Obituary
Sara Elizabeth McFadden Gannon, 95, passed peacefully on February 8, 2024. She was born April 28, 1928, in Whiteford, MD, daughter of Ernest K. McFadden Sr. and Helen Marie Hardest McFadden. On August 30, 1948, she married Charles Benton Gannon.
Teaching was Sara’s passion. She began her career teaching in Baltimore, MD and moved to Massachusetts where she taught in Shrewsbury and Westboro, MA. In 1972 she was named an Outstanding Elementary School Teacher of America and retired from teaching in 1984. Always the teacher, after retiring, she worked at Yankee Atomic as a trainer until December 1996.
In 2005, Sara relocated to Florida and settled in Sugar Mill. She was an active volunteer in the community and volunteered at ACA, NSB library, Silver Sand Middle School, Council of Aging and the SEV History Museum. She also told Christmas stories at Coronado Methodist Church for many years.
Left to cherish her memory is her brother Ernest McFadden (Lynn), Bayse, VA; son, Michael Benton Gannon (Chris) Scottsdale, AZ; daughter, Kathie Dougherty (Jerry), New Smyrna Beach, FL; 2 grandchildren, Sara Ashley Gannon and Nick Benton Gannon and several nieces and nephews.
Donations may be made in her memory to the Coronado Community Methodist Church 201 Peninsula Avenue, New Smyrna Beach, FL 32169 or Gifts of Love Food Bank 820 West Park Avenue Edgewater, FL 32132 email: giftsoflove820@hotmail.com.
The family wished to thank the staff and residents of Lexington Place for taking care of mom for the last 6 years and VITAS for her hospice care.
Services will be private.
Sandi & Richard Sturge
It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Nothing has happened.
Everything remains exactly as it was.
I am I, and you are you,
and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by the old familiar name.
Speak of me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was.
There is absolute and unbroken continuity.
What is this death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am but waiting for you, for an interval,
somewhere very near,
just round the corner.
All is well.
Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost.
One brief moment and all will be as it was before.
How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!
Henry Scott-Holland. "Death Is Nothing At All."
Love you Nana - until we meet again. Sara