Sandra Sample

MODESTO, Calif. - Sandra Clark Sample died of cancer on January 23rd, 2024 at the age of 84, three weeks after her initial diagnosis.
Sandy, as she was known to her friends and family, was born April 17, 1939 in Bradford, Pennsylvania, to Mildred M. and Howard P. Clark, on her brother Forest's third birthday. After high school, Sandy left Bradford, first to attend Denison University in Ohio, and then to Union Seminary in New York City where she earned her Master of Divinity. Between semesters at Union, Sandy came to California where she worked in the Migrant Ministry with the United Farm Workers. In Modesto, she met and married Frank Sample - a recent widower with three teenage daughters - and had a son. In 1980, after Frank's death, Sandy went back to college to become a pre-school teacher, and worked with children for the next 25 years at Grace Lutheran Church, Kairos - a preschool she founded with friends in the 1980s, and Modesto Junior College's Campus Child Care Program.
Throughout her time in Modesto, Sandy was an active member of the Peace/Life Center and College Avenue United Church of Christ, where she sang in the choir, served on various committees both with the local church and the conference, and acted as moderator several times. She never stopped working for justice, though she did slow down some near the end.
Sandy is survived by her son Stephen Sample; her daughters Dawnine Sample Dyer and Martha Sample Tingle; her nieces Neidra Clark and Natalie Macpherson; her grandchildren Gerrit Veneman, Mara Veneman, Blake Mattos, Mary Mattos, and Theo Sample; and six great-grandchildren.
A celebration of her life will beheld later this spring.