A ESPN broadcaster is mourning the loss of his mother, who passed away after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer. Tom Hart, a veteran play-by-play sportscaster for ESPN and the SEC Network, best known for calling college football, basketball, and baseball, announced the death of his mother, Suzanne Enola Hart, in a social media post.

“My mom passed away this week. She was loving & kind, smart & sassy. Her family and her faith were the two pillars of her life. She raised six children with love, grace, a Dodge van, and a pack of pall malls. We know her and dad are together in heaven,” Hart wrote on X after his mother passed away on July 30.

While Tom Hart is known for his affiliation with the State of Missouri, having been schooled at Rock Bridge High School in Columbia and graduated from the University of Missouri, his mother was born on May 22, 1939, in Mason City, Iowa. Her childhood saw her and her family frequently move from place to place, with stints in Fort Dodge, Iowa; Topeka, Kansas; and Turkey, before eventually settling in St. Joseph, Missouri.

Hart’s mother was a devout Catholic who lived a life of love, grace, laughter, and unwavering devotion to God and her family. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Education degree at Duchesne College in Omaha, Nebraska, after which she began her teaching career in the North Kansas City School District.

She briefly left the city and returned after two years. There, she met her husband, George Louis Hart, and got married to him on June 17, 1967. The new family settled down in Osawatomie, Kansas, and relocated to Columbia in 1970. Suzanne Hart gave birth to six children; motherhood soon required her to become a full-time mother until all her kids were school-aged. Her six children are Heather (Bryan) Bechtold, Heidi (Tony) Cruise, Holly (Jim) Triebsch, Tim (Dawn) Hart, Tom (Kate) Hart, and Tara (Nick) Hefner.

Her return to teaching saw her teach English and language arts at Columbia Catholic School (now known as Our Lady of Lourdes Interparish School) for 14 years. To her students, she was more than a teacher. She would often go so far as to write personalized poems for her students to celebrate them on special occasions. Interestingly, she showed even more love and affection for her children, whom she raised with commendable moral values.

Suzanne Hart suffered from dementia in the years preceding her death and lost her husband of 54 years in 2021. She is survived by her six children, 10 grandchildren, and four of her siblings who are still alive. Her funeral service will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 5-6, 2026.