Senior Center Director Resigns after Sending Man Dressed as Woman to Press Conference

CRANSTON, RI—The director of the city’s senior services department has resigned after she reportedly had a man dress up to look like an elderly woman at a press conference last week.

Sue Stenhouse resigned her position Friday and neither she nor the mayor’s office will comment.

Pictures from the event, which was organized to announce a new city program connecting high school students with seniors who need help shoveling snow this winter, show the man wearing a gray-haired wig, lipstick, glasses, earrings and a tag on his lapel that stated “Cranston senior home resident.”

That person stood next to Cranston Mayor Allan W. Fung and Stenhouse as each offered their remarks at the press conference last week in front of the city’s senior center, apparently to make for better pictures and video for the news reporters who attended the event.

The press conference, held on a day with little to no snow accumulation on the ground, also featured piles of snow that were dumped in front of the building by city crews who scraped it up from a city ice rink.

In a post on Facebook the evening of the event, Stenhouse said “you should have seen the Center member’s faces when the snow was delivered from the ice rink today for this media event. . .priceless.”

Shortly after the Jan. 5 event, Fung gave Stenhouse “kudos” in his own Facebook post, but that was more about the service program than the orchestration of the press conference, which arguably didn’t need any more enthusiasm than what the group of shovel-wielding high school students provided as they explained how they were eager to roll up their sleeves, deliver some smiles and earn some course credits along the way.

Many residents expressed shock this week upon learning about Stenhouse’s departure, and later, about the man in disguise at the press event, some wondering why an elderly person in the building couldn’t have come out instead.

Stenhouse came to Cranston to lead the senior services department in 2013 and earned a salary of about $55,000. Before that, she was a member of the Warwick City Council and ran unsuccessfully for Secretary of State in 2006. She also served as a community relations director for former Governor Donald Carcieri. She currently serves on the Warwick Planning Board.

Photo courtesy: Latino Public Radio

This story will be updated.