Susan Shank Ross was born in Paris, Edgar County, Illinois, and received her Bachelor of Medicine degree from Northwestern Medical School in 1896. In 1897, she volunteered to serve as a missionary at the U.S. North Presbyterian Overseas Mission, and married fellow missionary Cyril Ross 11 days before leaving for Korea.

Upon arriving in Korea, she first learned Korean at the Busan Missionary Branch. However, due to Johnson's poor health, she came to Daegu to take care of him. After Johnson left for Japan on vacation to recover his health, Susan worked as a doctor in Daegu with her children. In particular, Johnson's two children suffered from whooping cough and were quite ill, and she was in Daegu so she could be treated. Later, she confessed her experience in Daegu, "It was a good opportunity to see the ministry of a new inland missionary base."

In April 1903, she moved to Seon Cheon and introduced the first Western medicine, so other medical missionaries already took care of many patients before coming to the Seon Cheon Missionary Branch, contributing greatly to the spread of the gospel.

In April 1937, she resigned as a missionary and returned home, and her daughter Lillian Ross succeeded her parents as a Korean missionary from 1926. She was called by God on June 16, 1954, in Santa Barbara, California.

The Ross couple in Seoul right after marriage, 1897

Newspaper article about Susan Shank Ross' death