Sarah Horner Spencer Beck of Sag Harbor Dies June 13

Sarah Horner Spencer Beck, 86, died peacefully on June 13, near the home of her son John in Cary, North Carolina, where she had lived for the past six months.

A longtime resident of Sag Harbor, New York, Sally was born on April 8, 1939, in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, the daughter of the late Scott Winthrop Spencer and Gertrude Harper Main.

She grew up at “Three Springs,” a 1791 stone house and 70 acres of land near Walnut Bottom, Pennsylvania. She graduated in 1957 from Big Spring High School in Newville, Pennsylvania, and won a Du Pont scholarship to attend Goldey-Beacom College in Wilmington, Delaware. Working as a secretary at Joseph Bancroft & Sons textile company in Wilmington, she met Donald Beck, a bright young chemist from Steubenville, Ohio. They married in 1959. Four children followed in quick succession. In 1969, Sally and family moved from Delaware to Long Island, New York, where Don had accepted a job as Vice President of Delta Steel Corporation (later a division of Hoesch AG of Dortmund, Germany). A resident of Garden City, New York, for two decades, Sally was active in school affairs as secretary of the PTA, compiling and producing five different-monthly school bulletins, which she designed and typed out on her ancient Underwood typewriter.

After she separated from her husband in 1987, Sally moved to Sag Harbor, where she lived for 37 years, retiring at age 77 as the longtime secretary/office manager for Edward Burke Jr. & Associates law firm on Main Street.

Sally, who had a quick wit and enjoyed people (but didn’t suffer fools gladly), had a 55-year love affair with her adopted home of Long Island, where she adored the beaches, gardening, current affairs, and, in her married years, indulging in weekly restaurant and museum jaunts to Manhattan. Her summer lobster/steamer fests and Thanksgiving dinners were family highlights. In recent years, she shared her oldest son’s interest in family history. Her father was a descendant of Garrard Spencer, who came from Bedfordshire, England, in 1630, and was one of the original proprietors of Haddam, Connecticut. Her mother’s family had emigrated from northern Ireland, in 1718, eventually settling after the Revolution on an 800-acre tract of land near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, deeded to them by the heirs of William Penn. The village of Mainsville was named for the family. For Sally, American history was deeply ingrained. Her great-grandmother Kate Knox Horner, for whom she was named, was 8 years old during the Battle of Gettysburg and 96 when she died in 1951. She related to her oldest great-granddaughter how she was carried on her father’s shoulders to listen to Abraham Lincoln deliver the Gettysburg Address in 1863.

Sally was preceded in death by her two brothers, Scott M. Spencer and Douglas L. Spencer. Surviving are a sister, Judith S. Billow, of Millersburg, Pennsylvania, as well as her four children, Spencer of Chestertown, Maryland; John (Miriam) of Apex, North Carolina; Jamie Jensen (Paul) of Rye, New York, and James (Linda Sherry) of Crumpton, Maryland; and five grandchildren. Burial will be in Oakland Cemetery, Sag Harbor, with a memorial planned for later this year. Condolences may be expressed by a donation to World Central Kitchen, Doctors Without Borders, or a children’s charity of one’s choice.