Sally Ann Komor (LaVaque) passed away peacefully in her sleep in the late evening of February 4, 2024. She was proceeded in death by her son Steven. Sally was born April 7, 1932 during the Great Depression and grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Her mother Theresa Vandenberg was of Belgin descent, and her Father Joseph LaVaque was French Canadian. Sally had five siblings, all now deceased. Both of her brothers fought in WWII, one perishing in the Pacific Theater. Her father worked as a telegraph operator and engineer. Sally was very active in social clubs and was a high school cheerleader in the same stadium the Green Bay Packers were using at that time.

Sally met her future husband Carl Komor in freshman chorus at Wisconsin State College in Milwaukee. Carl proposed in their senior year saving Sally from accepting a teaching job in a Hawaiian school (which was engulfed by a tsunami two years later). The couple were married in a small chapel on the grounds of St. Francis Seminary where Carl’s father worked. The couple honeymooned by canoe on the Boundary Waters between U.S. and Canada. Carl's required military service gave Sally the opportunity to teach at an Army base school in Germany. Her husband’s career moves in educational administration led Sally to teach in New York, Iowa, Connecticut, Michigan and Washington.

The couple eventually retired to Washington and joined the staff of the Holden Village Lutheran retreat center in an abandoned copper mining village. This was a turning point as the couple were impressed by the value of serving others. Two more years were spent developing and operating a bed and breakfast in Chelan WA for the retreat center guests. Sally’s grandson Thomas was born at 24 weeks in 1994 while the couple was teaching English in a high school in Slovakia for a year – living with Slovak nuns who are emerging from Russian occupation.

Returning to Chelan, Washington Sally and a colleague opened a store for Habitat for Humanity to fund local construction. Sally housed and fed musicians for an annual classical music festival Bachfest and was a docent in the local History Museum in Chelan. Throughout her life Sally loved nature and tended to the needs of deer, turkeys’, squirrels, and birds on the Komor’s rural property outside Chelan.

About her 68 years of marriage Sally said, “It grew with every year of our lives.” Carl says Sally, “Gave me looks of love that melted my heart right up until her last week of life. A soft little smile would develop and then her eyes would just glow. Now I must find new ways to reach for her love.” Sally is survived by her Carl, their grandson Thomas (of Grand Rapids, Michigan), son Chris and his wife Li-Ling (of Tucson, Arizona). Donations in her memory can be made at www.climatedeadline.com a non-profit organization working to repair climate change.

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