Mildred Sarah (Sarah) Doty Hensley

Mildred Sarah (Sarah) Doty Hensley passed away peacefully on March 7, 2026. Many thanks to Saratoga Hospital and the truly remarkable staff that cared for her. She would have approved of their patient care. Born on July 30 1929, Sally’s childhood was defined by the Great Depression. She followed her big brother around the (then) woods, meadows, bogs and ancient orchards of Yonkers, NY. As the little sister tagalong, she undertook the prerequisite dares. That ended abruptly when she proudly came home with her newly skinned snake. After a pause from her mom, a quiet “Sally, where did you find this snake?”, a march with said shovel-wielding mom to the snake nest, all the copperheads were dispatched and the adventures slowed a bit. Sally said it was a great time to be a kid: “we didn’t know we were poor, because everyone was.” “And a gift like your own orange was magic”. Her sense of adventure continued through WWII. She was immediately put in her place after FDR’s Pearl Harbor address when her first response to the news was one of exuberance. Never one to keep an internal dialog internal, she shared her excitement with the family. “Sally, you don’t know what you are saying.” And she didn’t. What she did was raise vegetables, help with metal drives, draw lines up the backs of her legs to mimic silk stocking seams. She also learned her history and her geography following the troop movements. She never lost that curiosity to learn, nor the empathy that comes from the reading and storytelling of history. As the war ended, Sally entered nursing school. She wanted to be a doctor but was told that was not a path for females (yes, a theme that will reemerge). She loved nursing. Staff nurses were still overseas helping with the aftermath of the war, so Sally and her cohort ran the hospital units, often learning on the fly. Sally often spoke of giving her first catheter…to a boy, a high school classmate…and how that was a bit complicated because nurses only learned female anatomy. Her first nursing stint after graduation was at a VA. She loved her soldiers. And she hated war, “man’s inhumanity to man.” Like many young women of that time, her sheltered world burst open with a profession and a broader understanding of the world. She left her devout Christian upbringing, her Bible study, and the narrow gender beliefs, and explored the worlds and its peoples. Nursing took her to Los Alamos, New Mexico, back to NYC as a head nurse at the ER at Columbia Presbyterian, and then on to Australia. She learned. She studied. She laughed and danced. And she sang (but never in key). In the ER; “the poor come in, the rich get treatment.” On doctors: “for every man who graduates at the top of the medical school class, there’s one who graduates at the bottom.” On class: “abortions are for the rich girls flying to Cuba, the poor girls get sepsis.” After returning to the States in the mid 1960s, Sally continued nursing in ICU’s and OR’s. She supervised, directed, taught, and then ended her career “cleaning up dirty OR’s”, the last placement being at Yale New Haven Hospital. She absolutely loved holding “the men” accountable for sterile procedures. She marched for the ERA and was firmly ProChoice. She organized a union at her home hospital because nurses were not given the pay and recognition they deserved. She promoted and mentored women of color in nursing, in her OR’s.While Sally carried her nursing identity (literally) to her deathbed, there were other worlds that she embraced. She was a world class knitter, tatter, needlepointer, gardener. She planted flowering trees, perennials, and edible treats in any garden she touched. It was not unusual to receive a big nursery box filled with dozens of iris or peonies that needed to be planted… immediately. She sewed and designed clothing. Any yarn shop, fabric or clothing store she dragged her children to was introduced by “feel this, now feel this, this one’s got lanolin, this one’s a bit harsh” as she fingered the textile inventory. She knitted Chanel suits lined with satin, and created her own knitting patterns. And the colors, the mad muddle of colors! The more lively the color, the more it was celebrated. Monochromatic was dull, muddy colors were distained, the color wheel was ignored, gardens were riotous. She always said “I love colors that sing!” The response: “Sally, you love colors that SHOUT!”One of Sally’s alter egos was her bright red Volvo wagon, a turbo that she gleefully drove through 3 clutches and reminded everyone that “you know, they race these in Europe.” She relished long road trips with carloads of middle school girls. Those trips had been foreshadowed by long camping epics to national and provincial parks. She was a single mom with two kids with very sketchy plans, a car low to the ground with “supplies”, and a fish filet knife (which she never used). Another passion was conducting classical music in all venues and at all times- her internal exuberance reaching down to her arms, hands, and feet. Quelling her enthusiasm never seemed to work. A third was her love of language and literature. There was nothing she liked better than a few hours spent with the dictionary or inking the New York Times Sunday crossword, unless it was storytelling with loved ones around the kitchen table.Her deepest love was for her family- her genetic and extended family, and also the human family. She was fierce and tenacious about her loved ones, and also opinionated and didactic. Logic never contained her. Her heart ruled her. Family memories with her are of feeling safe and loved, and that feeling never wavering. She was brave, she was bold, and she was stubborn as hell. She did not suffer fools and if you looked tired, she would tell you. She was a woman with an intellect so sharp and ravenous that she was using five syllable words and cracking jokes with her fellow nurses while she could barely speak at the end. And she loved her extra people, those who needed a temporary landing spot. She never forgot them. Sally lives on in her two children, Sue Hensley (and Kevin Cushing), and David William Hensley, 5 grand children- US based Sarah Hensley Lapham Paisley (And Erik), and Maya Hensley-Lapham Valentin (and Emanual Valentin), and AU based Emma McCalister, TJ Hensley, and Loki Hensley, as well as 7 great grandchildren; She connected with extended family and particularly loved Hannah Cushing, Patrick Cushing, Justin Cushing, Deborah Garrett (Peter Garrett) and Annie Hensley (Michael Carvosso) and Karen Capone Lally (John Lally).Sally did marry and divorce 2 doctors who graduated at the top of their medical schools: Dr William J Hensley (AU) and Dr Anthony Capone (US). Both predeceased her. Sally is predeceased by her parents Mildred Sarah Dibble Doty and Frederick Euguene Doty and by her brother Frederick E. Doty Jr. and nephew Edward Doty. Sally lived to 96 1/2 and we all know that she is POed that she didn’t make it to 100. She wasn’t done here. She never would have been.There was more to experience, more to learn, more to question. We will have her “on our shoulders” as we follow her lead. 

Burial will be private.

A Celebration of Life will be held at a later date