Sarah Lee Ashbery Baines

Sarah Lee “Sally” Ashbery Baines of Trumansburg died at Ithaca Hospicare on June 24, 2013.

Sally was born on June 26, 1941 to Ray and Jean Ashbery, and grew up in the family home at 40 Whig Street in Trumansburg, New York. She had a lot of fun at Trumansburg Central High during the bobby socks era (there's yet a box in her attic with a poodle skirt inside), where she was a varsity cheerleader. Summers in childhood were spent at the family cottage on Cayuga Lake with her parents, her brother, Jim, sister, Ann, and the members of the Shaw clan who lived in the cottage next door. Sally worked hard for the many worthwhile causes she championed in her professional and civic lives, but nothing brought her more simple joy than the things she did at some or all stages of the lifetime she spent by the Lake: water skiing, singing by campfires, sailing, kayaking, making wild grape jam in summer, making maple syrup in winter, and simply watching the weather and seasons fashion the beauty of the water and forested shores.

Sally began her professional career in fundraising with Project Hope at its regional offices in Rochester, and moved to Washington, DC in the late 1960s for a job at the national headquarters. She transitioned into private fundraising consulting, and in 1982 became a founder, and later president, of GSB Associates, Inc. GSB supported a wide range of charitable causes, but Sally was perhaps most proud of her work for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, and the American Foundation for the Blind.

In the late 1990s, Sally moved back to her hometown. She bought and renovated a charming house on Strowbridge Street in Trumansburg, and applied her energy to old and new friends and the well-being of her community. She served until nearly the end of her life on the Boards of Ithaca Hospicare and the Ulysses Philomathic Library. She also played an active role in Hospicare's annual "Women Swimmin’" fundraiser.

Sally will be remembered by her family and friends because of her fierce affection for life and for the people with whom she shared it. She is survived by her brother, Jim (Rosalie) Ashbery, her sister Ann Ashbery (Russ Powell), and nieces and nephew, Elizabeth (Brian) Hummell, Stephen (Colleen) Ashbery, Jessica Powell (Matt Rhoderick), and Louisa Powell.

The Ashbery family is deeply grateful to Sally’s friends and extended family, for helping to ease her journey over the last several years.

In keeping with Sally’s wishes, there will be no funeral or memorial service. A family celebration of her life will be held at the Lake this summer. In lieu of flowers, Sally asked that memorial donations be made to Hospicare, 172 East King Road, Ithaca, New York 14850 or the Ulysses Philomathic Library, 74 East Main Street, Trumansburg, New York, 14886.