Boulder Shooting Victim: Suzanne Fountain, 59, Was 'Very Kind'

BOULDER, CO — Friends of Suzanne Fountain remember her as a kind and warm person who was always willing to help others.

Not only did the 59-year-old work as a Medicare agent to help Boulder’s older residents sign up for health insurance, she was also the type of person who would put her own life on the line if it meant saving other people, they said. One friend said she probably put herself in harm’s way to protect others when a gunman opened fire inside a King Soopers grocery store Monday, killing 10 people including Fountain.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if she was confronting the mother------ who did this, to be honest with you,” Martha Harmon Pardee told the Colorado Springs Gazette. “She was fearless and funny and giving and just a salt-of-the-Earth person.”

Pardee told the paper Fountain was her soulmate and that the two were there for each other at major moments in their lives — Fountain being the matron of honor at Pardee's wedding and Pardee being there for Fountain during the birth of her son.

Hilarie Kavanagh, who owned the Medicare agency where Fountain worked, called her a "very genuine person with tons of integrity," in an interview with The Denver Post. She said Fountain worked hard to help older people navigate the often-tricky federal health care system, making sure they got the best plan available.

“She was always bright and incredibly warm,” Kavanagh told the Post. “You could just see it in her eyes.”

In addition to her work helping people with their insurance issues, Fountain was also a well-known fixture in Denver’s and Boulder’s theater scene, having worked as a stage actress throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.

She received multiple accolades for her performances, according to The Gazette, including a Denver Drama Critics Circle Award for best supporting actor when she played Laura Wingfield in a production of "The Glass Menagerie." Fountain also received a glowing review from the Boulder Daily Camera in 2002 for her performance as a nurse in the medical drama "Wit," with the paper's critic at the time saying she brought a "simple but crucial compassion to the play."

During her free time, Fountain volunteered as a house manager for eTown, a local nonprofit music venue. The organization called her death heartbreaking and an “unfathomable loss.”

“Suzanne was a bright light to all she met," the organization said in a Facebook post, "and we were proud to have her represent eTown in our community as she welcomed people into our space hundreds and hundreds of times.”