Sally Albiso

1950 - 2019

Sally Albiso passed away at home October 28, after a more than 14 month battle with pancreatic cancer. Her husband of nearly 31 years at her side.

She was born on December 27, 1950, at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Hospital in Kittery, Maine. Her parents were William Stein and Eva Stein. She was born eleven minutes after her twin sister, Barbara.

Sally's father was a career Marine whose assignments took the family to Southern California in 1955. Sally grew up in Oceanside and San Luis Obispo, California.

After graduating from high school, Sally attended UCLA where she graduated Cum Laude with a BA in Spanish. During this time, she spent a year abroad, in her junior year, to study Spanish at the University of Madrid. She went on to obtain her Master's Degree in English with a creative writing emphasis.

She worked in various jobs including another year in Spain teaching English.

In 1987, she met her future husband, John, in San Diego and they were married a year and a half later. Sally's husband was a career naval officer and four days after they were married, they moved from San Diego to his duty station in Earle, New Jersey.

During the course of John's career, they lived in Newport Rhode Island, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Dubai and Saudi Arabia. John's last assignment took them back to San Diego where John retired from the Navy. Two years after John left the Navy, they moved to Port Angeles in 2003 to be near his family.

Shortly after arriving in Port Angeles, Sally was able to pursue her passion for writing poetry. In her first year of writing, she won First Place in the Tide Pools adult poetry contest. Sally went on to win several other poetry contests Including the Robert Frost Foundation Poetry Prize and several other national poetry contests.

Sally was published in numerous poetry journals, and had three chapbooks published, followed by a full-length manuscript, Moonless Grief. Shortly before her death, Sally completed and submitted her last collection of work titled Licking Marrow from Bones' to publishers. Hopefully it will be published posthumously.

Sally loved Port Angles and the Olympic Peninsula and all it has to offer. In addition to hiking, kayaking, fishing and crabbing, Sally volunteered at the Port Angeles Visitor Center and the North Olympic Library branch in Port Angeles. Sally and John were active members of the Congregation Olympic B'Nai Shalom.

Sally is survived by her husband, John Albiso; her sister, Barbara Stein; her nephew, Joseph Stein,; her sisters-in-law, Debbie Albiso and Judie Neill; her mother-in-law, Joan Albiso; her brothers-in-law, Dave Nyblom and Don Neill.

A Celebration of Life will be held for her family and friends at a time to be announced.