The Life Family and Legacy of Susy Pugh

Susy Pugh was deeply entwined with family, faith, friendship, and her loved ones’ convoluted emotional histories. She spent most of her life in Ventura County, California, where she constructed a home centered on motherhood, Christian religion, generosity, and good relationships. After her son wrote about his difficult childhood and the familial patterns he eventually understood and forgiven, her story became more well-known.

Susan Marie Hoctor, born October 6, 1950, in Saint Louis, Missouri, became Susy Pugh, Susan Marie Hoctor Pugh, Susan Marie Pugh, and Susan Marie Tobin. She lived in Ventura for years. The juxtaposition between her friends and relatives’ friendliness and her son’s traumatic familial experiences strikes me most. The photo includes both sides.

Basic Information About Susy Pugh

Susy graduated from Buena High School in 1968. During her school years, she was active as a cheerleader and competitive swimmer. People who knew her remembered her as energetic, intelligent, humorous, affectionate, and socially outgoing.

Her interests were broad. She enjoyed shopping, reading, politics, restaurants, road trips, meeting people, and music. Journey was among her favorite bands, and music could become part of the atmosphere inside the family home. She also had a reputation for opening her home to people who needed food, shelter, companionship, or simply somewhere to feel welcome.

Susy Pugh and Darrell Alton Pugh

Susy married Darrell Alton Pugh around 1976 after the two met through church in Southern California. Darrell was born on July 4, 1946, in St. Paul, Minnesota, and spent part of his childhood in Amo, Indiana.

His professional life was considerably different from Susy’s more private family-centered life. Darrell served in the Air Force as a radio mechanic and spent time overseas in Japan and Germany during the Vietnam era. He later became a welding engineer involved in servicing nuclear power plants. His career lasted roughly four decades and included work connected with Dimetrics and Liburdi Dimetrics, as well as periods in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The couple had three children. Because of Darrell’s work, the family moved several times during the children’s early years. Eventually, Ventura County became the family’s primary home.

The marriage ended in divorce while the children were still young. Susy subsequently had a relationship with Gary Tobin, who became an important adult figure in Zachary Levi’s childhood.

Darrell later returned to Ventura after retirement and was known within the family as “Papa D.” He died on January 26, 2023, after developing anaplastic thyroid cancer.

Susy Pugh as a Mother

Motherhood was central to the identity Susy expressed during her life. Family memories describe her as someone who believed strongly in kindness, grace, selflessness, forgiveness, empathy, courage, and giving rather than receiving.

Her three children were Sarah Elizabeth Pugh, Zachary Levi Pugh, and Shekinah Eden Pugh.

Sarah Elizabeth Pugh, later known as Sarah Pugh-Galvan, is Susy’s eldest daughter. She married Art Galvan and has maintained a relatively private life in the Ventura area. She has worked in wedding and event planning and design.

Zachary Levi Pugh, born September 29, 1980, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, became the family’s most recognizable public figure. Known professionally as Zachary Levi, he developed a major acting career through television, film, voice acting, and Broadway. His best-known work includes Chuck, Shazam!, and the voice of Flynn Rider in Tangled.

Shekinah Eden Pugh, the youngest child, later became Shekinah Eden McGlocklin after marrying Ian McGlocklin. She has also largely remained outside the public spotlight. Family references have identified her as a mother of sons, with names including Gryffin, Gunther, and Levan appearing in family accounts.

Zachary Levi and His Childhood Memories

Zachary Levi’s childhood narrative provides Susy Pugh’s most complex public story. Levi recounted a household where his mother’s attitude profoundly affected emotional conditions in his 2022 memoir Radical Love.

He described Susy as kind, amusing, generous, and vibrant, as well as angry, critical, and unstable. He stated he often had to navigate her moods.

Levi describes psychological and verbal assault, not physical. He remembered his mother saying she would be happier without him, which was awful. He says such encounters affected his anxiety, self-worth, and relational comprehension.

Levi didn’t only villainize his mother. His interpretation complicated as he began treatment and examined her behavior history. He discovered that Susy had been abused and that generational trauma had shaped her parenting.

Levi also talked about his mother’s alcoholism and mental health issues. His story mentions clinicians’ opinions of borderline personality disorder and narcissism.

That distinction counts. Susy’s story goes beyond a difficult mother and a wounded son. It shows how trauma may be passed down like a shadow.

The Meaning of Radical Love

In Radical Love, Zachary Levi connects his childhood experiences with his later struggles involving anxiety, depression, self-worth, faith, and emotional healing.

The memoir describes a severe mental health crisis in 2017 that eventually led to approximately three weeks of intensive treatment in Connecticut. Levi used that period to examine patterns that had developed long before he became a successful actor.

His concept of “radical love” centers on the idea that people often act with the tools and understanding available to them at the time. That philosophy helped him reconsider his parents and his childhood.

One important therapeutic exercise involved writing a letter to his parents. Levi initially expressed deep anger over the way he and his sisters had been treated. During the process, however, he experienced a shift toward empathy and forgiveness.

Forgiveness did not mean pretending the painful experiences never happened. Instead, Levi came to view forgiveness as a way of releasing himself from the continuing power of the past while still recognizing the need for boundaries.

