Sarah Anne Zook Newcomer

Sarah Anne Sally Zook Newcomer passed away on August 2, leaving in her wake an uncommon legacy of service to the people and places she encountered along her 86-year journey. She will be remembered at a memorial service at 2 p.m. on August 25 at First Mennonite Church in Denver.Born July 25, 1933, in Cass County, Missouri, Sarah was the third of five children born to Jonathan and Ida Hartzler Zook, who moved their young family to Oregon in the 1930s. She grew up on her family's farm in Canby, Oregon.She moved to Denver in 1956 and joined First Mennonite Church, to which she was devoted for more than 60 years, nurturing children in the nursery and Sunday School, sewing blankets to welcome newborns and devoting her considerable agrarian talents to gardens at the church, the community garden next door and the city park across the street.Sarah worked as a legal secretary at the law firm Holland and Hart, first in the 1950s and again from the mid-1970s until she retired. In between, she worked as a daycare mother, providing exceptional early childhood education for countless children and helping to establish standards for home daycare in Denver. Industrious beyond the common definition, she was never idle. Devoted to improving the places and lives of people wherever she encountered them, she tended yards for elderly neighbors, mentored Denver Public School students, and provided companionship and support for countless elderly acquaintances.Sarah was also a true servant of the Earth, cultivating bountiful gardens of her own and in public places where she eagerly shared the joy of blooming roses and the sweetness of tree-ripened fruit. She was a certified Master Gardener, but gardened like a farmer, resourcefully, respectfully, letting nothing go to waste.Sarah was married to Ed Newcomer from 1957 to 1970. She is survived by three children, Ida and Kris Newcomer of Longmont, and Ed Newcomer Jr., of Pretoria, South Africa; granddaughter, Molly Campbell of Fort Collins; sister, Erma Yoder of Goshen, IN; brother, Leo Zook of Salem, OR; and cherished nieces and nephews across the country, including Barb and Rod Yoder Stutzman of Denver.Sarah's memory can be honored by extending a helping hand to someone in need and supporting First Mennonite Church, 430 W. Ninth Ave., Denver, CO 80204. Share condolences at www.ahlbergfuneralchapel.com.