BOULDER, Colo. — Sally White Byrkit, 86, died at her home in Boulder on Wednesday, Jan. 25, with her daughter Cindi at her bedside. She died as she lived, peacefully, with grace and dignity and a minimum of fuss.

Sally was born Sally Ann White in Lewiston, Aug. 19, 1925. the youngest of the five children of Harold Sewall White and Marion Wellman White. Until her marriage in 1948, Sally lived on the family dairy farm in Auburn. Once she was old enough, she helped with the haying and delivering milk. She loved to share stories of her childhood with her children and grandchildren. Stories and family times always included lots of laughter and giggles.

Sally graduated from Edward Little High School in Auburn in 1943, and from Bates College in Lewiston in 1947. From grade school right through college, Sally, like her four older siblings, swam competitively. She swam the backstroke and held a number of records as a teenager.

During her senior year of college, she met her future husband, Edmund Byrkit, on a blind date. They were engaged six weeks after they met, and married July 10, 1948 in Auburn. Sally and Ed spent the first year of their marriage in Hanover, N.H., and then moved to Pennsylvania. They lived in the Pittsburgh area and then the Philadelphia area, and eventually moved to Wisconsin in 1955, when Ed was hired by the state of Wisconsin Highway Department to help design and build the Interstate System in Wisconsin. During their 32 years in Wisconsin, they lived in Monona, Wales, Waukesha, Eau Claire, and finally Madison, where they lived from 1964 until Ed’s retirement in 1987.

While in Madison, they became involved in the local figure skating club, when two of their daughters started to figure skate. Sally was active in the club designing and sewing costumes for her daughters, as well as for members of the club of all ages for ice shows. In 1981, Sally and her husband were inducted into the City of Madison (Wisconsin) Ice Skating Hall of Fame.

Sally spent the majority of her marriage as a homemaker, raising her four children, for whom she was a fierce advocate for their education during grade school and high school.

She loved to play bridge and was always involved in at least a couple of bridge clubs. In addition, she knit and sewed, for herself, her children, and her home. When her older children were in high school, Sally began working as a clerk at Northwest Fabrics, sharing her love of sewing and color sense with all of the customers, and to help pay for her children’s college education.

She was also very interested in genealogy, and spent a great deal of time tracing her ancestry on both her mother’s and father’s families. Often, trips to the ocean with her children would include a side trip to a cemetery to check out the gravestones.

In 1987, Sally and Ed followed two of their daughters to Boulder, in part to be near their children, and in part so they could enjoy jeeping in the mountains, or just looking at them. Although Sally grew up in Maine, she said that she always wanted to live where she could see the mountains.

After leaving Maine in 1948, Sally returned to spend part of every summer in Maine. She passed her love of Maine on to her children and her grandchildren. This past year, 2011, was the first year that Sally was not able to return to Maine.

After her husband’s stroke in 1991, Sally became his full-time caregiver until his death in 1996. They continued to travel, including a cruise to Alaska, several trips to Maine, and attendance at a number of World and National Figure Skating Championships, which they had begun attending in the late 1970s.

Sally was diagnosed with Scleroderma in the early 1980s. She fought the disease until it started to get the better of her several months ago. To her joy, she was able to celebrate Christmas, 2011, with her children and grandchildren.

She is survived by her sister, Jane White Stoddard (Sam) of Scarborough; her beloved children, son, George (Mary) Byrkit of Dexter, Mich.; her daughters, Cindi Byrkit and Nancy Hohenstein of Boulder and Carol Haumesser of Lafayette; her grandchildren, whom she loved dearly, Nina Maddux and Marri Maddux of Lafayette, Peter Hohenstein of Boulder, and Erin Haumesser of Lafayette; and her “bonus granddaughter,” Kaitlan Haumesser of Hawaii; in addition, she is survived by 13 nieces and nephews and numerous great and great-grandnieces and nephews.

Sally was predeceased by her parents; her husband, Ed in 1996; and her older brothers, John (2010), Wally (1992) and Bud (1992).

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