Sally Wentz Worthington

Sally Wentz Worthington

Beloved mother, sister, grandmother, great-grandmother, friend, and unforgettable force of nature, Sally Wentz Worthington passed away on March 14, 2021, of complications from Valley Fever. She was 83.

Sally was born in Elyria, Ohio, in 1937. In 1959, after earning her B.S. in Nutrition and serving as President of her sorority, Theta Phi Omega, at Western Reserve's Flora Stone Mather College, Sally married her high school sweetheart, Thomas Bernard Worthington. They were married 32 years, until his death in 1991. She was a stay-at-home mom until the 1970s, when she went back to work as a volunteer in a nursing home. When the Worthington family moved to Tempe, Arizona in 1976, this quickly turned into a job at Mesa Christian Home as Activities Director, where she put her degree to excellent use and came up with programs in cooking, sewing, and other crafts that the residents loved. She was ahead of her time in creating meaningful programs for the nursing home residents before Recreational Therapy and Gerontology were established disciplines. So successful was she that within a few years, she had been promoted to Administrator, and during her tenure, the nursing home was ranked one of the top nursing homes in the U.S. by Good Housekeeping magazine. She served during this time as the President of the Arizona Association of Homes for the Aging.

When the nursing home was sold to a for-profit company, Sally left and began yet another new chapter of her career: she earned her Master's in Theology degree from Fuller Seminary at age 62 and became a hospital chaplain for Banner Desert Hospital, where she served for 17 years. After her retirement from chaplaincy, she continued to work as a spiritual director, assisting clergy in deepening their relationship with God. She did all this despite debilitating migraines, which plagued her since age 11.

When she wasn't working, Sally was busier than anyone her family and friends ever knew. She was a master knitter, who not only could manage intricate patterns with ease, she could do this while watching the BBC mysteries she loved, and never seemed to look at the pattern! She bought a loom and wove many pillows, bags, runners, and throws. She dyed and felted wool. One of her most admirable qualities was never being intimidated by a task: if she didn't know how to do it, she bought a book and taught herself. Her favorite crafts were the many hundreds of dolls she made and thousands of doll clothes she knitted, which she donated to needy children. She made dolls of every race, because she wanted all children to be able to have a doll that looked like them. Her favorite dolls to make were Raggedy Ann and Andy, but she made dozens of different types of dolls over the years.

Sally is predeceased by her husband, Tom Worthington, and survived by her beloved sister, Nancy Wentz Smith, of Clearwater, Florida. The Wentz girls were inseparable all Sally's life, and talked at least once a day. Whenever they talked, they laughed and solved the world's problems, and always felt better when the call or visit ended than when it started. She is also survived by her three children, whom she loved with all her heart: Dr. Mark Worthington, Pamela Beyette, and Scott Worthington; and their spouses, Janet Worthington, James Beyette, and Jennifer Worthington, respectively; her six grandchildren: Blair Worthington Parrack, Andy Worthington, Josh Worthington; Logan Brockman; and Charlotte and Amelia Worthington; and one great-granddaughter, Avery Parrack. She also was blessed with many wonderful friends, too many to name here. She is deeply and greatly missed.

A small private service was held in Mesa, AZ, on Friday, March 26th, 2021.