By Frank Patterson
Susan Schubert’s life always has been interwoven with the arts. Schubert, 72, of unincorporated Saint Charles, is a photographer, a musician, a poet, and the author of two memoirs.
Similar to many of us, her first creative outlet was drawing, but “though I liked to draw,” Schubert said, “I never felt comfortable with drawing. But I loved to take pictures. I started out with a box camera which had been my grandmother’s.
“I would take a picture of the dog, my friends, the yard….Nothing really exciting, but I liked to chronicle events.”
Schubert’s interest in photography grew when she attended Northeastern Illinois University “because of a boy,” she said. “He was involved with photography and it was like, okay, I like to take pictures too.”
In college, she took some photography classes, and she met another boy, her future husband, Al Schubert, who was a musician who had been writing songs since the age of 12.
It wasn’t love at first sight for her and Al. “He didn’t like me,” she said. Schubert remembers acting as a back seat driver while Al drove her and some friends to a music store. “I thought I was being cute,” she said, but Al didn’t appreciate it.
Al was graduated from college in 1970 and went to serve in the National Guard. At the same time, Schubert prepared for a trip to Europe, which, included a two month independent study program in London and time to see the continent. She and Al decided to keep in touch by writing letters.
In London, Schubert studied the works of English poet William Blake, while living in the home of Welsh poet and novelist, Caradog Prichard and his family. She worked for the family as an au pair, serving them breakfast and lunch and polishing the brass door handles in their Saint John’s Wood home.
Her duties left her afternoons free for study, which took her to the British Museum, where she was allowed to handle William Blake’s original manuscripts in a special room while wearing white gloves.
Schubert traveled through Sweden, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland, to meet other young people, including her “bonnie Scotsman,” Angus, who left her with a lasting impression.
On New Year’s Eve 1971, Schubert reunited with Al when he visited her apartment to see her photos.
“We wrote letters and the letters spiraled into full courtship,” Schubert said. “By the time he came back from military service, we had already decided to get married.”
The couple soon became a duet. “He was a huge songwriter. I was immediately able to sing harmony to his songs,” Schubert said. “We started playing folk clubs, Jewish community centers, coffee houses…In 1973 or ’74 we became a wedding band. We picked up a drummer and we were busy every weekend. I even had to join the musicians’ union, because I played percussion,” she said.
Schubert plays congas, cowbell, afuche, and the tambourine.
As busy as they were, Schubert found time to run an antiques market in Geneva and Saint Charles, and she and Al raised twin sons, Ian and Eric.
In 2016, upon reading the English translation of Caradog Prichard’s book, One Moonlit Night, Schubert felt compelled to write her own story. The result was her first memoir: The Way I Remember It: A Memoir of a Trip to Europe, 1971. The writing of this book led her to participate in writing groups, public readings, and open mics.
In 2018, Schubert embarked on a two-week trip to Scotland, the Isle of Skye and Ireland to return to the places she fell in love with in 1971. She wanted to revisit these lands that had meant so much to her, and, if possible, to reconnect with Angus, the man she never forgot. She documented this trip in her second memoir, My Place of Dreams: A Love Story.
Schubert’s husband Al passed away in 2019. Since his death, she has kept busy with her poetry and photography. She is a member of A-Town Poetics, The Aurora Art League, and the Fox Valley Writers.
Recently, she met guitarist/songwriter, David Dillenbeck, with whom she plans to form a duet, performing songs from the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s.
An exhibit of Schubert’s photographs of Washington Island, Wis. is on display through November at the Town and Country Library in Elburn.
“It’s been fun,” Schubert said, reflecting on her many experiences. “It’s been a fun life.”