Sally Anne Wilson

Sally Anne was born in Bremerton, Washington, on September 15, 1944, making
her a part of the “Baby Boomer” generation. She grew up in the Kalispell/White
Fish area of Montana and would often tell of her adventures, including black bear
encounters while picking berries during the summers; nights in the log cabin with
her family using oil lamps to do homework; fetching water from the creek to bathe
every Saturday night in their small kitchen; and winters spent ice skating in the
backyard that her dad had flooded before the deep freeze had set in. She attended
parochial school and sang in the choir and played in the woods behind her house
and watched the trains pass by. As she told the tales, she could make you hear the
chalk on the blackboard while the nuns were in front of her classroom, or the
whistle wailing up the gully.

When Sally was in her early teens, her family moved and settled in the Ballard area
of Seattle, where she attended Ballard High School. She was active in the drama
and music departments and loved to design and build sets for the productions,
which included plays like The King and I and South Pacific. She was also very proud
of the prom gown that she sewed for Home Economics class. When she was
finished, it had so many layers, it could stand on its own in the corner of her
bedroom while awaiting its debut.

After graduation, Sally married a naval officer and moved to the San Diego area.
There she had the first of her daughters, Dawn Rene, a red-haired, green-eyed
beauty. Sadly, Dawn passed away in her sleep when she was an infant and a few
months later, Sally’s dad passed away suddenly. The young couple then moved to
Virginia. The marriage ended, though, and Sally moved back to Washington State
and eventually took a job as a waitress in Kodiak, Alaska. It was there that she met
and married the man that would become the love of her life, Marine Sergeant
Ernest Dale Wilson, and gave birth to her second daughter, Dana Raechelle.

They moved back to Washington State, Dale received his Honorable Discharge, and
they settled in Longview. She would later tell people that she moved to Kodiak
with a suitcase and returned with a husband, a baby, and a house full of furniture!
A short time later they welcomed Sally’s third daughter, Deanna Sue, into the
world. They rented a little pink house on Ocean Beach Highway, where they spent
many years. They grew vegetables and raised animals and made a home. Sally
became the neighborhood “dentist,” as all of the nearby children would come to
her whenever they had a loose tooth. She would perform a quick extraction and
send the child away with a hole in their smile and a baby tooth to put under their
pillow that night.

She loved the years spent in that house raising a family, loving on the neighbors,
canning food for the winter, selling fresh milk and butter, and taking care of the
animals on the farm. She was an active room-mother in the school and was a Girl
Scout leader for many years. Sally would often tell the stories of that time with the
same fondness as the ones of her childhood, remembering wonderful neighbors
and funny times as well has hard times and challenges.

One day Sally answered the phone and discovered that they would be welcoming
another daughter into the home, Teresa Lynn, Dale’s oldest child, who was 16 at
the time. As you can imagine, the little pink house was fairly bursting at the seams,
and the couple decided to buy a larger house in town. By this time the recession
of the 1980s had taken its toll and Sally took a job outside of the house. She worked
at Baker’s Corner and Handy Andy’s stores for many years and loved getting to
know all of the people that she met.

In November of 1986, Sally answered the doorbell to the devastating news that
Deanna had died in a car accident with four of her friends. Sally was drawn closer
to and truly discovered the importance of family and close friends. Eventually, Sally
bought a tiny restaurant and opened Sally Anne’s Café, where she would serve the
neighborhood cup after cup of coffee, and the very best biscuits and gravy that
could be found in town. She was proud of being able to take on such a big
challenge. She especially loved hosting a free Christmas dinner for the community
each year, serving hundreds of plates of food with the help of volunteers.
When Sally became a grandmother, she felt that she had met her true calling. She
would brag that she would “spoil them then send them home.” Her grandchildren
always knew that they were loved by her, as did her great-grandchildren. In the last
few years of her life, she experienced the loss of her mother, her older brother,
Bob, and little sister, Suzie. Then almost three years ago, she discovered that she
had another brother, Mel. She met him and they developed a relationship that she
greatly treasured.

After battling multiple health issues, Sally left this earth to walk with our Lord on
July 8, 2021. She was preceded in death by her daughter, Dawn Rene Jackson;
father, Harold Wilson Ellis; daughter, Deanna Sue Wilson; mother, Hazel Mary Ellis;
sister, Susan Violet Boswell; and brother, Robert James Ellis. Sally is survived by her
husband of 52 years and the love of her life, Ernest Dale Wilson; a brother, Mel
John Personett; step-daughter, Teresa Barnes; daughter, Dana Raechelle
Clevenger; nephew, Paul Wilson Boswell; nieces Sheri Marie Blanchard and
Heather Marie Pearson; granddaughters Catherine Michael Eberly and Amanda
Dawn Clevenger; grandson, Brandon Dean Clevenger; and great-grandchildren,
TreVaun Charles Eberly, Keighlauna Monet Eberly, and Phoebe Rochelle Eberly; as
well as many great-nieces and great-nephews and multiple family and friends as
well as friends that became her family.