Sarah Bradt

Sarah (Sally) Neilson Bradt, 85, died peacefully Jan. 27, 2004, at her residence in Freeland. Born Dec. 21, 1918, and raised in New York City, Sally was the third of three daughters born into wealth. She attended private schools and spent her summers in York Harbor, Maine, where the family sped about on narrow, unpaved roads in an early model luxury sedan.

Tragically, when Sally was just 12, her mother died of meningitis on a train trip to Los Angeles. Her father, a prominent corporate lawyer, died a few years later.

She married her childhood sweetheart, Horace Greeley Bradt, for the first time, in 1940. Both took active roles fighting the huge Maine forest fires of 1947. After 23 years of marriage, and raising two sons, George and Peter, Sarah and Horace divorced. She became a VISTA volunteer on New York’s Lower East side. Horace moved to Washington state.

Sally lived in Boston’s Back Bay for 15 years during which time she was active in reading Books for the Blind, working with the American Friends Service Committee, and serving on many other volunteer projects.

After moving to Gloucester, Mass., Sally served for many years as a hospice volunteer working with AIDS patients. Her tireless efforts to promote literacy continued through the 1990’s.

Just before the millennium Horace invited Sally for a visit. Despite not seeing one another for nearly 25 years, the couple fell in love again, and decided to re-tie the knot. They were wed April 17, 1999, in Coupeville. Surviving her are sister Lillian, of York Harbor, Maine; son George, of Bridgton, Maine; grandsons Joshua, of Oakland, Calif., and Chris of Kent; and two young great-grand daughters. Horace and one son predeceased Sally.