Sandra Lee Thruston

Sandra Beahn was born in Schenectady, NY on November 4, 1952. From there, her family moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, and then to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Sandy attended Stranahan High School in Fort Lauderdale and lived with close friend Becky Davis while working at Burger king and St. Vincent de Paul.

She married Ronnie Burleson and had Paul on October 26, 1969, and Tammy on January 19, 1971.

Sandy was working at Bendix Avionics after divorcing Ronnie when she met and married Ron Thruston on June 18, 1977. She quit working to raise Paul and Tammy. The family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, in January of 1979 where Ron joined Sperry Flight Systems.

Sandy was very active in the PTA at Sunrise Elementary where she met her close friend Marilu Kirkham. She went back to work; first at Mervyn’s Department Store and then at Sperry Flight Systems. She and Marilu joined Beta Sigma Phi, social sorority. Both Marilu and Sandy served as president of the sorority helping to enhance the scope to include charitable service as a main function of the organization.

While at Sperry, Sandy worked in manufacturing and was part of the team that successfully implemented Demand Flow Manufacturing (DFM) utilizing Just in Time (JIT) provisioning as an Industrial Engineering Aide.

When Sperry dropped industrial engineering, Sandy moved to software engineering in the Flight Management Systems product area, then became a member of the Airline Supplied Equipment Department supporting certification of retrofit avionics, and later moved to Supplier Quality Engineering visiting Honeywell suppliers and evaluating their product quality.

During this time, Sperry became Honeywell and instituted the Give Once Club to allow employees to contribute to local charities by payroll deduction. Sandy helped the club select charities, fund the program and report the activities and achievements to the employees and management. Sandy also worked in the Honeywell Employee’s Club and helped to organize employee social events.

In 1988, Ron’s parents, who were living in Sun City, suffered catastrophic injury and illness. Reggie had cancer and Mable broke her hip leaving her invalid. Sandy supported them and Ron through Reggie’s death (Mar 1990) and Mable’s in-home care and death (Feb 1996).

Sandy retired from Honeywell in 2002.

In 2005, Ron took a position in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and they moved to Thiensville, a small community north of Milwaukee. While there, Sandy met Marda Arkebauer and joined the Chapeau Rouge chapter of the Red Hats Society.

In 2007, Ron and Sandy returned to Arizona to live in the Ventana Lakes community north of Sun City. Here she joined the Arrowhead ADA chapter of the Red Hats Society, a monthly Bunco group and the Ventana Lakes Ceramics Club. She became interested in the Wounded Warrior charity and supported their contributions to veterans.

For over thirty years, Sandy was repeatedly diagnosed with various forms of cancer requiring surgery and hospitalization. All through these periods, she remained strong, positive and courageous. She never let her disease prevent her from caring for her family and friends, all of whom supported her through each period. She was diagnosed with melanoma in February of 2020. The melanoma reappeared in November. Then, in October of 2022, it was found to have spread into multiple organs. Sandy passed on November 27, 2022, having seen all of her children and grandchildren on Thanksgiving Day.

In September, she was able to travel back to Florida to see her beloved beach one more time, and spend time with close friends; Becky, Denise and James.

Visitation will be held from 9AM until the start of the service at Willowbrook Church.

A funeral service for Sandra will be held Monday, December 12, 2022 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM at Willowbrook United Methodist Church, 19390 N 99th Ave, Sun City, AZ 85373, AZ 85351.

Sandra will be laid to rest in Sunland Cemetery Garden of Peace, Sun City, Arizona.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.sunlandmemorial.com for the Thruston family.