Sarah "Sallie " (Cardwell) Huckins

Sarah Huckins, known as "Sallie" by her friends, died in hospice care in Tempe, Arizona, on Monday, May 4, having turned 87 the day before. Her funeral will be Friday, May 15, at 11 a.m., at Mountain View Cemetery in Dillon, Montana, her son the Rev. Kyle Huckins presiding, and Phoenix Memorial Park & Mortuary assisting in the arrangements.

Mrs. Huckins is remembered as a loving, energetic and supportive mother by her children, Kyle and Scott, and grandchildren Zach, Kendall, Morgan and Payton. She often babysat, took kids to ballgames, played card and other games at home with them, and baked highly edible gingerbread cookies every Christmas.

Huckins was born Sarah Margery Cardwell on May 3, 1939, to Ed & Florence Cardwell in Billings, Montana, the younger sister to the late Julia Cardwell Pasentino. She grew up in a difficult home, with her parents divorcing when she was a teenager. She lived with her father, a longtime cattle buyer who settled in Dillon, after the split was final.

An honors student in high school, Sallie went to Montana State University in Bozeman to become a K-8 teacher. There she met D Huckins in a Native American History course after the professor recommended he get notes from her for material missed during D's absence from class. They graduated together, Sallie with a bachelor's degree in education and D one in accounting.

They wed at the chapel in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on June 30, 1960. Their union was to last nearly 59 years, until the "death do us part" of D in 2019 at 84.

The couple moved to Miles City, Montana, then California, the latter where Sallie began her teaching career instructing migrant farmworkers' children. She said they put the most effort into her classes of any students she ever had. D and Sallie then moved to Hawaii just after statehood where she taught at the prestigious Punaho School in Honolulu and he was an accountant for Del Monte.

Hawaii was too laid-back for the young couple, so they returned to the mainland when D got a job at United Airlines in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sallie taught locally until her two sons, Scott and Kyle, were born. Seeing the moral decline in the Bay, the family went to Greater Chicago in 1973 as D secured a position at United headquarters. Sallie was a homemaker until the 1980s, when she once again taught in elementary school, then became an investment assistant.

Mrs. Huckins became a born-again Christian in 1987, and her faith in Jesus was a major influence in her life for her last four decades, helping her deal with transverse myelitis, heart fibrillation, and other maladies as well as the deaths of her father and stepmother in the late 1990s. She was a highly active member of Cave Creek, Arizona's Black Mountain Baptist Church from shortly after its founding, loving to go to the Tuesday Ladies Bible Study in particular.

D and Sallie retired in 1994 and two years later moved to Arizona to follow their grandchildren, but they spent a number of summers in Montana. Gardening was a great passion of Sallie's, and she enjoyed taking care of desert plants in her Scottsdale home. When in Montana, she looked after the flowers and D mowed and edged the yard.

Sallie Huckins was preceded in death by her husband, D; sister Julia; parents Ed and Florence Cardwell and her stepmother, Lillian Cardwell. She leaves behind sons Scott (Liz) Huckins and the Rev. Kyle Huckins; grandchildren Zach Cox, Kendall Huckins, and Morgan and Payton Pitcher; cousin Sandra Peck; many relatives in-law, especially the children and grandchildren of D's late twin, K Huckins, and his wife Ginger, who was a close friend of Sallie's and died only 2 days before her; and numerous friends all over the United States.

Thanks to Sallie's doctors at Arizona's Honor Health Deer Valley; Hospice of the Valley in Phoenix; staff at The Retreat at Alameda; Pastor Eric Stephens and the leadership of Black Mountain Baptist Church in Cave Creek, Arizona; and special friends Melissa, Sandy, Patty, Betsy, and all those in the Ladies Bible Study she attended. So many of God's people did so well for Sallie when it mattered.

Her family and many friends will miss her greatly while being thankful she is free of her health troubles and in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ forevermore. They wish to invite you to commit your life to Him so you may join her in heaven.