Sarah Curtis Garth

Sarah (Sally) Curtis Garth died peacefully at home on January 4, 2014 with her family nearby.

Sally was born March 7, 1917, in Little Rock, Arkansas, the youngest child of Zay Blanchard Curtis and Ella Louise Morrison Curtis. Sally's grandfather, Rev. Theodore Nevin Morrison, Jr. was Bishop of Iowa from 1899 to1929. When she was six years old, Sally's family moved to Pelham, N.Y. Her father had left high school to help support his family, but Sally and each of her three brothers were named by the faculty at Pelham High School as "the boy or girl who in the opinion of the faculty has attained the highest mental, moral and physical development," and all went on to college. Although her father was unable to attend college he became Vice President of Guaranty Trust of New York.

Sally graduated from Wellesley College in 1938 and in 1939 married William W. Garth, founding president of Compugraphic, who predeceased her in 1975. Sally and Bill lived in Cambridge, Mass., and then moved to Concord, Mass., in 1951, where she resided for 63 years.

During World War II, Sally joined a homefront sewing club and made friends for life. Over the years, she enrolled in art history classes through the Radcliffe Seminars and enjoyed traveling to many European destinations with class members and their instructor, Julia Phelps, to see the works they had studied. Sally volunteered at Emerson Hospital into her 80's. She was a member of the Tuesday Lunch Club, the Concord Free Public Library Book Club, and other local groups. Former library director Barbara Powell recalls Sally as an avid reader, a lively member of the book group, and a "model for intelligent and graceful aging."

Ten years ago, Sally moved to Newbury Court in Concord, joining many of her longtime friends and gathering with them at opera and bridge evenings.

She leaves behind a daughter, Susan Garth Stott of Andover, Mass., two sons, William and his wife Suzanne of St. Petersburg, Fla., and Granville Garth and Lynn Hart of Concord, Mass.; grandson Jesse Garth of Charleston, SC and granddaughters Sarah Garth of Windham, Me, Sandra Comstock of Portland, Ore., and Anne Thiam and her husband Ahmadou Thiam of Andover, Mass.; also five great grandchildren: Mouhammed, Aissatou, and Tidiane Thiam, and Sebastian and Isabel Moreno-Comstock.

A memorial service will be held in the Duvall Chapel of Newbury Court, 80 Deaconess Road, Concord, MA, on Sunday, January 25 at 2 PM

In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to the:
Newbury Court Staff Appreciation Fund
c/o New England Deaconess Assoc.
80 Deaconess Road
Concord, MA 01742
or
Caring Dimensions
75 Sylvan St.
Danvers, MA 01923.