Cynthia Marie Hanson

Obituary for Cynthia Marie (Zurbriggen) Hanson (also known in the SCA as Senn of Rowangrove, of the Household of the Great Dark Horde.) 

On Monday December 15th 2025 (shortly after having her favorite snack), Cindy ascended unexpectedly and peacefully from this plane of existence to a higher and trouble-free place, where she has no pain and no mobility issues. (We actually believe that she is being highly mobile and joy-riding around with her friends & family that have passed before.) 

Cindy appeared to have passed in her sleep. As always, her loyal dog Boo was at her side... 

Cindy was born on February 15th, 1951 in St. Louis, MO; to Evelyn (Hudson) Zurbriggen; Cindy was the latest in a line of Hudson women, sturdy and fierce. 

She and her younger brother Mark were co-raised by their Grandmother Lorraine, and traipsed around the Bevo Mill area of St. Louis (and all parts reachable from there); many times I have heard about the jaunts to Forest Park and similar expeditions. (A quick note to Mark and Karen Zurbriggen, and their kids Derek, Ashley and Aly: Cindy missed you so much, and was planning on how to come see y'all in Florida in 2026.) 

(Young Cindy traveled all around St. Louis and had a special interest in Ballet performances; she talked many times about seeing Nureyev downtown, and other classical shows.) 

As a young adult, she expanded the horizons of her traipsing to include much of North America, from seeing relatives in Twentynine Palms, CA to hitchhiking everywhere from St. Pete FL all the way up to Winnipeg Manitoba. Along the way, Cindy found every kind of colorful character there was; she and her best hitchhiking buddy Tommy sang songs while riding with truckers (like Janis Joplin's song "Bobby McGee") and somewhere in there went to several Folksong Festivals. 

"Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death. Live! Live!" Cindy loved old movies, and all versions of Auntie Mame in particular, and whatever version of that particular line... Cindy most-definitely Lived! 

Eventually Cindy settled in our most colorful of cities, Madison Wisconsin. She was quickly introduced to her eventual best-friend Cybele (Carol Olson) & George Pritchard, when Cybele blew through the doors of The 602 (on Univ. Av.) like a small tornado, cape swirling dramatically. Cindy was instantly and permanently recruited into the MadTown community (no matter where she later roamed). Later that same day, Cybele took her to Thorbjornstead to meet Fiona (Betty Noel), and their Triad was complete. 

(All of these Mad Folk have now boarded Cybele's spectral boat, the "Carrie Ann", and I am sure that they saved a seat for their youngest crew member, Senn. Although I am not sure the seating is necessarily limited; I believe she also said that this boat can appear as a bus, or a motorcycle with sidecar(s), as needed.) 

Cindy also met many wonderful down-to-Earth folks here in and around Madison, notably including several different Georges (one a costume shop manager and mentor, and another being that great imbiber of Life, George Roberson) and much later, a "Steve" wandered into her costume shop... that was me. 

Significantly, Madison is where she met and married Bob Hanson (in his artist, VVAW & college phase), and where they started raising daughter Maia (born 1/8/78). They all went up to Pembine for a while to be with his vast clan (especially her first favorite Mother-in-law, Jeanne Hanson). 

On their return to Madison and after spending some time at the UW-Mad., Cindy joined Clownin' Around and Balloons, the main Madison costume shop (Univ. Av., Middleton). Slightly against her wishes, she became "Cindy Boss-Lady" (which is what she was when I met her). She loved her co-workers deeply, although only Lacey (John Hecht) and Danny Upchurch continued their journey into our present day-to-day lives. Maia worked at the shop too, making it truly family. Cindy's decade of experiences at the shop were intensely formative to her personal and professional life. 

Two especially (in my opinion) notable things occurred at Clownin' Around: Friend and co-worker Maduragada (Barb Bailey) instigated getting Cindy re-acquainted with the local SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism, an international living history group) and the sub-group within the SCA known as the Household of the Great Dark Horde. Known as "Senn" within the group, she would go from being the longest watchee ever (20 years?) to sponsoring dozens of new brothers. Secondly (and most intensely personal to me), I owe infinite thanks to Adam "Morgan" Coleman for dragging me into Clownin' Around as temporary Halloween help in October '90, where Cindy and I quickly became close friends, with shared interests in SCA / Horde / history / books / movies / cooking etc. 

Quick side-note 1: Cindy was very proud of daughter Maia's graduation from High School and moving towards independence. I was always happy that Maia took care to keep Cindy moving around and happy, and shared so many of Cindy's interests. 

Quick side-note 2: Cindy and I drifted apart for a few years after I went on to a steady job, but the untimely passing of a mutual dear friend caused us to come together again around 1995. Since then has been the best thirty years of my life. Eventually I suggested getting hitched, to which Cindy responded "Hela, no! not again..." I was fortunate that Health Insurance came along and tapped me on the shoulder and said: "Step aside son, let me handle this..." We tied the knot in private on March 1st, 1999 (with Lacey and Maia as our witnesses) and then again in a vast public shindig on Sep. 23rd, 2000. (Followed 9 months later by the birth of our grandson Makaiah Delanoix Hanson, on 6/18/2001 -- kids, y'all need to watch out for those fertility ceremonies; they're powerful stuff!) I can say that (as with most things), Cindy eventually warmed up to the idea of being married again and made everything work beautifully no matter what challenges arose. I think the best gift I ever gave her was the vast array of amazing in-laws for her to love, and who adored her in return. I must especially note her also-favorite Mother-in-law Anne and beloved Father-in-law Alan Lawrence, but also my Dad-and-fellow-Horde-brother (Robert "Ragar" / "Genghis Bob" Kaftanski). Cindy always said she had some of the best parents-in-law ever. 