His Christian faith became another important part of that process. He has described his healing through the language of grace, prayer, acceptance, and faith in God.

Susy Pugh’s Wider Family

Susy’s family extended beyond her immediate household. Her siblings included Sally Leavens, married to Link and associated with the Ventura area; Sandy Stellar of Del Mar, California; Tim Hoctor of Ventura; and Michael Hoctor of Houston, Texas.

She was also an aunt to Nicole Marie Moore, who was married to Sean. Family references sometimes described Nicole in especially close terms, even using language such as an “other daughter.”

Susy’s parents were identified as Dr. Edward or Arthur Edward Hoctor and Patricia Lee Jones Troxell, also referred to as Patricia Lee Hoctor Troxell. Her maternal and extended ancestry has been described as including English, Irish, French, German, Welsh, Scottish, Swiss, and other European roots.

The family history became significant to Zachary Levi because he connected his childhood experiences to earlier generations. His reflections suggest that understanding where painful behavior came from helped him develop compassion without denying the harm that occurred.

Susy Pugh’s Personality and Community Life

Away from the difficult family memories, Susy was remembered by friends as someone who brought energy into a room. She was described as a free spirit who loved fiercely and gave generously.

Her interests were not particularly glamorous, but they reveal a lively personality. She enjoyed local restaurants, thrift stores, shopping, reading, road trips, politics, music, and conversations with new people. She liked being around others rather than living a secluded life.

Her faith was especially important to her. She emphasized Jesus, Christian values, compassion, truth, forgiveness, and service. Family memories portray helping others as one of her deepest passions.

There is little evidence of a major formal career or substantial public business activity. She is better remembered as a mother, homemaker, friend, and community-minded woman. Her legacy therefore exists mostly through relationships rather than professional achievements.

The Final Years of Susy Pugh

Susy died unexpectedly two days after her 65th birthday on October 8, 2015. She died in Santa Paula, California, at home.

She was memorialized in Santa Paula’s Garman’s Pub on October 23, 2015. Her friends and acquaintances praised her humor, warmth, vitality, faith, and readiness to serve.

Her death shaped Zachary Levi’s later thoughts. In subsequent years, he discussed childhood trauma, family connections, therapy, forgiveness, and the complex feelings of parent loss.

The family’s narrative continued after Darrell Pugh’s 2023 death. Zachary’s public remarks have linked his parents to family, suffering, resilience, and healing.

Extended Timeline of Susy Pugh’s Life

FAQ

Who was Susy Pugh?

Susy Pugh was the mother of actor Zachary Levi and his two sisters, Sarah Elizabeth Pugh and Shekinah Eden Pugh. She was born Susan Marie Hoctor in 1950 and spent much of her life in Ventura County, California.

When did Susy Pugh die?

Susy Pugh died on October 8, 2015, at her home in Santa Paula, California. She was 65 years old.

Who was Susy Pugh’s husband?

Susy Pugh was married to Darrell Alton Pugh, whom she met through church in Southern California. They had three children together before divorcing while their children were young.

How many children did Susy Pugh have?

Susy had three children with Darrell Pugh: Sarah Elizabeth Pugh, Zachary Levi Pugh, and Shekinah Eden Pugh.

Who is Zachary Levi?

Zachary Levi is an American actor known for television, film, voice acting, and Broadway. His major roles include Chuck Bartowski in Chuck, Billy Batson’s adult superhero form in Shazam!, and the voice of Flynn Rider in Tangled.

What did Zachary Levi say about his mother?

In Radical Love, Levi described both loving and deeply painful aspects of his relationship with his mother. He discussed emotional and verbal abuse, unpredictable moods, family conflict, and the effects of untreated trauma, while also emphasizing that he came to view his mother with empathy and compassion.

What is Radical Love about?

Radical Love: Learning to Accept Yourself and Others is Zachary Levi’s 2022 memoir about mental health, childhood trauma, faith, therapy, self-acceptance, forgiveness, and his journey toward emotional healing.

Did Susy Pugh have a professional career?

There is limited public information about a formal professional career. She is primarily remembered as a mother, homemaker, friend, and community-oriented person whose life centered heavily on family, faith, and helping others.

What was important to Susy Pugh?

Family, Christian faith, kindness, generosity, forgiveness, empathy, and helping other people were among the values most strongly associated with her life. Friends remembered her as energetic, warm, funny, and generous.

Who was Darrell Pugh?

Darrell Alton Pugh was Susy Pugh’s former husband and the father of her three children. He served in the Air Force before becoming a welding engineer who worked on projects involving nuclear power plants. He died in 2023.

Where did Susy Pugh live?

Susy spent much of her life in Ventura County, California. She was particularly associated with Ventura and later Santa Paula, where she lived at the time of her death.

How is Susy Pugh remembered today?

Susy is remembered through family tributes, memories from friends, and especially through Zachary Levi’s public reflections on childhood, trauma, forgiveness, and family. Her story contains both affectionate memories of a generous, lively woman and difficult accounts of family conflict, making her legacy unusually complex and deeply personal.