Salley Grace Lindsey Grosso

Savannah, GA – Salley Grace Lindsey Grosso, 89, of Sunabella of Savannah, died June 22, 2025. Born February 5, 1936, in Charleston, SC, Salley was the daughter of the late Mabel Belcher Brewer and the late Henry Luther Lindsey.

Salley spent her early years playing and sunning on Folly Beach and singing professionally in the Charleston area and across South Carolina. She attended nursing school in the 1950s at St. Francis Xavier Hospital in Charleston, SC, and told many tales through the years of the nuns who were large and in charge.

Salley married Ted Lightle in 1956 and became quite the unpacker due to the many transfers Ted had while working with Western Electric and Southern Bell. Salley had moving and unpacking so streamlined that the family was able to unpack every box before the end of the day of a move. It was while one of their houses was up for sale that Salley coined her famous phrase, “The Queen is coming!” With those four words, her children, Theodore (Teddy) and Megan, knew to drop everything no matter what they were doing and without complaint to start stowing things under the sofa and anywhere else nearby.

Throughout the 1960s, Salley was an accomplished artist whose still life and rural South Carolina paintings were exhibited in art shows sponsored by the St. Andrews Artists Guild for which she won numerous ribbons. She loved being a mother and doted on Teddy and Megan in myriad ways. Before packing school lunches in brown paper sacks, she drew pictures on the bags or on notes in the bags, much to the delight of her children.

Salley was a voracious reader who instilled her love for books and reading into her children, never giving up even though she was met with kicking, screaming and resistance the entire way. The fighting turned into gradual acceptance and to this day, both Teddy and Megan are voracious readers and consider this to be one of the best gifts she gave to them. She took this same approach with manners, and while that fight went on longer, Salley eventually won that battle as well.

She put her nursing background to work as a dental assistant for several dental practices in Greenville, SC, in the 1970s. In 1975 she became an administrative assistant with Legislative Information Systems, a state agency, and was assistant director within two years. Salley was responsible for getting the S.C. Code of Laws into a computer for the first time, a Burroughs controller she fondly named Bertha Controller. She left state government in 1981.

Salley married Michael F. Grosso in 1978 and the couple spent almost three decades taking amazing trips all over the world. She always hated flying and was quite sure she kept the planes from crashing to the ground solely through her prayers. She and Michael missed an eruption of Mount Etna in Italy by less than 24 hours after having flown over in a helicopter. Salley and Michael enjoyed 41 years together before his death in 2019.

Salley was predeceased by her husband, Michael F. Grosso, and her sister, Lana Boise, and is survived by her children: son, Theodore Lightle (Gail), of Cocoa, FL, and daughter, Megan Lightle, of Cayce, SC.

Visitation will be held at Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel, on Thursday, July 3, 2025 from 9:30 am until 10:30 am followed by a Celebration of Life at 10:30 am in the Chapel. Burial will be held at 12:00 noon at Fort Jackson National Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorials be made to the Alzheimer’s Association at https://www.alz.org/sc or to a charity of one’s choice.

The family extends its appreciation to the incredible staff at Sunabella at Savannah Memory Care and Hospice Savannah for the compassionate and respectful assistance and care provided to Salley throughout her dementia journey, allowing her to live with dignity and her sense of humor intact.

Memories may be shared at www.dunbarfunerals.com.