Mother, nurse, traveler

Sally Kohnman died April 27. “For three days she was surrounded in the hospital by loved ones from all the various roles she had played in life: wife, mother, nurse, and world traveler,” her family shared.

Sally was born in Bath, Pennsylvania on May 5, 1954 and lived a good portion for her childhood there. Her family moved to California, and she lived in Glendora for many years.

From the time she was a small child she always wanted to be a nurse. To further that goal she enlisted in the U.S. Army after graduating high school. She was originally supposed to make prosthetics, but after a bit, the Army wisely decided that having her around power tools wasn’t the best idea, and switched her to more hospital type work. Upon discharge from the Army she located back to Pennsylvania for a few years, where she began work on her nursing degree.

Eventually she was tired of the weather there, and so moved to California again. There she began working as a nurse, working for 30 years in that capacity at City of Hope.

In 1992 she married her husband Jim and began a new adventure. They traveled quite a bit, and eventually had a daughter, Emily, who was the light of her life. She was very involved in her activities, acting as team mom for soccer teams and for various young people’s church groups.

In time she returned to school to earn a teaching certificate so that she could work as a school nurse and have summers off with her daughter. She worked at a few schools, ending that part of her career at Whittier City School District.

She loved her dogs, quilting, researching her family tree, her newer membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution, and traveling. Though the adventures were cut way too short, she had many great trips during working years, then some truly great ones in the far too short retirement.

She was very devout to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and had many roles in her time there. She very much loved the people there, and the various projects they had.

“She was very glad that she wound up moving to Claremont in 1993,” her family said. “This city was a joy to live in, and she loved all the people she met here.”

She is survived by her husband Jim; daughter Emily; sisters Louann Lopez (Ron Lopez) and Robin Kaiser; brothers Rickey Jones, David Teel, Bill Sos (Tara Sos) and Steve Sos (Tara Sos); and in-laws Jill Kohnman, and Tom and Angela Kohnman. She also leaves behind several nieces and nephews that she always loved very deeply.

Memorial services will be held at 10 a.m., Saturday May 17 at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 728 E. Baseline Rd., Claremont, CA 91711.