Sally Warner

Langhorne - Sally Warner died Dec. 14 at her home in Langhorne, PA. She was 103 years old. Sally led a long, productive and admirable life. An only child who grew up poor in the Bronx, NY, the product of a broken home, she never forgot her roots. She always empathized with the downtrodden and always considered herself a New Yorker, even after living in the Philadelphia suburbs for 72 years. She was whip-smart, graduating from high school at 15, getting her bachelor's degree at 19 from City College of New York (then known as the "Harvard of the Proletariat") and becoming one of the first women to earn a scholarship to NYU's business school. She met Al Warner at a Lake Placid ski resort, quickly got married and raised two kids while helping him run various businesses. She later became a high school teacher, a job she loved and thrived at for 24 years before retiring in 1986. Actually, retiring is the wrong word since she kept busy for many more years. She volunteered at the Philadelphia Art Museum and a local hospital, counseled troubled teens and was the bookkeeper and librarian at her retirement village, where she also performed in variety shows. Until she developed dementia shortly before her 100th birthday, she read several books a week, did the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle (in ink) and played a wicked game of Scrabble. She loved her late husband, her children, her two grandchildren, her four great-grandchildren and her beagle Freebie, who provided companionship and comfort in her later years. To honor her memory, please make a donation in her name to Doctors Without Borders.