Part Of A Life Preserved

To the Editor:

I found the article on “A Girl Graduate’s Memory Book” [Bee, 2/17/12] most interesting, but unfortunately there is an error in the first paragraph.

Sarah Farrell Mannix was my mother’s first cousin — their mothers were sisters — and were born one month apart, but not in 1899. My mother was born November 11, 1908, and Sarah was born December 10, 1908. I can’t imagine where the 1899 date came from, but were it true she would have been 27 when she graduated from Hawley in 1926!

When I was a child I attended Sarah’s private kindergarten – there was no public kindergarten back then – and was able to go next door to the house to visit my Aunt Cassie. She made the very best sour cream sugar cookies! Uncle Jimmy was a dairy farmer, and what is now Greenbriar Lane and Park Lane was pasture land in the 1940s. In August we’d pick blackberries where there are now houses...for some reason blackberries always seem to grow best in cow pastures. The natural fertilizer perhaps?

From a young age Sarah was always active. She excelled in sports and academics; she raised tropical fish for a while, then went on to raise champion cocker spaniels. She was one of the first school bus drivers in Newtown, using her “woody” station wagon, and was instrumental in the production of the first Scrabble game. Since they were only a month apart in age, Sarah and my mom attended the same South Center school, and had many friends in common, and Sarah was one of the more popular girls in their class. Later she was an asset to the Newtown Democratic Party as well as many other organizations in town.

The Osborne family have my thanks for recognizing the value in this little book of memories...in a way it’s part of my family history, too. I’m happy that part of Sarah’s life will be preserved, a life she lived to the fullest.

Betty Saunders Guarino

167 Walnut Tree Hill Road, Sandy Hook             February 21, 2012