Sarah Ludlow Ogden Smith

Sarah Ludlow Ogden Smith died peacefully at her home in Freeport, Maine on January 4, 2025. Sallie was born in Washington D.C. on May 28, 1943, to Eleanor Houston Smith and Lawrence M. C. Smith. In 1948, her parents moved back to Philadelphia where they continued to raise Sallie and her 5 siblings.

She graduated from Germantown Friends School in 1960 and earned a B.A. from Smith College in 1964. After college, she spent two years living in Denmark and traveling around Europe including a summer spent as a laborer picking grapes on vineyards throughout France. She went on to earn an M.A from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration in 1968. Sallie remained in Chicago after graduate school and worked for organizations including Jewish Family and Community Services where she supported aging Holocaust survivors. Sallie proudly maintained her certification with the Academy of Certified Social Workers throughout her life.

In 1972 Sallie moved back to Philadelphia where she met James Nelson Kise who was an architect and city planner. In 1974 the two were married and Sallie gained two beloved stepsons. In 1976 the couple moved to Cairo, Egypt for 18 months while Jim created the plans for what is now Sadat City. They immensely enjoyed their time in Egypt and incorporated Arabic words and phrases in their conversations for the rest of their lives. A lover of languages, she also studied German, French, Danish, Koine Greek, and Hebrew.

After returning to Philadelphia, Sallie and Jim had two children of their own. In the early 1980’s they purchased and moved into Druim Moir, the 1886 Chestnut Hill estate built by her great-grandfather Henry Howard Houston. Together, they prevented its demolition and successfully endeavored to preserve and convert the buildings and property into a residential community.

In 1984 Sallie began studying at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia where she earned a Master of Divinity in 1992. She was a deeply spiritual and religious woman who held various roles within the church over the years starting in the late 1970s. Her roles included serving as a people’s warden, volunteer Chaplain at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, a part-time lay minister at St. Gabriel’s Church (Olney) and Senior Manager at Urban Bridges. At various times she was a member at St. Mary’s Church (Hamilton Village), the Church of St. Martin in the Field’s (Chestnut Hill), and the Cathedral Church of St. Luke (Portland, ME). Sallie also served on the board of the Northwest Interfaith Movement for almost a decade.

In 2004 Sallie moved to Freeport, Maine where she spent her summers beginning in 1946 when her parents purchased land that ultimately became Wolfe’s Neck Farm and Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park. It was a formative place for her and where she learned to drive on a double clutch WWII military truck and taught sailing at the Harraseeket Yacht Club. In 1985, Sallie along with her siblings and mother donated the farm to the University of Southern Maine. The Wolfe’s Neck Farm Foundation eventually took over control of the farm from USM and Sallie served on the board of the WNFF from 1993 to 2013.

In 2005, Sallie started and independently ran a community home heating assistance fund named “Warm Thy Neighbor”. In 2010 Tedford Housing took over administration of the fund, which they still manage today as part of their homeless prevention work. Such work was a continuation of her lifelong commitment to tirelessly supporting individuals and communities in need.

More than anything, Sallie will be remembered as a woman of deep faith who also possessed great intelligence, firm convictions, a big heart, and a feisty spirit.

Sallie is predeceased by her husband, Jim and her brother, Lewis. She is survived by her children Susanna of Los Angeles, CA and Triplett of Freeport, ME; her stepsons Jefferson of Monterey, CA and Curtis of Norristown, PA; as well as three step grandchildren. She is also survived by her siblings Eleanor Morris of Scotland, UK, Sam Smith of Freeport, ME, Meredith Smith Stevenson Smith of Palm City, FL, and Minie Smith of Missoula, MT.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, January 18, at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke, 143 State Street, Portland, ME. Burial will be private.

In lieu of flowers donations can be made to Warm Thy Neighbor at: https://tedfordhousing.org/programs/heating-assistance/