Dunn, Sally
DUNN, Sally Ann
Sally Ann Dunn, strong, independent, loving, and generous, died suddenly of a heart attack in her home in Atlanta on November 24, 2021. She was 72.
Concerned about the world, and especially about climate change and the prevalence of guns in America, she worked diligently and gave to many groups to make it better. Yet through it all she was clever, witty, and fun-loving. And she strived to be cheerful. On a spring morning in 2021, birds were singing and sirens were also in the air. She often said she could worry about only so many things at a time. She remarked, "You can have sirens in your life, or birdsong. I prefer birdsong."
Sally was beautiful. She was stylish, tasteful and restrained. A friend sitting in her living room in Atlanta once said, "Your house deserves to be in a magazine." She was also practical. She was supremely competent, in everything from handling a merger to installing a light switch to preparing a meal for 140 after church. Sally was a fantastic cook. She loved gardening, and all her yards had flowers and were landscaped. Sally loved the beach. She was a book-lover and English major, and on vacation at Grayton Beach, FL, her family called her "book-a-day Sal." She loved all her cats, but especially Bess and Happy, and her dogs Harry and Blue, whom she called "the wonder dog."
She was a child of the 60s, but she was also traditional, especially with family. She was fiercely loyal, and took great care of her husband and sons, even while juggling a demanding job and her community activities. Sally was excellent in a crisis. She was a private person, a stoic who treasured her alone time.
Born in Poughkeepsie, NY, in 1949, Sally and her family moved to Lexington, KY, when she was a child. There she graduated from Tates Creek High School, where she was a Latin scholar. She was a lifeguard at her community pool. At Indiana University she was on the steering committee of the IU Student Foundation, traveling the country to raise funds. She also joined the Pi Beta Phi sorority, her mother's.
After graduation, she moved to Atlanta without a job or friends. She soon found work at Merrill Lynch. Early in the morning, she volunteered for the George McGovern presidential campaign, feeding sound bites of his speeches to radio stations. She later worked at Robinson-Humphrey. She was married to Jay Lawrence, a newspaper reporter, in the Glenn Memorial Chapel at Emory, and they spent their wedding night on the 69th floor of the brand-new Peachtree Plaza Hotel.
When the couple moved to Louisville, she progressed at Norton-Children's Hospital, ultimately overseeing all admissions. She demonstrated her aplomb in Louisville in a classic manner. Very early on a Friday the 13th in 1981, 10 miles of sewers exploded, not far from her home. She called her husband at work, and merely asked him to phone her when it was time to get up for work, since the power was out and her electric alarm clock had stopped.
After her two sons were born, but while they were very young, the family moved to St. Louis. There she rose to become a vice president of retail operations at Mercantile Bank. She worked there until the late 90s. She was a board member of the neighborhood association and her day-care center, and a room mother for both boys and a board member of University City Residential Services. One year she ran a city-wide house tour. She and her family joined Trinity Presbyterian Church, and she was a Sunday School teacher, a key figure in its food pantry and the go-to person to prepare meals for large numbers of parishioners.
Moving back to Atlanta in 2010, she gardened, read even more books and gave to even more charities and traveled, including to New York City to see Broadway plays, a tour of Scotland and week-long stays at Cumberland Island National Seashore. She and her husband shared the closeness that can come with a long-time marriage.
Sally is deeply mourned by her husband of 45 years, and by her sons Sam and Jack and their partners Casey Critchlow and Emily Lachajczk, by her grandson Lucas, and by her sister Mindy and brothers Dana and Don. Also in sadness are many other family members and friends.
The family requests donations in her honor to Planned Parenthood, the Equal Justice Initiative, the Sierra Club or another charity of choice. A memorial service will be held in St. Louis at Trinity Presbyterian Church at 11 AM on January 22.
You did good, Sally.
