Susan Kathleen Starkey

Susan Kathleen Starkey, 78, of Winston-Salem, passed away on March 29, 2025 at Kate B. Reynolds Hospice Home.

Born on March 24, 1947 in Brooklyn, New York, Susan was the eldest of five children of Walter Bernard Starkey and Catherine Galschjodt Starkey.

She graduated from Katharine Gibbs School in New York City in 1965. In the early 1980s, her lifetime passion for antiques, design, and decorative arts led Susan to open The Phoenix Antiques in the West End neighborhood of Winston-Salem. Over 30 years, her small business expanded from retail sales and consignments to appraisals of private collections and personal estates.

Susan immersed herself in the many opportunities Winston-Salem offered to expand her scope of knowledge, attending educational seminars and classes at MESDA, Old Salem, the Sawtooth Center for Visual Design, and Salem College. She also attended classes at Boston University. Her wide-ranging aesthetic appreciations were reflected in her library of well-studied books spanning architecture, southern pottery, furniture, early American silver, and jewelry, as well as in her exquisite collections of objects that expressed her keen eye for fine craftsmanship and design.

As a maker as well as a student of decorative arts, Susan found joy in attending adult continuing education classes for silversmithing, jewelry making, and pottery. She gave back to her community through her service as a volunteer at Baptist Hospital in the cancer center teaching jewelry making and beading.

Genealogy was her other passion. For more than 20 years, she researched her family ancestry and connected with relatives in Ireland and Scandinavia, forging new and lasting relationships. Collaborating with her younger brother George, she discovered and meticulously documented a wealth of meaningful family information for future generations.

She is survived by her children Edward Appert and his wife Lucy; Kristina Appert Simone and her husband Rob; two grandchildren: Henry Appert and Harper Simone. She is also survived by her brothers John (“Jac”), George, and James (“Jim”), and many loved nieces and nephews. She remained close to her former husband Edward Appert Sr and his wife Karen, who were steadfast friends and provided invaluable care and support. In addition to her parents, she was predeceased by her beloved sister Barbara Starkey Donnelly.

Susan found and celebrated beauty everywhere, from the mundane to the ornamental, and she brought to every place she inhabited and life she touched a little more beauty than was there before.

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