May 11, 1904 – October 16, 2008

by Ellen Chesley Weig, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wilmington, N.C. May 18, 2016

She celebrated her 100th birthday with a pig picking, invited everyone from church, and drove herself to the party. Miss Sarah lived to be 104. Describing her as a “tiny little thing with snow white hair,” and a gentle, special lady, the Altar Guild say she was funny, always positive and happy.

Born in 1904 in Wilson County, N.C., Sarah trained as a nurse at Edgecombe General Hospital, Tarboro, graduating in 1924. She continued training and worked with Dr. J. B. Sidbury at Babies’ Hospital in Wilmington, a seaside hospital pioneering pediatric care in North Carolina. She married Robert Sydney Horrell.

St. Paul’s was Sarah’s church in many ways. When her membership began in the 1930s, the Rev. Alexander Miller was rector, the Parish House had been built (1925) and the Old Brick Church, the parish’s second church building, was falling into severe disrepair. Sarah served on Altar Guild for many years and in that capacity prepared for Sunday services held for nineteen years in the Parish House auditorium. Sarah knew what it was like to clean candle wax off the church’s linens weekly, attend to candles and flowers, and make sure all was ready for the rector. When the new church was built in 1958, Sarah saw Mr. Miller’s vision become a reality and knew the story of its original designs by Ralph Adams Cram.

Consecrated in 1958, the new building meant a new Sacristy for the Altar Guild and new responsibilities. Some folks hint that the Sacristy was her space. Fr. Vic Fredericksen called her “one of the best St. Paul’s had.” It’s no wonder the young women who joined the Altar Guild looked to her for their training and mentoring.

St. Agnes Guild was also a focal point for Sarah. She shared her creative energy and skills by making Christmas ornaments for the church’s bazaars. Plastic canvas crosses and crocheted stockings still get put on the Christmas trees of the women with whom Sarah worked in the Guild. She loved to bake – and reportedly always ate dessert first at church and St. Agnes Guild meetings, held in homes of members. The ladies say that “anything Miss Sarah made always made money” for the church.

Stories of Miss Sarah linger at St. Paul’s. At 96, she was still wearing her high heels and walking up the steps to communion. Eating her dessert first – always, because she said “life is uncertain.” Riding to a birthday party at one of Wilmington’s best Chinese restaurants in a limo with the other St. Agnes ladies. Asking to have a pig-picking for her 100th birthday. Never involved in church politics. “Kind and welcoming in her demeanor.” Miss Sarah served 12 different rectors and six bishops while on Altar Guild. She is still much loved, respected, and missed by her friends and Episcopal sisters.

Sources: Oral histories and remembrances by St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wilmington, N.C., parishioners and former clergy. Star News Online Obituary: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/starnewsonline/obituary.aspx?pid=118979499#sthash.uuxbu0Ji.dpuf