Sara Lynne Wright

Sara was born in Kansas City, Missouri 21 Mar 1955 to William Russell Norris and Norma Vivian Chaney. Being born the first day of spring was special because each year she was delighted with the emerging plants and flowers. She spent her formative years on their family farm outside Holden, Missouri. It was expected that she do her chores like weeding the vegetable garden and milking the cow, but she preferred pretend play near the ponds and timber looking for fairies and elves. At school she excelled in academics and she was a virtuoso at piano.

Sara was known for being somewhat rebellious as a youth advocating to be the first girl in her school allowed to take wood shop and petitioned the school board to allow girls to wear pants instead of always dresses. She always has supported the causes of female rights and equality in our society.

She was a wonderful wife, mother, cook, and homemaker. Even while busy with full time work, a home-cooked meal was served the family every day. She was a master at multi-tasking. She thought quickly and was decisive.

She had a number of passions. She was hooked on sports. She played basketball in school but after a knee injury ended her playing, she became a faithful fan of her local sports teams. She was particularly fond of baseball. She ensured her children were active in sports and assisted with their teams including baseball, soccer, swimming, basketball, and ballet. She was known to whoop and holler and was very engaged in the action. She also enjoyed playing games and was a master at cribbage; but pig toss with a grandson also brought out the laughter.

A predominant passion was for reading. She started and participated in local book clubs but every day she read for hours for pleasure. Her electronic book always held many hundreds of titles.

Sara spent her work life in the medical field. She started as a phlebotomy technician while a college student. She followed a path that led her to doing electrocardiograms, which in turn led to being trained by some of the pioneers of echocardiography. She became accomplished in that field and worked examining hearts for the next 25 years. Her last position was Lead Pediatric Cardiac Sonographer at Seattle Children’s Hospital. That was her favorite position. She loved caring for children and found sorting complex congenital heart conditions to be a challenge to conquer.

Sonography can take a physical toll so she took some time off to heal and got more involved with the activities of her children. This turned out to be an important time as she helped counsel and guide them through their teen years. She was a good listener and she provided love and support to her children and their friends.

After a few years she decided to pursue a master’s degree in Health Care Administration. She felt administrators would be best if they had frontline clinical experience. There she worked in clinical informatics and cardiology then became the Director of Radiation Oncology at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. She retired from that position after working 10 years in management.

Sara enjoyed the natural beauty of the world. She was particularly fond of water and many hikes were made to view waterfalls. She also loved to sit and watch waves crashing on the rocks and beaches and could be mesmerized for hours. She was a beach walker and it seems returning home always included a handful of interesting pebbles stored in her pockets. She said moving from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest 36 years ago was a highlight of her life.

Many camping trips in old growth forests and mountain hikes along cascading streams delighted her. All the children were taken along which has passed this joy to them. She liked sitting on the deck and watching rowers across Lake Washington and the soaring Bald Eagles, Osprey, and other birds, and then the bats came out in the evening. She treasured the view of the Cascades and Mount Rainier. It was also a great place to read more books. Much of Sara’s life was spent playing piano but she also appreciated talented musicians. She liked everything from the classics to bluegrass to R&B to flamenco to downtempo. But her favorite was rock and roll with a heavy emphasis on 1970s rock bands and female vocalists. She listened to the Beatles often. Music was ever-present in the home.

She married first to Peter Bogach Greenspan in 1975 and their two children, David Benjamin Greenspan (Kira Geselowitz), and Aliya Rebecca Greenspan (Michael Takos) survive her along with their two sons Oliver Michael and Oscar Michael Takos.

She married secondly to Jeffrey Alan Wright in 1985 and their two children Elan Alexander Wright (Alyson June McLean) their son Aiden Charles Wright, and Ariel Elyse Wright (Andrew Innes) all survive her. She also shares two step-children with Jeff; Brandon Elliott Wright and Logan Bradley Wright (Kristin Michelle Estes) who have two children, Kael Alekzander and Kairi Alyssa Wright.

Sara’s two sisters, Sharon Elizabeth (Norris) Hunter and Susan Kay (Norris) McMillen continue to live in Missouri, as does her brother William Martin Norris and his wife Julie Ann (Dunsmore). Sara is also survived by cousins, nephews, and nieces; some of whom continue to live at the family farm.

She was full of happy memories of her children and passions. She said she had accumulated more of these than she had expected to in her life. She drew upon them and remained hopeful while coping with cancer. At the end, she was content and at peace.

The immediate family will hold a graveside memorial at a future date. Any who wish to make donations in her name are asked to support her passion for sports by helping needy children obtain baseball equipment through:

Pitch In for Baseball and Softball : https://pifbs.org/for-donors/donate-money/

Or support her passion for reading by supporting the early childhood literacy program, Reach-Out-And-Read at the University of Washington Medicine Pediatric Care Center.

Checks should be made payable to the “UW Foundation” and mailed to: UW Medicine Advancement, Attn.: Gift Processing, Box 358045, Seattle, WA 98195‐8045. Please indicate that the gift is in memory of Sara Wright to fund the Reach Out and Read program at the Roosevelt Pediatrics Clinic. Or you may make a gift online at: https://give.uwmedicine.org/give/?source=MREACH