Sally S. Hartenstein's Obituary
Sally Swan Hartenstein of Coral Gables, Florida died peacefully at home on April 10, 2009.
Sally was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on May 15, 1952 and grew up in Connecticut. She received her degree in Psychology and Economics from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, where she served as Social Chair and Vice President of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and she was also a member of the local social honorary Pi Society. She and her husband, James C. Hartenstein, met while both attended Denison and were married at Denison’s Swasey Chapel.
They lived in Arizona, Ohio, Venezuela, Panama, Chile and Mexico and have been in Miami and Coral Gables for almost 25 years. Her children and family were the most important things in her life and she made loving, beautiful and fun homes for her family and friends wherever she was.
She was always very involved in many different activities. She was a Room Parent at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Day School and she was a Girl Scout leader in Mexico and Miami. She was also a Board member of the Coral Gables Garden Club. An active member of the Riviera Country Club, she participated with her many friends in tennis, golf and bridge and she was Captain of her tennis team as well as serving on various Club committees.
She spent summers at the family’s cottage on Damariscotta Lake in Nobleboro, Maine, where she loved the lake, the nearby ocean and the loons, birds, flowers and trees around her home. And she always laughed watching her dog Sadie run through the woods, swim in the lake and go for a ride in the boat.
Sally is survived by her husband of 34 years, Jim; son Tom and daughter-in-law Terrill; daughter Alexa and baby granddaughter Sally; daughter Elizabeth and future son-in-law Sean Johnson; a sister Beverly Barnard; an aunt Beverly Tobeck; an uncle Gordon Galarneau; parents-in-law James S. and Marian Hartenstein; a sister-in-law Nancy Ernst; long-time family friends Derek and Mercedes Noakes; and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins. She was the daughter of the late Donald O. and Ruth G. Swan and daughter-in-law of the late Jacqueline G. Hartenstein.
A celebration of her life will be held on Wednesday, April 15 at 4:00pm at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, 1142 Coral Way, Coral Gables, and a reception will follow at the Riviera Country Club.
The family requests, in lieu of flowers, donations be made in Sally’s memory to the Damariscotta Lake Watershed Association, PO Box 3, Jefferson, ME 04348 (www.dlwa.org) or to another preferred charity.
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