Sarah Wohl Bailin

Sarah Wohl (Dawes) Bailin of Sudbury Massachusetts, passed away peacefully on March 8, 2026 surrounded by her loving family.

Sarah was born on May 12, 1938, in Hudson, Massachusetts, the daughter of Robert Taylor Dawes and Evelyn Lipscher Dawes. She was educated in the Hudson public schools and attended high school at Solebury School in New Hope, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Simmons College in 1960 with a degree from the Prince School of Retailing.

She began her career in high-fashion merchandising at prominent luxury stores in New York City and San Francisco Her keen instinct for color, style, and presentation allowed her talents to flourish. Sarah later brought her creative vision to her role as Artistic Director and, later, President of Thomas Taylor and Sons, a narrow textile manufacturing business that had been in her family for over 120 years. Among her many accomplishments, she took exceptional pride in helping develop the printed shoelace designs that became a popular fashion trend in the 1980s.

After retirement, Sarah turned her energy and imagination towards real estate development. Sarah was, in the words of those who worked with her, “a visionary real estate developer”, something done by very few women of her era. With both an artist’s eye and an engineer’s mind, she had the uncanny ability to conceptualize the entire design project from beginning to end. She was especially proud of the Wildlife Woods neighborhood in Stow, Massachusetts, a project that reflected her creativity, determination, and deep appreciation for the natural surroundings.

Sarah also became an accomplished fabric artist who spent hundreds of hours experimenting and creating at the Worcester Center for Crafts. She enjoyed exploring texture, color, and design through various forms of fiber arts. Her most notable accomplishments were at the weaving loom, where she soon became a resident expert, producing beautiful woven prayer shawls while also supporting and guiding others in the weaving shed to help bring their artistic dreams to fruition.

While Sarah’s creativity and vision shaped many endeavors throughout her life, her greatest pride and greatest sense of accomplishment came from family. She raised her two daughters on her own, determined that they should also become strong independent women. And she delighted in seeing her four grandchildren grow and mature into young adults that she could be, and was, so proud of.

Sarah is survived by her daughters, Deborah Bailin of Londonderry, New Hampshire, and Jocylyn Bailin and her husband Jeff Alexander of Needham, Massachusetts; and by her beloved grandchildren, Evan Loginov, Anna Loginov, Micah Alexander, and Symmetry Alexander.

Funeral services will be held at Congregation Beth El, 105 Hudson Rd., Sudbury, MA on Wednesday, March 11th, at 11:00am. followed by the burial at Forestvale Cemetery, 170 Broad St, Hudson, MA.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the WGBH Educational Foundation at donate.wgbh.org/wgbh/donate and/or Shelter Music Boston www.sheltermusicboston.org/ .

Livestream: https://www.bethelsudbury.org/jewish-living/livestreaming/