Sarah Jane Guess Barton, beloved wife of Henry Edmond Barton, died on December 23, 2018. Born in Denmark, South Carolina on September 15, 1924 to the late St. Clair Prothro Guess, Sr. and Sarah Jane Heriot Guess, Sarah was the fifth of six children.
After graduating from Denmark High School Sarah attended Winthrop College, now Winthrop University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and a minor in Elementary Education. She completed graduate studies at the University of South Carolina and Furman University. Sarah was an elementary school teacher for thirty-three years in various schools in South Carolina including Woodruff, St. Matthews, Columbia, Charleston, and Greenville. She had the privilege of teaching army dependent children in Karlsruhe, Germany and was able to travel extensively through Europe during her time abroad.
Upon her return to South Carolina Sarah began teaching in Charleston where she met Henry, the love of her life. After their marriage Sarah moved across the country to Seattle, Washington and then to St. Louis, Missouri where she continued to teach. The last seventeen years of her teaching career were spent at Sara Collins Elementary in Greenville, South Carolina, where she was honored as Teacher of the Year in 1986.
Sarah was actively involved in the Greenville community as an active member of First Baptist Church Greenville, the Fidelis Alpha Chapter South Carolina Alpha Delta Kappa, the John Boswell Chapter Colonial Dames Seventeenth Century and the Joyce Scott Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution. She also treasured her historical roots and valued her membership in the Huguenot Society and The Society of First Families of South Carolina 1670-1700. She was preceded in death by her brothers and their wives: Clair P. Guess, Jr, and Martha Gage Howell Guess and Joseph Heriot Guess, M.D., and Julie Easterling Guess, and her sisters and their husbands: Carolyn and Maynard Watson, Martha and Sam Johnson, and Betty and Joe Thomas, M.D.
Sarah was a person of grace, faith, optimism, hope, love, loyalty and kindness. She is survived by her husband of sixty-one years, Henry. She is also survived by her son, Henry Barton, Jr. and his wife Melanie, daughter Sarah Barton Hipps, and her precious grandchildren Chandler Barton and his wife Elizabeth, and Hannah Barton. She is also survived by a number of beloved nieces and nephews.
Memorial services will be held at First Baptist Church, Greenville on Friday, December 28, 2018at 3:00 PM. The family will receive friends in the narthex of the church following the service. Committal services will be in the family plot in the Denmark Cemetery, Denmark, South Carolina Saturday, December 29, 2018 at 2:00 PM.
In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to Furman University, the Music Department at First Baptist Church, or the charity of one’s choice.
