Sarah Ann Auther

Sarah Ann (Greene) Auther came into the world on June 15, 1930 in Aurora, Illinois, the third daughter and fourth child of six that Charles Greene and Jeanette (Esser) Greene were blessed with. She grew up in Aurora very attached to her local parish, Holy Angels, where she would also attend grade school. Part of every summer was spent in Wisconsin, fishing and swimming and catching up with a huge extended, multi-generational family. She had just started high school at Madonna in Aurora when she met and began dating the man with whom she fell in love. He became her boyfriend and then husband in what turned out to be an almost 80-year romance: John Auther, a year and a half older than her and, unfortunately (to the Sisters who ran her high school), a public school student at West Aurora High. But he was very handsome, and all her life she believed that. 

She charted her own course. Completing high school, she studied nursing and became an RN. Marriage to the young lieutenant soon followed and the newly-minted couple crisscrossed the country to various postings. A daughter was born 9 months and one week after their wedding much to her mother’s relief. When they left the Army, they consciously decided that they would not return to Illinois but rather that they would join the migration west. Heading to California, they stopped in Phoenix to visit one of her sisters. With nothing specific to do in California, her husband looked for a job in Phoenix and found one. She was able to support the family by working at St. Joseph’s Hospital as a nurse until her first son was born. Child followed child, all boys, until she had 5 kids over the span of 5 years and then slowed down to one every two years (two more boys). After three more years, a girl arrived. The celebration of the little girl’s birth kept her husband from the hospital that day. Whether it was the way that 8 kids formed her or her nature, she never stopped moving. All day long she was busy with one task after another. If she was at the cottage on San Juan Island in Washington, she would be gardening, fishing, cleaning the boat or feeding the animals. If she was in California for the summer, she found endless tasks to work on. At home in Phoenix, she would stop only to watch sports on TV. And she would run. Beginning in 1977, she took up running and never stopped until her mind began to go. She would win races in her age category and the age category below her and the one below that. That it was over 1000 outside made no difference: run she would. She worried all the time, although she would try to cover it up. With such a large family, something was always painful for someone and, often enough, for more than one. Her husband was almost incapable of worrying so she had to make up for the two of them. That worry born of concern and rumination helped make her an extraordinary mother: caring, insightful, quirky at times, loving and tender most of the time, but direct and challenging at others, super inquisitive, never smothering, yet never distant, very involved as a parent (President of the Mother’s Guild at Brophy for a time and holding offices in other mothers’ groups at schools where her children attended).

She loved being a mother and a grandmother, but she was a wife above all. If the first half of her life was being a mother, the second half was being a partner to her husband whether by absorbing whole-heartedly his enthusiasm for sports or for fishing or for spending summers in California. Days without end would pass when their lives had little contact with anyone else. He may never have fully realized it, but he knew enough to believe that he was the luckiest man alive and that she was the reason. Her Catholic faith was just a part of her. She did not have a difficult life by almost any metric, yet she found great solace in times of trouble from her love for the Blessed Mother. She was not vocal about that but, every so often, she would say something that showed that she had had praying to Mary. Or she would speak about something spiritual that indicated she had been inspired by Mary. Frustrated with things in the Church, she had some Masses said for the intention of the Holy Spirit helping the Church. The Masses were soon followed by the election of Pope Francis: God had heard her prayers! 

She is survived by her eight children: Patricia (the late John) Lewis of Phoenix, James (Cathy) of Newport Beach, CA, David (Kim) of Phoenix, John, SJ of Los Altos, CA, Thomas (Ana) of Phoenix, Michael (Tamera) of Phoenix, Joseph (Carol) of Colorado Springs, CO, Susan (Gary) of Arlington, VA. Also surviving her are 19 grandchildren and a growing number of great-grandchildren and her sister Kitty (Karl) Gerling of Tucson. She was preceded in death by her husband John Auther; her parents, her brother Charles Greene; and three sisters Jean Rice, Alice Renninger and Patty Jungels. Her family is grateful for the blessing of her caregivers, Belen, Edy, Elizabeth, Pilar, Alma and Eva. They brought joy and love into her life when her mind began to fade. 

Services will be at St. Francis Xavier Church, 4715 North Central Avenue, Phoenix AZ, on Tuesday, September 3. Rosary will be prayed at 3:30 pm followed by Mass at 4:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to St. Francis Xavier School 4715 North Central Avenue Phoenix, Arizona 85012. 

For many years, she had a major role on the committee that saw the rebuilding of the school. Your contribution will help a school that she loved to continue long past her.