Sally Sutphin Joslin passed away peacefully on Dec. 12, surrounded by family after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was 86 years old. Sally is survived by her husband of 66 years, Ramsey Joslin.
Born to unwed parents in Burlington Vermont in 1930, Sally was brought as an infant to an orphanage in New York City where she was adopted by Caroline and Henry Sutphin, along with a three-year old boy who became her brother Donald.
The family soon moved to West Hartford, where Sally was raised and met her future husband. Wed in 1950, Sally and Ramsey Joslin moved to Darien, where they raised four daughters: Susan, Sarah, Eliza and Caroline.
Along with her parenting, Sally was deeply involved in the work of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. She was one of the founders of the church’s outreach program, Person-to-Person, and was a hands-on participant in the program for many years. Sally also led book discussion groups, worked as a Hospice volunteer and acted in community theater.
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— an obituary from the Anderson-Bryant Funeral Home
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Since the 1920s, Sally’s family has had a home on Cape Cod. An avid sailor since her youth, Sally shared enumerable sails on Nantucket Sound with family and friends on her Bulls Eye, Silver Girl.
After their youngest daughter Caroline was born with severe disabilities, Sally and Ramsey sought out the best of care at a time when options for the disabled were extremely limited. They eventually became founding parents and stalwart supporters of The Lukas Community, a residential community for adults with developmental disabilities where they live in extended family households.
When in her 60s, Sally discovered her birth family and deeply valued the relationship she formed with her sister Peggy Dutton. Known for her wonderful, self-deprecating sense of humor and nonjudgmental warmth and acceptance, Sally will be greatly missed by so many.
She was pre-deceased by her son-in-law John Scott Wilkerson and her grandson Charles Ramsey Wilkerson.
Along with her husband, Sally is survived by her brother and sister-in-law, Brooks and Carol Lee Joslin, her four daughters, her five grand-daughters: Joslin, Katherine, Emily, Allison and Cate, as well as her great-grandchildren Mia, Kaiden, Charlotte and Winston and other extended family.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m., Jan. 6 at the Church of the Messiah, 22 Church St., Woods Hole, Mass. A reception will follow in Fisher House.
A memorial service at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Darien will held next spring.
Donations made in Sally’s memory to The Lukas Foundation, POB 127, Temple, NH 03084 will be gratefully accepted.