailings to Europe), where they were married in June 1953 (arguably the marquee event during Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation year)!

Teresa and Fred’s favorite son, Michael, was born during their England tour and, in 1956, the family moved to Syracuse, New York, for Fred’s schooling as an Orangeman.  Following two years in Syracuse, a year at Portsmouth AFB in New Hampshire, and four years in Omaha, Nebraska, Teresa (and Fred) made their way back to Albuquerque with the Air Force.   A year in Montgomery, Alabama, and then back to Europe for three years in Wiesbaden, Germany, allowed Teresa to do what she seemed to love best: make new friends and continue deepening ties with the old. A longer six-year stop in Washington DC/Virginia expanded and deepened that circle even more. With Fred’s career nearing apex, the couple returned to Albuquerque, where Fred retired from the Air Force in 1977. But their wanderlust did not end there.

With Teresa’s urging, they moved to Saudi Arabia for a three-year tour where, again, she made another series of lifelong friendships (and occasional trips to Bahrain for the libations sorely lacking in their Saudi compound!). In 1980, Teresa and Fred finally settled down back in Albuquerque, where Teresa began work as an administrative assistant at the New Mexico-Arizona (NZ) Land Company until her retirement. Teresa (with Fred) continued to travel extensively over the years, including following son Michael’s family wherever they were stationed (continuing the Air Force tradition). They loved hitting the road, where Teresa would always make new friends and share old stories.

She will be remembered as a learned, engaging, and sparkling personality who loved hosting parties and bringing folks together, especially for theme-based gatherings or costuming.  An avid cook, she’d sometimes try untested dishes that, even if they didn’t go over, provided yet another fond memory. At ease with any mind from toddler to PhD, she found comfort in groups or in one-on-one conversations (especially with a bottle of wine, late into the night).  She thrived among friends and drew out strangers, and if she sat next to you on a plane, you’d be unlikely to escape into your earbuds. She was a woman of spirit and faith and loved her church study groups and volunteering for committed causes. A passionate reader over a range of topics, a good book was her friend when apart from people and provided her a range of discussion topics. She loved stories of the Raj in India, English monarchy, World War-time adventures, historical nonfiction, and westerns, to name a few. She loved to journal and keep scrapbooks, documenting her travels in colorful detail. Blessed with a creative and artistic bend, she designed entire magazine issues complete with writings and illustrations. Using her “laptop” (a yellow legal pad), she chronicled stories and recounted with astounding memory people and events dating back most of her long-tooth lifetime. A movie and TV buff, perhaps most notable was her binging of Breaking Bad as a nonagenarian. Her life collected a houseful of treasures, each with its memory or anecdote, but, more importantly, the immeasurable impact of her life will best be celebrated by the lives she touched.

She is survived by her son, Michael and wife, Dianne (Vadeboncoeur) of Centerville, Ohio; grandson, Ryan Chanatry of Brooklyn, New York; grandson, Casey Chanatry and wife, Jamie (Richards); and great-granddaughter, Alma of Dayton, Ohio; brother, Gordon Allan Sullivan and wife, Joan (O’Kane) of Princeton, New Jersey; nephews, Michael Sullivan of Montreal, Canada, Timothy Sullivan of Jersey City, New Jersey, and David Sullivan and wife, Diana (Morris); grand-niece, Haley; and grand-nephew, George, of Princeton, New Jersey; cousin, Mary Colbert of Oswego, Illinois; and sister-in-law, Janet Chanatry of Utica, New York. There are many nieces, nephews, and friends as well, all of whom have grown up knowing, admiring, and absorbing the infectious joy that was Teresa.

A visitation will be held Thursday, February 16, 2023, 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., at FRENCH - Wyoming, followed by a Rosary at 5:00 p.m. A Funeral Mass will be held Friday, February 17, 2023, 9:15 a.m., at Sangre de Cristo Catholic Church, 8901 Candelaria Rd. NE. Interment will follow at 12:30 p.m. at Santa Fe National Cemetery, 501 N Guadalupe St., Santa Fe, NM, where Teresa will join Fred and they can enjoy afterlife-long mountain views.

Please consider a donation in Teresa’s name to a charity of your choice—and don’t forget to have a glass of wine (or cup of tea) in her honor! The family thanks you for all your prayers and support at this time.