Sally Joanne Dempster (nee Strott) passed away peacefully in her home on July
28. She is reunited in Heaven with her parents John Charles II and Lillian
Heubner Strott, her infant daughter Deborah Jean, and her brother John Charles
Strott III. She was the loving wife of 64 years to Darrell Dean Dempster and a
proud mother to Charles Edwin (Eddie) Dempster (Eva), Diane Marie Stanko (Carl),
David Andrew Dempster (Dawn) and Holly Dempster Phillips. She is also survived
by nine grandchildren: Michelle, Jason (Sarah), and Eric Stanko; Mitchell,
Brooke, Cody, Reagan and Greer Dempster; and Nicole Phillips. Sally was born
April 22, 1934, in Baltimore Maryland. She was a graduate of Catonsville High
School and received a Master of Science in Nursing from the University of
Maryland (shown in the picture with a Florence Nightingale cap). Before staying
home to raise her family, she was a Public Health Nurse in Annapolis. She met
Lieutenant Darrell D. Dempster through a nursing school friend whose husband
went to the Naval Academy with Darrell. She thought Darrell was very exciting
because he had traveled the US and abroad. She was always ready to go where duty
called. The newly married Dempsters were stationed in Yokosuka Japan from 1959 –
1963, followed by Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Monterey, California; and then
Washington, DC. The next move was back to the West to Pleasant Hill, California.
Here, Sally managed a household of four children ages one to ten during two
tours of duty while Darrell was deployed in the Tonkin Gulf on the aircraft
carrier, the USS Ranger (CA-61). The family then moved down the coast to
Coronado, California for five years and then, in 1976, back across the country
to the Pentagon and the Naval Air Systems Command, where Darrell retired as a
Project Manager in 1981. Sally was a devout Christian and active in the Lutheran
Church throughout her life. She was baptized, confirmed, as well as married at
Christ Church, Inner Harbor, in Baltimore. Upon returning to Annapolis in 1988
and becoming a member of St Martin's Lutheran Church, she led bible study, was
elected to the church council, taught Sunday School, and sang in the choir. She
could not read music, yet she could sing all the songs with a beautiful voice.
Her home was your home and she welcomed visitors through Global Missions from
companion synods from Finland, Estonia and Denmark. She also helped to
coordinate their trips and entertained them. She loved her family and one of her
favorite traditions was having her Grandchildren act out the story of Jesus'
birth with a play each Christmas. She said that new cast members were always
welcome. When her children began to go to college, she earned a Clinical
Pastoral Education Certificate at St Elizabeth's Hospital and also worked as an
addictions nurse at the Psychiatric Institute of Washington, DC. Her
post-military wife's life led her across the globe. She could carry on a
conversation with anyone and easily made friends wherever she went. English was
Sally's favorite subject in school and she volunteered to teach English to
Japanese girls while in Japan and English to young adults in the La Mancha area
of Spain. Sally had a grateful heart and even as Alzheimer's took away her mind
and body, she gave thanks to her family and caregivers and told them she loved
them right up until the end. The Dempster family would like to thank the caring
staffs of Visiting Angels, Synergy and Hospice of the Chesapeake for making her
transition as comfortable as possible and allowing her to remain in her home
with a view of the Chesapeake, which she loved. Services will be held at St.
Martins Lutheran Church at 10:30 AM on Saturday, August 21. Reception to follow.
All are welcome. Donations in memory of Sally can be made to St. Martins
Lutheran Church, 1120 Spa Rd, Annapolis, MD 21403. Burial will be at the
Baltimore National Cemetery in Catonsville, Maryland where Sally will be laid to
rest with her infant daughter, Deborah. The time is not determined.
John M. Taylor Funeral Home
147 Duke of Gloucester St