Sara Trimble Glendinning died at home on April 2, just days short of her 81st birthday.
Sara was a force! Born to Ann (“Nancy”) Wilson Glendinning and William Trimble Glendinning in Cleveland, Ohio, she spent her happiest days with her grandmother, Jane Wilson, at her home on Hatch Road in Vineyard Haven. She was a sailor, a tennis player, and a good sport always ready for fun with her youthful companions at the Vineyard Haven Yacht Club. Late in her life, she still shared happy stories of her summer hijinks.
Sara went to Laurel School in Cleveland and attained an ABD (all but dissertation) degree in psychology from Case Western Reserve University. She moved to Washington, D.C., and had a full career with the Narcotics Treatment Administration, contributing to a number of published articles on narcotics and heroin. She was also a realtor in the D.C. area.
She made friends easily, and would strike up a conversation with anyone who looked as if they’d be willing to talk. She also had a close group of friends with whom she celebrated holidays and any occasion to get together. They were her second family.
She traveled with her mother, annually combing the beaches at Sanibel Island in Florida and bringing home shells she fashioned into wreaths and other art forms. She loved to visit art galleries, and collected so much art that there was no room left on any of her walls for another painting. She was a frequent bidder at the D.C. Art Students League sales, and always came home from the Chicken Alley Thrift Shop art sales with a treasure or two, and often more.
Sara returned to the Vineyard every summer, eventually inheriting her grandmother’s house. She felled trees, groomed the lawn, and kept the house in apple-pie order. There can’t have been a cleaner or tidier basement on the entire Island. She decorated the house and her patio gaily with bright and whimsical sculptures. Never considering herself a cook, she did enjoy barbecuing a good, thick steak, and sharing it with friends and relatives.
Sara knew that she was extraordinarily lucky to have such a close family. She was proud of her descent from Alexander Graham Bell, and appreciated that she was loved and quite spoiled.
Sara’s beloved brothers, Bill and Ralph, both predeceased her. All three died without leaving children. She is survived by countless friends and cousins.
Sara will be buried in Abel’s Hill cCemetery, with her family and her grandmother’s “Nanny,” Anna Flannery, who served as a second mother to her during her idyllic childhood summers on the Island. Nanny spent her last days in a nursing home on the island, and Sara wanted to honor her by helping to build a new small-house-style nursing home to serve Vineyarders and their families.
In remembrance, kindly send a gift to the charity of Sara’s choice, Navigator Homes of Martha’s Vineyard, PO Box 1356, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568.
