Yuku free message boards

September 25, 2008

'Survivor' mom back in Iowa from Gabon

By MARY CHALLENDER
mchallen@dmreg.com

Susie Smith was back in Charles City last week, coloring a customer's hair in her home salon and dodging the questions everyone kept flinging at her.

The rules of the "Survivor" TV show dictated that she couldn't share her experiences until the show's 17th season, which begins at 7 tonight on CBS, had finished airing this winter.

What happened in Gabon had to stay in Gabon.

Smith, 47, said she's always been a busy mom, so at first she felt guilty leaving behind her husband, Todd, a police investigator in Charles City, and son, Trent, a high school sophomore and member of the cross-country team, even though they're always leaving her to go off on hunting trips.

"I always put my family first," she said. "I was always the last one in line. This was a great escape. It actually taught me to be a little more selfish. My husband and son were the ones playing survivor at home."

Smith, who also works as a para-educator in the resource room at Lincoln Elementary School, said she tried out for the show because she wanted to achieve something for herself while showing her students and others that all it takes to transform life is to try.

The $1 million first prize provided incentive, too.

Self-described as encouraging, moody and talkative - with a big "potty mouth" - Smith said she knew she was up against heavy odds just to win a spot but she'd beaten the odds in life before.

Born in Hampton to a Mexican immigrant family of crop field workers, Smith said she grew up speaking Spanish at home and working alongside five siblings in the field.

Despite helping raise three younger siblings, she managed to graduate from Marshalltown Cosmetology School and North Iowa Area Community College in Mason City.

Smith is the second Iowan to appear on a season of "Survivor," according to publicist Brett Gold.

Rory Freeman, a case manager for the City of Des Moines' housing services, made it about halfway through the show's ninth season in Vanuatu before being voted off. Twila Tanner, who grew up in Osceola, was a runner-up to appear on the show in the same season.

Although Smith is forbidden to say how things worked out for her in Gabon, she did say her husband and son pulled off their end of things like champions.

"When I came home, they had my house in order, the laundry was done and the refrigerator was full," she said. "That was very exciting."