Sally Flood loved family, friends, learning, teaching, literature, music, film, art, pets, and baseball for ninety-one years. She shared these passions with her children and her students. Not unusual questions from Sally were, “What are you reading?” and “Have you read this?” Holiday gatherings included newcomers who were welcomed as members of the family.
Sally was born August 23, 1925 in Spokane to Edmund E. and Pebble May (Fisk) Flood. The Floods and the Fisks settled the Inland Empire in the 1890s and descended from the earliest English settlers in North America. The Floods moved to Seattle in the 1930s and Sally attended John Hay School, West Queen Anne School, and Queen Anne High School. Her father’s business took them to Longview, Washington in 1941. In 1945 she married Dick Wilma and the couple started a family in Stockton, California. She went back to college while living in Sacramento, and after the family migrated to Seattle in 1966, she graduated from Seattle Pacific College to earn her teaching credential. A masters degree from the University of Washington followed. She taught for the Archdiocese of Seattle, Eatonville High School and in Seattle at Garfield, Sealth and Mercer Middle School.
Sunday evenings at Sally’s Queen Anne home included many neighbors who became lifelong friends. She consumed novels and histories voraciously and imparted that love of learning to her children and grandchildren. The emergence of digital publishing just meant that she could read, listen to, and keep more books. When she got a new iPad on her eighty-fifth birthday she proclaimed, “I’ve wanted one of these my whole life.” Sally was a big movie fan as far back as she could remember and she was a good source for viewing recommendations.
In addition to cashmere sweaters Sally loved baseball and rejoiced when the Giants moved to San Francisco in the 1950s. In 1969, she excused her students from class to attend the Seattle Pilots opening day, an action not approved by the school administration. It was seven long years before major league baseball returned to Seattle and she embraced the Mariners. She held season tickets for many years including the record setting season in 2001.
In later years Sally resided at Merrill Gardens Queen Anne, Merrill Gardens University Village, and the Norse Home. Everywhere she lived she made friends and freely shared books and ideas.
Sally was predeceased by husbands Francis Richard “Dick” Wilma and Ron Ben Jarrett. She is survived by her children David (Lorraine Howell), Sally Anne, and Patti (Mike Bergstrom), four grandsons, Matt Wilma (Tiffany Greene), Alex Bergstrom, Tyler Bergstrom, and Tim Fishel, and two great grandsons. Donations can be made in her name to favorite charities.