Susan Barrantes

Infobox Person
name = Susan Barrantes
birth_date = birth date|1937|6|9
death_date = death date and age|1998|9|19|1937|6|9
spouse = Ronald Ferguson (1956–1974)
Hector Barrantes (1975–1990)
children = Jane Ferguson (b.1957)
Sarah Ferguson (b.1959)

Susan Barrantes (June 9 1937 - September 19 1998) was the mother of Sarah, Duchess of York and the maternal grandmother of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie of York. She was born Susan Mary Wright in England, the daughter of Lieutenant FitzHerbert Wright and his wife, the former Honourable Doreen Wingfield. Her maternal grandfather was Mervyn Wingfield, 8th Viscount Powerscourt. Susan was the youngest of four children. She had two elder sisters, Brigid and Lavina, and an older brother, Bryan.

From childhood, Susan's interests revolved around horses. She completed school and for a short time attended secretarial college. During the debutante season of 1954 Susan was presented to the Queen. It was at a dance she met Ronald Ferguson. On January 17, 1956 in St Margaret's Church, London, she married Major Ronald Ivor Ferguson (1931 - 2003), who later played Polo with Prince Philip and became Prince Charles's Polo Manager. Ronald and Susan had two daughters: Jane Louisa, born on August 26, 1957, and Sarah Margaret, later the Duchess of York, born on October 15, 1959.

Susan left her family and society she knew in 1972 to move to Argentina with professional polo player Hector Barrantes. It caused quite a stir in society circles and she was subsequently branded a "bolter". There was never any question of her daughters being allowed to go to Argentina; they were raised by their father Ronald back in England with the help of their extended family. Susan and Ronald Ferguson were divorced, and in 1975 she married Barrantes. She and her new husband were developing their new ranch at "El Pucara" in Argentina, breeding polo ponies and cattle, when in 1990 her second husband died of cancer.

This death brought financial difficulties to Mrs. Barrantes; she sold more than half the farm to the polo-playing Australian media magnate Kerry Packer and began commuting to Buenos Aires for work. In the 1990s, she set up a television production company in Buenos Aires, making films about horses. Although she visited the UK several times a year, she showed no wish to return to live in her native country. She was always close to her two daughters and a favourite amongst all her family. Her bubbly personality and exuberance endeared her to many.

Regardless of her daughter's situation within the royal family, Susan continued to remain firm friends with Prince Charles especially. Shortly before the automobile accident that took her life, Barrantes authored a book titled "POLO" with the foreword written by the Prince of Wales.

On September 19, 1998, while Barrantes was returning to the ranch where she kept ponies, the Rover she was driving collided with a Renault catering truck on a two-lane highway in flat countryside. The driver of the truck suffered a broken ankle, but Barrantes was killed, age 61.

Susan Barrantes is buried beside her second husband in La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.