Sally H. Mcmillin

Sally H. McMillin, age 80, died peacefully at Hospicare in Ithaca on January 5, 2016. Sally was born March 19, 1935, in Buffalo, New York, to Charles Hughson and Alice Bell Hyde. She graduated from the Buffalo Seminary in 1952 and Sweet Briar College in 1956. After finishing college, Sally worked at a major advertising agency in New York (nothing like Mad Men, she often said), and then at the National Geographic Society in Washington, DC. She married Scott McMillin in 1958, and after stops in Palo Alto and London, they moved to Ithaca in 1964. They settled into a Lansing farmhouse that Sally remodeled, and by 1970 there were three children who, along with many others, came to know Sally as a loving mother, an accomplished cook, a prolific gardener, a skilled needleworker, and the only member of the household who knew where the tools were and how to use them. After raising her children, Sally returned to work, first at a fabric shop on the Ithaca Commons, and then at the Cornell Music Department, where she helped to coordinate the Bailey Hall music series for many years. She was also a long-term volunteer with many organizations, including the League of Women Voters, Suicide Prevention and Crisis Services, and Hospicare. After more than 20 years in Lansing, Sally and Scott moved downtown, to another old house to remodel, and once again Sally put her extensive interior design skills to good use.
Sally travelled widely, from early jaunts on a shoestring in a VW bus, to annual stays at both her favorite flat in London and her favorite cove in Maine, to an expedition in the Peruvian Amazon in 2014, at age 79. Wherever Sally went, she was known as a walker, typically avoiding buses, subways, and taxis when she was in London or Manhattan, and instead logging many miles on foot during her frequent forays to concerts and the theater. She also walked happily and tirelessly in the woods around Ithaca, along the steep coastal paths of Cornwall, and anywhere else in the world she could find a trail. Perhaps above all, though, those who knew her treasured Sally's caring and compassion, exemplified by patient listening followed by short, kind, and wise responses.
Sally was predeceased by Scott, her husband of 49 years, who died in 2006. She is survived by her sons, Andrew (Cheryl Green) of Portland, OR, Paul (Rachel Hastings) of Olympia, WA, and David (Marlene Brown) of West Windsor, NJ, her grandchildren Mark, Ben, Rebecca, and Arlo, and a warm, loving, supportive community of friends. There will be a memorial service celebrating Sally's life at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 23rd, 2016, at Hospicare, 172 East King Rd., Ithaca, and the family will receive visitors beginning at 1:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations in Sally's memory may be made to Hospicare & Palliative Care Services, or to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.