Susie Smith

Jesusita "Susie" Smith is a contestant from.

Profile
Susie Smith, a Mexican American mother of one, has always allowed others to dictate her life and she's ready for a change. Born into a Mexican immigrant family of crop field workers, Susie and five of her siblings began working alongside her parents at a young age and the other three siblings were raised by Susie and her siblings. She has struggled ever since, but has overcome many personal challenges.

Tired of working hard and being poor, Smith vows to devote the rest of her life to her needs. After years of allowing others to influence her life, she's decided to stop and dedicate this next chapter to herself, and taking part in SURVIVOR was the first step and second was showing her son, family, friends, and students that all it takes to change any part of your life is to just TRY.

Smith has been married for 25 years. She currently works as an assistant teacher and hairdresser. She teaches English to non-speaking English children from kindergarten to 8th grade. When Susie is not teaching, she enjoys working as a hairdresser where she has many wonderful clients. Her hobbies include photography, watching movies, eating out, sewing and gardening. She describes herself as encouraging, moody and talkative but with a big potty mouth.

Bold and brassy with a huge zest for life, Smith believes SURVIVOR will finally be the opportunity she's needed to turn things around. She has a huge desire to win and won't let anyone get in her way.

Smith currently lives in Charles City, Iowa with her husband, Todd, son, Trent, and two dogs. She is a graduate of the Marshalltown Cosmetology School and a graduate of North Iowa Area Community College.

Her birth date is October 24, 1960.

Survivor: Gabon
Susie Smith was selected to be the Fang tribe by Crystal Cox stating that "Mamas got to stick together", a move that surprised some of the other contestants. Susie chose Matty Whitmore to be on the tribe. Fang was the weaker tribe, losing the first four challenges. Susie agreed to vote out Michelle Chase for her negativity and Gillian Larson for physical weakness. Fang won the next two challenges, earning various comfort items and for the first time in the season, immunity.

On Day ten, the tribes was asked to rank their members from most important to least important. Susie was deemed the least important member of the Fang tribe. Then a Tribe Switch occurred, and Susie was selected by Corinne Kaplan to be on the new Kota tribe. Corinne's reasoning was that she didn't want to be the only woman on the tribe. Susie finished out the tribe by picking Bob Crowley over Sugar Kiper. Susie planned to work hard to prove her worth so she wouldn't be voted out when the tribe went to Tribal Council. Susie didn't had to worry as the new Kota tribe dominated challenges, Susie enjoyed the luxuries of the multiple Reward Challenges won. At the next challenge, it was an individual competition with both tribes going to Tribal Council. Susie lost to Randy Bailey in the first round and was in danger of elimination for being a challenge liability. Susie made things worse by angering Corinne by telling her she wanted to her off and thinking she was more valuable than Corinne. Despite all of that, she was kept over Dan Kay, who was deemed too much of a threat in the merge for his physical strength and possibly having the Hidden Immunity Idol (In reality, Sugar found the Idol and was still in possession of it.).

On Day twenty one, the two tribe headed to what was thought to be a merge feast. After eating, the group open a box revealing that the tribes had not really not merged but it was a second switch. Susie  stayed on Kota with Bob and Marcus Lehman and was reunited with Crystal and Ken Hoang. Susie immediately realized that she was the swing vote and could go either way. The new tribe lose the Immunity Challenge. Susie didn't feel comfortable flipping over to Crystal and Ken. However, Crystal told Susie that Marcus had promised them both a spot in the Final Three and he had lied to her. Because of that, Susie sided with the Fang Alliance to vote off Marcus.

When the tribes merged, Susie won the first post-merge Individual Immunity Challenge and the former Fang tribe members eliminated the Onion Alliance systematically. When Corinne was voted off, Ken voted against Matty as a fail-safe if she had a real Idol. This would cause the dissolution of the Fang alliance and Crystal and Ken's eliminations. Susie knew that because Bob, Matty and Sugar bonded well, that she had to win the Final Immunity Challenge. Susie beat out Matty for the final immunity. Viewing Bob as the biggest threat, Susie tried to vote him off, although she had much respect for him. Bob saved himself by convincing Sugar to vote with him and won a fire making tiebreaker.

In the end, Susie lost to Bob in a 4-3-0 vote. Susie had earn the votes of the last three Jurors, Crystal, Ken and Matty who had been her allies during the game.

Post-Survivor

 * On January 9, 2010, Susie attended Survivor's 10-year anniversary party along with all of her Gabon cast mates.

Trivia

 * If Susie won Survivor: Gabon, then she would have held the distinction of being the oldest Sole Survivor at 47 years of age.
 * Susie is the second Hispanic-American castaway to finish in 2nd place in Survivor, following Ozzy Lusth in.
 * She is the only woman to win Individual Immunity in Gabon.
 * However, Sugar Kiper was given Individual Immunity in It All Depends on the Pin-Up Girl.
 * Susie gained her three Jury votes from the members of the Fang Alliance which she was a part of.
 * She is the first female contestant from Iowa.
 * Susie was the highest placing member of the Fang tribe.
 * Susie is the first person in Survivor history to be on a tribe and never make a confessional as a member.
 * Susie didn't make her first confessional until the first tribe switch, where she went to Kota.
 * Susie is currently one of the two contestants (along with Ozzy Lusth in Survivor: Cook Islands) to win the final immunity challenge and vote for someone who didn't get voted off.