Ninety-nine year-old Quesada Gardens resident passes

September 9, 10:34 PMSF Bayview ExaminerJeffrey Betcher

Previous Next

1 comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the SF Bayview Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Sarah Ross as depicted in the Quesada Gardens Initiative mural

Losing elders is probably the most difficult part of life in a changing community.  With the passing of each neighbor, a piece of our shared history and culture also slips away.  Each loss is also an opportunity for neighbors to join together in a meaningful way.

Quesada Gardens Initiative members are doing just that: gathering around our neighbors, the Ross family, as they mourn the loss of their Aunt Sarah L (Shaffer) Ross who died Saturday afternoon, September 5th, 2008 at ninety-nine years of age.

Ross was born in Oklahoma City on April 14, 1909. She and Jerry Ross (who preceded her in death in 1985) were married in 1943 in Kentucky where they lived.

Sarah and Jerry Ross moved to San Francisco's Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood in 1946 when Jerry was hired at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. They purchased their home at 1783 Quesada in 1961. Thomas Shaffer, Sarah's brother, lived in the house with Sarah for 20 years, until his death in May of 2003.

Sarah Ross worked for the San Francisco Post Office for 35 years, retiring in 1981. She was a longtime member of the Third Baptist Church in San Francisco.

Ross loved reading her Bible while sitting at the kitchen table of her Quesada home, enjoying the view of the Bay. She also loved to travel, and went on a cruise to Hawaii and Jamaica. She and her brother Thomas went to Africa and Jerusalem. She had a great fondness for music, loved to dance, and was featured in style shows in the 1960's.

Until she passed, Ross was alert and engaged with life. She was the subject of a recorded oral history with the Bayview History Preservation Project just two years ago. Ross is survived by her nephew James Ross, his wife Lisa, and their children Isaiah, Apollos, Dannielle, Tracy, and Ashley. Other family members include Horace Ross Jr., Allie Ross, Rose Marie, Paulette Ross, Ajay Ross, Louis Ross, Stephanie Ross, Chris Ross and many others in Lexington, Danville and Louisville, Kentucky, and Washington DC.

In recent years, Sarah Ross had been cared for in her home by her family. Her image is a part of the Quesada Gardens Initiative community mural across the street from the Ross home. She was enthusiastic about the Quesada Gardens Initiative's work, especially the effort to feed low-income and long-term Bayview residents through a backyard gardening project. Her weekend nurse would often pick flowers from the Quesada Garden for a vase by Ross' bed.

Family, friends and neighbors mourn her passing as they celebrate her life. James Ross has created an online remembrance of his Aunt