Sandra Crane Whitman; Radcliffe 1962; died May 20, 2014
From http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/denverpost/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=171234565
Sandra Crane Whitman
Obituary
-------------------------
was
born on May 15, 1940, the second child of Arthur Eaton Crane and Cooley
Graves Crane. She passed on May 20, 2014 at the age of 74. Her home
town was Dalton, MA, where she attended grade school through the sixth
grade, at which point she spent her junior high school period at Emma
Willard in Troy, NY. Her high school period was spent at St. Timothy's
in Maryland, where she excelled as a student. This was exhibited by her
being designated a Merit Scholar for her college boards, and her
acceptance at Radcliffe, now Harvard. She met her husband, Walter
Whitman, at age 14 at Morewood Lake in the Pittsfield Country Club,
where he was a Life Guard that summer. They were married when she was
20, on June 10, 1960. She then transferred to Cornell, where her husband
was earning his degrees and she graduated with a degree of Bachelor of
Arts with a major in mathematics. She had three children with Walter:
Robert, James and John, which resulted in three grandchildren, Robert's
daughter, Kelly, and John and Laura's children, Rebecca and Grant.
Sandra spent a traumatic 25 years caring for her second son, ending with
a liver transplant. During James's illness they took their sons out of
school for a year to travel around the world, first, primarily the South
Pacific and then most of Western Europe. Sandra was an avid knitter and
sewer. She not merely made many of her own clothes but sewed
professionally for a Marimekko fabric store, making them dresses out of
that material, which is singularly challenging, due to its large
patterns. Sandra had a wonderful ability to visualize patterns and
shapes. Sandra always enjoyed the wilderness with its flora and fauna,
leading us to many weeks in the deep wilderness of such as the Gila
National Forest, with weighty backpacks (wet foods and a dollop or two
of wine). She also chose the setting of 5 acres for our home, studded
with fir and ponderosa pine, one half mile above Denver for similar
reasons of wildlife. Sandra was invariably stoic throughout the ravages
of her year and a half of Chemo Therapy. However, she was sentient to
the last, when she lapsed into a coma. Sandra with her husband, sons and
granddaughter, Kelly, had a Last Supper together circa three days
before she passed. Sandra will be desperately and lovingly missed by her
family, including her two German Shepherds.
[Published in The Denver Post on June 5, 2014]
