Sara Howell Bayley

Sara Lee Howell Bayley,age 57, of Montgomery, Al. "finished the fight" on Friday August 15, 2014. A native of Jamestown, N.C., Sara went to Ragsdale High School and spent her summers as a camp counselor at Camp Cheerio. She attended college at Randolph Macon Women's College in Lynchburg, Va., where her love of theater, which dates back to her kindergarten days, took hold. She spent her college summers working at The Lost Colony in Manteo, N.C. After college, Sara's professional theater career took her to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Arizona Theatre Company, the Guthrie Theater and the Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre, before finding her Theatre home as Production Stage Manager at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival for twenty one seasons. Sara was an incredible teacher and beloved mentor for the ASF Stage Management MFA program through the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. In her time off, she stage-managed productions at Theatre Virginia and The Arts Center of Coastal Carolina.

Sara fought ovarian cancer in 2003 and was in remission until it returned in 2012. Through it all, she still managed to work estate sales, travel to family outings and beach trips, and spend time in N.C. with her mother. Sara was a member of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Montgomery, where she enjoyed singing in the choir, and just being with her church family. Sara took the time to make life special for everyone around her. She created moments in so many lives that will never be forgotten .At gatherings, Sara would usually be found spending time with children and dogs.

Sara is preceded in death by her father, James Dallas Howell Jr. of Jamestown, N.C., her brother James Dallas Howell III ("Jim") of Jamestown, N.C., and her nephew James Dallas Howell IV ("Bud") of everywhere. Sara is survived by her mother, Sara Nance Howell of Colfax, N.C., her sister Martha Nance Howell of Hendersonville, N.C., her sister-in-law Kathy Howell of Jamestown, her husband Andrew Bayley of Montgomery, nieces Lane Howell, Caroline VanHarmelen, Rachel Sneed, and Amy Gray, nephews Adam Sneed and Adam Gray, "adopted" sisters Anne Nulsen and Elizabeth Jones, her many brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews of the Bayley clan in P.A. and N.Y., her dog Naya and her vast theater family from all over.

Donations in honor of Sara should be made to an organization meaningful to you. A couple that were particularly meaningful to Sara are the Kym Franklin Scholarship for Design/Technical Theatre at VCU arts in Richmond, Va. and the Cancer Wellness foundation at Montgomery Cancer Center, where she was blessed with such wonderful care for so many years.

Services for Sara Howell Bayley

Immanuel Presbyterian Church

8790 Vaughn Road

Montgomery, Al 36117

Tuesday, September 2, 2014 @ 3:00 pm

Jamestown Presbyterian Church

Jamestown, NC

Monday, September 8, 2014 @ 2:00 pm

,