Sarah Ross passes at age 99

Quesada Gardens Initiative members gather around our dear friends, the Ross family, as they celebrate the life of their dearest Aunt Sarah L (Shaffer) Ross who went to her reward Saturday afternoon, September 5th, 2008 at ninety-nine years of age.

Ross was born in Oklahoma City on April 14, 1909. She and Jerry Ross (who preceded her in death in 1985) were married in 1943 in Kentucky where they lived.

Sarah and Jerry Ross moved to San Francisco's Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood in 1946. They purchased their home at 1783 Quesada in 1961. Thomas Shaffer, Sarah's brother, lived in the house with Sarah for 20 years, until his death in May of 2003.

Sarah Ross worked for the San Francisco Post Office for 35 years, retiring in 1981. She was a longtime member of the Third Baptist Church in San Francisco.

Ross loved reading her Bible while sitting at the kitchen table of her Quesada home, enjoying the view of the Bay. She also loved to travel, and went on a cruise to Hawaii and Jamaica. She and her brother Thomas went to Africa and Jerusalem. She had a great fondness for music, loved to dance, and was featured in style shows in the 1960's.

Until she passed, Ross was alert and engaged with life. She was the subject of a recorded oral history with the Bayview History Preservation Project just two years ago. Ross is survived by her nephew James Ross, his wife Lisa, and their children Isaiah, Apollos, Dannielle, Tracy, and Ashley. Other family members include Horace Ross Jr., Allie Ross, Rose Marie, Paulette Ross, Ajay Ross, Louis Ross, Stephanie Ross, Chris Ross and many others in Lexington, Danville and Louisville, Kentucky, and Washington DC.

In recent years, Sarah Ross had been cared for in her home by her family. Her image is a part of the Quesada Gardens Initiative community mural across the street from the Ross home. She was enthusiastic about the Quesada Gardens Initiative's work, especially the effort to feed low-income and long-term Bayview residents through a backyard gardening project. Her weekend nurse would often pick flowers from the Quesada Garden for a vase by Ross' bed.

Family, friends and neighbors mourn her passing as they celebrate her life. James Ross has created an online remembrance of his Aunt