Sarah (Sally) died at her home in Princeton on Wednesday, July 12th in Hospice care. She was born in Chicago in 1931, soon moving to Boston where her father joined the faculty of MIT. In 1941, the family moved to Washington, DC, after her father joined the Navy. She graduated from the Holton Arms School in Washington, a life rewarding experience for her.
Sally lived in the Washington area until she attended Vassar College from which she graduated in 1952 with a double major in Music and Geology. She worked briefly for General Electric in Schenectady, then taught Science at the Brierley School in New York City before marrying Richard Benjamin Reichart on September 25, 1954. They had two children, Phyllis (Angela) and Andrew in New York, moving to Wayne, New Jersey and finally to Princeton in 1982.
In New York, Sally developed her lifelong interest in music and music history through a Masters degree in Music at Brooklyn College and a PhD in Musicology at CUNY Graduate Center. Her late husband said that she loved learning and went through life “by degrees”. She taught and performed on the recorder and was a member of the New York Recorder Society.
After moving to Princeton, she earned a Masters in Library Science at Rutgers and worked in the Princeton Public Library. In her later years, she did much scholarly genealogical research, enduring gifts for her family and others.
She was predeceased by her husband Richard in 2020. She is survived by her daughter Angela (Phyllis) in Knoxville, TN; her granddaughter Lila in Massachusetts; her son Andrew and his wife Joy in Berkeley, CA; and her brother, Ralph Bennett, Jr. and his wife Carol in Silver Spring, MD.
Sally and her family are especially appreciative of the support and assistance of her neighbors and Jessica Almodovar. A memorial gathering will be organized for mid-August; details to follow. Contributions to the Princeton Public Library in Sally’s name are welcome.