Sally Yoho Swaney

Sara "Sally" Yoho Swaney

November 8, 1942 – March 2, 2026

Sara "Sally" Yoho Swaney was born on November 8, 1942, in Energy, Pennsylvania, to John E. and Catharine Irene Yoho.

Known as Sally Yoho in her younger years, she was the second-youngest of seven children: Neil, Jean, John, Ray Leann, Sally, and Susan. She attended Castlewood Elementary, where she and her siblings walked a mile to school in snow, sleet, rain, and sunshine - something she made sure everyone knew. Thankfully, by sixth grade through high school, they were able to ride the bus to Shenango High School.

Sally and her siblings spent their childhood the way children should: playing ball, playing hide-and-seek in the woods, climbing trees, and even ice skating on a nearby pond. They even learned how to walk on stilts.

After graduating as salutatorian of her high school class, Sally worked her way through college at Geneva College and later through law school at Ohio Northern University. She worked at the local bank, where she met her husband, Donald "Don" A. Swaney.

After they were married, Sally and Don moved to Washington, D.C., and later to Nashville, Tennessee. It was in Nashville that she gave birth to her only child, David A. Swaney. After passing the bar exam, she was hired as an attorney for the Tennessee State Legislature. For more than 30 years, she proudly served the State of Tennessee, culminating in a Joint Proclamation from the Tennessee Legislature on April 26, 2012, recognizing her dedicated service.

Whether you knew her as "Aunt Sally" or "Ms. Sally", you knew that her family and those she considered to be family was her whole world. She loved being "Mimi" to her grandchildren, Logan and Caitlyn. She enjoyed playing golf and taking road trips with her sisters, along with attending Barbershop Quartet competitions. At home, she loved cross-stitching, including a five-panel Nativity scene that took more than five years to complete.

Sally was a person of deep faith and found great joy singing in the choir at Cooks United Methodist Church for over twenty years.

Sally was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; and her siblings Neil, Jean, John, Ray, and Leann. She survived by her son, David; her daughter-in-law, Tricia; her grandchildren, Logan and Caitlyn; her younger sister, Susan; sister-in-law, Norma Yoho,(John): brother-in-law, John M. Roth (Leann), and dozens of nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews, and great-grandnieces and great-grandnephews.

A memorial service will be held in April, with burial beside her husband in Pennsylvania later this summer.

The family would like to express their deepest appreciation to Jan Hallmark (niece), Susan Colella (sister), Andrea Knight (dear friend), and Gentiva Hospice for all of their support and care for Sally during this past year.

The family kindly asks for no flowers/gifts, instead that any donation in Sally's memory be made to Run4Water, a mission her son and grandchildren have been deeply involved in.

https://www.run4water.net

Sellars Funeral Home, Lebanon TN, 615.444.9393