Another notable element of working at Clownin' Around was that Cindy found three sub-cultures in the Madison area that needed specialized costume requirements: 

* Drag Queens, who needed performance-quality work that also looked fabulous 

* Bucky Badger mascots (same as above, but with much bigger heads) 

* Ring Game LARP players, who needed costumes that could survive nature's toughest thorns and brambles 

The longest stretch of consistent costuming (garb) in Cindy's private life was for the SCA for those same thirty years that we were together; she outfitted (more) Queens, but also princesses, fine lords and ladies and also work-a-day folk, armoured fighters and fencers. Her biggest challenge was building something decent-looking that could survive me(!) setting up camp without the outfit being shredded. 

After ten years at Clownin' Around (and a few years at Fabric store retail), the head of the Edgewood College theater department "discovered" Cindy working at a cutting table. In remarkably little time, Jewel Fitzgerald had acquired Cindy's talents for Edgewood, and she would spend that decade going to school to work for her Theater Arts degree while simultaneously managing the costume shop and teaching students how to navigate needles and sergers. 

She was greatly inspired by and valued the mentorship of Phil Martin, and working with the students was the best work of her life. (Too many to list here, but y'all were very dear to her and we love and remember you all. I will remember even better when I can find all the pictures I took, especially if I find her first exquisite blouse, also a significant blue dress and several similar show-stoppers, and most especially two world-class coats that brought the house down.) One of Cindy's finest accomplishments was researching over a hundred years worth of different nun's habits, for a one-night only show of Phil's, called "The Edgewood College Story". I particularly remember the joy on the faces of the audience when they saw how carefully Cindy had re-created their personal histories in those costumes. 

Cindy graduated from Edgewood at age 60, and retired shortly there-after. She was asked many times "What are you going to do with your degree?" I will say that the answer surprised all of us a little. 

Cindy started by accompanying her (slightly-older) best friend Fiona to the major SCA camping event in Pennsylvania, the Pennsic Wars. She established close bonds with many camp-mates, but especially Kat and Em, Gav, Sandy and Torin, Paul the Dancer and neighbor Dennis the Decadent. (I am eternally grateful to y'all for taking such good care of her, when she didn't make it easy :-) Senn had always hoped to return some day, but has been finding extended travel increasingly difficult in recent years. 

Cindy also started accompanying best-friend Danny ("Da") on his post-costume-shop adventure, involving remote-operating robotic farm characters/creatures for various county-and-larger Fairs around the US. For a long time, she worked as "robot security" (making sure the kids didn't love the critters to death) and doing maintenance on the fabric parts, and occasionally being the "booth babe" for trade shows. 

Quick side-note 3: Cindy was very proud of grandson Makaiah's drive and energy that he puts into all his interests. They have had so many deep discussions over the years, on every possible topic. I was always happy that he took such good care of Cindy in recent years, without which we would have been completely overwhelmed. Thank you Makai! I should also mention that we have been (slowly) working on living in Bessemer, Michigan more as time goes on. I want to thank our UP neighbors Paul and Jamie, and Bridget and Danny for keeping an eye on Cindy when I wasn't there, and on the house in general. I especially want to thank artists Doug Kikkebusch and Sharlene Shaffer for being her good friends and talking Arts/Crafts/Everything with her. 

When she wasn't traveling, she kept her hands very busy: beading, knitting / crocheting (plus a re-created old Norse form of yarn-work, called nalbinding). When her hands hurt too much, she read voraciously. When following plots was too much, she researched recipes. When her eyes hurt too much from reading, she would sit quietly with the pets and watch old movies and new series, and then patiently re-watch the best ones again with us later. Amongst her many (Many!) little research notebooks, I found that she had written down (in recent weeks): "Life is like collecting jewels in a bag / And in the end, you don't want the bag to be full. You want it to be empty because you've given them all away." Ya, it is kindova silly internet thing in some ways, but I think that quote spoke to her because she intentionally shared her spirit hidden inside all of those connections, part of all of the little magic bags and beaded necklaces and yarn-worked hats. 

Now her Spirit is out here, everywhere among all of us, and our job is to keep the Great Craft project going that Cindy spent her life on. Wear the hats and the jewelry and know that she is hugging you when you do; remember the fun and laughter and tell the stories of Life and Love. Ride well, my dearest Senn.

Please join us for a Celebration of Life for Cindy, on Saturday December 27, 2025 from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at Cress Funeral Home, 3325 E. Washington Ave., Madison, WI 53704.  Food will be served.  Please send email questions to Steve (Colmor) skaftanski@gmail.com