Sara Anne McCorkle

Sara McCorkle “hit it out of the park” as a wife, mother, homemaker, grandmother, square dancer, piano-organ player/ teacher, accompanist, tennis champion and more. Here you can see she is at it on a Sunday afternoon on the Washington Monument Mall in June 1942. She came to Washington DC to work to serve the war effort. Sara passed from this life to the next with her Savior on May 10, 2024, at the age of 100. Sara was born in Fitzgerald, GA on Dec 12, 1923. After graduating from high school in Fitzgerald, where she was champion doubles tennis player, and won a partial scholarship for piano, she attended Southern Business University in Atlanta. Then she took the train to DC as a 17-year-old traveling alone to work in DC. There in a boarding house on Connecticut Ave she met Jim McCorkle, her husband-to-be. She would play piano while “Red” and others would sing-along in the parlor. They also enjoyed many church and outdoor activities in the D.C area. Jim's greatest joy in life was "the apple of his eye" -"Sal". As he said about her, "The Lord stacked the deck against me with her - she was a good tennis partner, a wonderful accompanist on the piano and a great dancer – I had to marry her!” Besides piano, Sara loved to play organ. She had a repertoire of hundreds of songs which she could play upon request with no music. She played keyboards for company Christmas parties, and even played the huge pipe organ at the old Alexandria roller rink, complete with drums, clackers, and whistles and all sorts of entertaining sounds. She was asked to play for countless singalongs, accompany singers at church and perform concerts for organ clubs. She also taught and demonstrated organs and keyboards in music stores. She continued to play for musicals and performed in the talent shows at Greenspring Village until she was well into her 90’s. Sara also loved to dance and was a gifted dancer. She and Jim taught ballroom dancing and square dancing until Jim, at 94, stopped calling in 2007. She and Jim both served many years in the National Capital Area Square Dance Leaders Association (NCASDLA). She continued to dance with the Greenspring ballroom dance group until she was 96, stopping only when Covid shutdowns halted the activity. Sara was preceded in death by her parents, James Thomas Pittman, and Harriet Louisa Peavy Pittman, her stepmother Annie H. B. Warren Pittman, her brothers J.T. Pittman Jr (Kitty), John W (Billy) Pittman (Rebecca), Mary Louise Pittman Bean (Dillard). She is survived by her four children, Allen (Gayle), John (Greer), James Jr. (Anne) and Charlotte Shirey (Bill), 10 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren and many great nephews and nieces. A celebration of life will be held in the West End Presbyterian Church chapel in Richmond, VA on Saturday May 18, 2024, at 2 pm. There will be a grave side service at National Memorial Park at 7482 Lee Highway in Falls Church, VA on Sunday May 19 at 3 pm. In lieu of flowers in appreciation for the great care and comfort the Discovery team gave Sara, donations in her memory may be made to “Discovery Village at the West End (Assisted Living)” 2422 University Park Blvd, Henrico, VA 23229.