Sarah J. Wilson

Navy Nurse

Corps Veteran

Sarah J. Barringer Wilson, 87, of Naples, Fla., and Sandy Hook, died January 2, at her home in Sandy Hook after a brief illness. She had been a Florida resident for many years and had previously been a long-term resident of Orange and Derby. Mrs Wilson was born May 19, 1921, in Rockwell, N.C., the daughter of Charles H. and Vida J. Wagoner Barringer.

She is survived by a son and his wife, George L. and Mary Wilson of Newtown, and a daughter and her husband, Gail and Rick Atkinson of Harwinton. She also leaves a sister, Betty Honeycutt; and a sister-in-law, Millie Barringer, both of Rockwell, N.C.; and six grandchildren; a niece; and several nephews.

She attended Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing in Charlotte, N.C., received her RN in 1943, and in 1944 she joined the Navy Nurse Corps, serving at Navy hospitals for the next 2½ years. Mrs Wilson received her BSN degree from UNC at Greensboro in 1950, and served as a Navy nurse during the Korean Conflict for 18 months. During this tour, she met her future husband, George L. Wilson, a cardio-thoracic surgeon. They were married and moved to Orange where she raised her two children and assisted with her husband’s practice in New Haven. The Wilsons retired to Florida in 1992.

Mrs Wilson was an avid golfer. She maintained a lifelong membership with her hometown church, the Ursinus United Church of Christ in Rockwell. She enjoyed reading, the theater, museums, traveling, gardening, sewing, and spending time with family and her “lovely grandchildren.”

A private family service will be held in Rockwell, N.C. at a future date.

Donations in her memory may be made to Connecticut Hospice Home Care Service, 1 Park Street, Norwalk CT 06851; or to the Ursinus United Church of Christ, PO Box 175, Rockwell NC 28138.

The Newtown Bee       January 23, 2009