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Tribute to Sally Wollaeger 1947-1992
Submitted by: Barbara Winkelmeyer Ballard
Sally came to our class in 10th grade. She sat right in front of me in Study Hall, both being W’s.
On the first day of school she turned around in her desk and said, Hi, I’m Sally, and I don’t know anyone. Smiling at me with her saucer sized brown eyes and chipped front tooth, I knew we would be great friends.
We had some classes together. She constantly was drawing caricatures of people, places and things and passing them to me. Her drawings were filled with color and emotion, especially humor. When she passed me notes in classes, there were no words, just funny drawings. Needless to say, we got in trouble for laughing together. The Senior Room was decorated with her Artwork.
Sally really did not care much about schoolwork….However, she was good at Math which I detested, and I was good at English, so we tutored each other.
Words to describe Sally, my best friend:
Kind, friendly, compassionate, loyal, funny, petite, strong, talented, whimsical, risk-taker, pretty.
What she loved: playing hockey, driving to Fitz’s for root beer floats, rides in the country to hunt for wild flowers to dig up, pink lipstick, singing to the Beatles on the radio, dancing, talking about boyfriends, skirts, wheat jeans, new weejuns, sweaters and round colored shirts. Flowers, animals, and sitting in the Sun. Being together.
What she gave to us: Her Art. Happiness, Laughter and Love.
She and I ditched out of all the weekend activities at our 25th reunion and spent that time together. As it turned out, we spoke weekly until she was diagnosed with a brain tumor which she suspected she had since her teenage years. Her mother took her to a hospital in a nearby city in Wisconsin for her operation. She passed away on the operating table in summer of 1992.
To quote Sally Schaum Witte in her recent email to me: Sally loves it that she is being remembered and is smiling down on us from her peaceful Art Studio in Heaven.
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