Suzanne Sayre McFarlane, a former East Hampton resident and descendent of Thomas Sayre, a founder of the Town of Southampton, died on March 8 at Peconic Landing in Greenport. The cause has not been determined, her family said. Ms. McFarlane was 92.
A woman of varied talents, Ms. McFarlane served as an assistant to the former United States Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger for almost 40 years. She was a sister-in-law of the former National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane, and despite retiring three times continued to return to work, not retiring fully until she was in her mid-80s.
Born in New York City on May 27, 1927 to Caryl Howell Sayre, an original partner in the Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith investment banking firm, and the former Marion Mershon, Suzanne Sayre grew up in Glen Head, in the Town of Oyster Bay. She attended the Westover School in Middlebury, Conn., and Friends Academy in Locust Valley. Following her graduation from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in 1947, she worked as an editor for Doubleday, which at the time was the largest publisher in the United States.
She and Berne Harcourt Shanholt were married in 1949, and had three children. Divorced and with three young children in the early 1960s, she took a position in the protocol department of the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair. Her experience organizing visits by foreign dignitaries led New York City Mayor John Lindsay to hire her to help with public events in 1965.
She left that position in 1967 to marry Capt. William D. McFarlane Jr., a son of the former United States Representative William D. McFarlane of Texas. The couple moved to Gainesville, Fla., where Ms. McFarlane later pursued a master’s degree in anthropology with a specialization in plant archeology.
While conducting research for her doctorate degree, she received a call from her brother-in-law, Robert McFarlane. Mr. McFarlane, who is known as Bud, was then serving as an assistant to Dr. Kissinger during President Gerald R. Ford’s administration. He asked his sister-in-law if she would be interested in being Dr. Kissinger’s personal assistant. Ms. McFarlane joked that she got the job because Dr. Kissinger did not have time to interview anyone else. She moved to Washington, D.C., and worked in the White House. Her marriage to Mr. McFarlane also ended in divorce.
When Jimmy Carter succeeded President Ford in 1977, Ms. McFarlane continued working with Dr. Kissinger, who established the international geopolitical consultancy Kissinger Associates, in Washington and New York. She eventually becoming his chief of staff and the firm’s treasurer.
Ms. McFarlane owned a house in East Hampton from 1973 to 2009, but had spent several summers here prior to that, her family said.
She served as president of the Junior League of Long Island and president of her class at Vassar, volunteered at St. John’s of Lattingtown Episcopal Church in Locust Valley, and was a diehard member of the Winter Wheezers, a walking group in Locust Valley. She enjoyed the ocean and was a member of the Devon Yacht Club in Amagansett, as well as the Creek Club in Locust Valley. Ms. McFarlane loved animals and had a special fondness for Labrador retrievers. Her wonderful sense of humor will be missed, her family said.
Ms. McFarlane’s three children survive her. They are Jane Sacasa of East Hampton, John Shanholt of Scottsdale, Ariz., and Peter Shanholt of Hillsborough, Calif. A sister, Calista Sayre Washburn of East Hampton, and two brothers, Richard Sayre of Winchester, Mass., and William Sayre of Williamsburg, Mass., also survive, as do seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Ms. McFarlane was cremated. The family plans a celebration of her life in the fall.
