Sally Jo Turner

Sally spent her formative years in Wilmette, Illinois where she shared backyard adventures with her sisters Betsy and Susie. They all enjoyed a great neighborhood for mischief and hijinks, make-believe plays, and many highly competitive croquet games.

As a child, Sally developed an appetite for theater with a role as the youngest child of the Snow family in a high school production of Carousel. According to her mother, Sally stole the scene with her brief appearance on stage. By the time she was in high school, her talents in dance, her beautiful singing voice, and her growing strength as an actor were recognized by both teachers and peers. In addition to featured dance roles in several productions, Sally played the role of Emily in “Our Town” with an emotional intensity that left many audience members in tears. Later, in a student-written musical production, the role of Rattle Snake Jake was written explicitly for Sally, in another show stealing performance. Years later, as an adult, Sally returned to the stage in Community Theater and as one of the accused in Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater production of “The Crucible.” Her passion and flair for the dramatic was a gift to us all.

She attended New Trier Township High School where she was the class secretary for the student council. Aside from drama, she was active in debate, dance and the German club. She and her sister Betsy spent a summer in Germany with families that her paternal grandparents connected with through the International Esperanto Society. Her use and knowledge of the German language was exceptional, her classmates in German class fondly referred to her as “the computer that wore fake Adidas.”

Sally attended The Colorado College where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology in 1980. With the immersive and innovative Block Plan there, Sally was able to spend many months off campus in Baca County in the San Luis Valley of Colorado on an archeological dig. She also spent two months at the Museum of New Mexico’s Laboratory of Anthropology studying Anthropology of the Southwest and working at the La Cienega dig site. Always up for a new academic challenge, Sally shed her dirndl her junior year and decided to learn French. She studied in Menton, France from January through May 1979. Her younger sister Susie joined her in June, and the two of them spent the entire summer travelling throughout Europe together. She met Biff Gentsch, her future husband, her senior year at CC. They fell in love instantly, and were inseparable until the day she left us.

Her interest in writing and technical writing led her to the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University where she earned a Master’s of Science in Journalism. Her first job out of Medill was as a field reporter and special assignment reporter at WEHT Eyewitness News in Henderson, Kentucky. Shortly thereafter, she decided TV news compromised her journalistic morals and integrity, and decided to pursue a career in print at the Evansville Courier, and the Evansville Press. She had many stories “above the fold” in her time at both papers, where she focused her efforts on the activities of the Indiana Statehouse and the medical field. She also dedicated her talents as a corporate journalist at Ameritech Mobile Communications in Schaumburg, Illinois, and as a freelance journalist at Sally Turner Communications in Evanston, Illinois.

Sally was all about family. She gave birth to two beautiful children, Miles and Grace, and was such a dedicated mother that she hung up her keyboard before Grace was two to become a stay-at-home mom. She couldn’t bear the thought of not being with the two of them throughout their childhood and into adolescence. There was a proper hot breakfast for Miles and Grace every day, a healthy snack awaiting them when they got home from school before sitting down at the table to focus on homework under her supervision. She was a consummate fan and attendee for all of Miles’ sporting events and Grace’s dance recitals. Sally helped out at school whenever she could, and she made sure that Miles and Grace had a well-rounded upbringing. Sally was passionate about her family knowing her extended family. There were countless trips to Springfield, Illinois to see the Owens family cousins, trips to Northwest Iowa to see “Old” Grandma and Grandpa Turner and all of her aunts, uncles and cousins there. Trips to Alaska to visit her sister Betsy’s family and trips out East to visit relatives there.

In her free time, Sally enjoyed acting, singing, dancing, skiing, scuba diving, reading, shelling, board games, and traveling. She had a passion for giving back to her community and served as a Hospice Volunteer at Deaconess VNA Hospice in Evansville, Indiana, and as a Teachers Aid at North Junior High, and Harper Elementary in Evansville, Indiana.

Sally is survived by her loving husband of 41 years, Bernhard “Biff” Gentsch; her children, Miles Gentsch (Lauren Gentsch) and Grace Turner-Gentsch (Matthew Evans); her grandchildren, Forrest Gentsch, Genevieve Gentsch and Alice Turner; her sisters, Betsy Turner-Bogren (Dennis Bogren) and Susan Turner (Cameron Jackson); and her nephews, Wiley Bogren, Max Bogren, Stewart Turner-Jackson and Emmett Turner-Jackson, as well as many other cherished family members. She is preceded in death by her parents, Bill James Turner and Carole Sue Turner.

A visitation to celebrate Sally's life will be held on Thursday, May 23, 2024 from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Alexander Newburgh Chapel, 5333 State Road 261. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to Deaconess VNA Hospice / Linda E. White Hospice House, Planned Parenthood, The American Heart Association, or the EVSC Foundation.