Sarah Allard
May 19, 1926 — March 14, 2014
Sarah Jane Mason Allard, age 87, died Friday, March 14, 2014, at Solvay Hospice House in Duluth, MN. Born on May 19, 1926 in Warroad, MN to Burt and Ruth (Sanders) Mason, she was class valedictorian and a notable vocal soloist when she graduated from Warroad High School in 1944. A 1948 graduate of Hamline University with experience on the tuberculosis ward at Ramsey County Hospital in St. Paul, Sarah completed her nurse’s training at Asbury Hospital in Minneapolis. Prior to moving to Grand Marais, MN, she studied public health nursing at the University of Minnesota.
Sarah was the Cook County Public Health Nurse from 1951 to 1956, and she helped many babies enter the world before Grand Marais had a hospital. The obstetrics bag she carried with her to homes and on periodic emergency runs to Duluth contained a pair of scissors, clamps, and a cord-tie wrapped around a clean towel. According to the Cook County News Herald , “Since the ambulance contained no life support equipment, Allard’s skill and the few instruments in her bag were all that stood between life and death.”
Sarah married Thomas Scott Allard in St. Paul on May 23, 1953, and they flew to Isle Royale in Tom’s Piper Cub for their wilderness honeymoon. In 1956, Sarah turned her attention to raising their family, but in 1968, once all four children were settled in school, she returned to nursing, and worked for eighteen years at North Shore Hospital. She also cared for her father and her husband’s father during their last years of life.
Always active in community affairs, Sarah was a member of the hospital board when the North Shore Hospital was built in 1958, a member of the church board when the new First Congregational Church was built in 1968, and chair of the library board when the new Grand Marais Public Library was built in 1987. She was a founding member of the Hospital Auxiliary, the Grand Marais Woman’s Club, and the Friends of the Library. In addition, she was a past president of the Arrowhead Regional Library System, a trustee of the North Country Library Cooperative, a past matron and a 50-year member of the Order of Eastern Star, and a lifetime member of the Cook County Historical Society.
During over four decades as a member of the First Congregational Church in Grand Marais, Sarah served in many capacities, including choir director, chair of the board of trustees, and moderator of the Northeast Minnesota Association of the United Church of Christ. She and her husband were frequent delegates to the annual meeting of the Minnesota Conference of the United Church of Christ, and local church records chronicle her dedication and thoughtful participation.
After her husband’s death in 1987, Sarah participated in many Elder Hostel trips, and she traveled and performed with the American Senior Choir. She sang in concerts in Budapest, Ireland, and Norway, worked with freshwater biologists in Kenya, traveled over 1000 miles by train to go bird watching in northern Manitoba, and observed right whales in the Bay of Fundy. For many years, she spent part of the winter with her daughter Sue in San Diego, and while there, she became a certified massage therapist. In Cook County, Sarah and her son Peter enjoyed identifying songbirds and seeking out rare wildflowers. She was also a confirmed bibliophile, an avid crossword and jigsaw puzzler, a square dancer and a genealogist.
A proponent of social justice, Sarah took a particular interest in equitable access to food, health care, information and opportunities for all of the world’s people. She wrote numerous letters to public officials and newspapers to champion these causes, and she particularly enjoyed this epistolary form of activism during the years she was a member of Old Women’s Letternet (OWL), a lively group comprised of her friends Mary Alice Harvey, Joanne Hart and Corinne Michel.
In 1995, Sarah moved to Duluth, MN, where she joined Pilgrim Congregational
Church and attended University for Seniors at UMD. She frequented the planetarium, the aquarium, Hawk Ridge, the Rose Garden, and symphony and ballet performances. On November 5, 2005, she married childhood sweetheart Evan Frutiger, and until health challenges necessitated her return to Duluth, she lived with him in Warroad. During the three and a half years before her January 2014 move to Solvay House, Sarah made her home at Mount Royal Pines Assisted Living, and residents there remember her as exceptionally friendly, cheerful and kind.
Sarah was prec eded in death by her parents Ruth (1935) and Burt (1964), her husband Thomas (1987), their son Peter (2000), her brother Dell (2001), and her sister Ruth (2007). She is survived by her second husband, Evan Frutiger of Warroad, MN, her brother, Daniel Mason of Falls Church, VA, and her children and their families: Ruth, husband Erik Schickedanz and son Galen Wohnus of Guilford, VT; Sue and daughter Leticia Bruce of San Diego, CA; and Tom, wife Mary Alden-Allard and son Jamie of Tajique, NM. She also leaves several dear friends, eighteen nieces and nephews, and two young adults in India whom she sponsored for many years.
Her funeral service will be held at the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Grand Marais, Saturday, March 22, 2014 with visitation starting at 1 PM until the 2 PM Funeral Service. Burial will follow in the spring at the Maple Hill Cemetery. In addition, there will be a memorial service at Pilgrim Congregational Church in Duluth on Friday, March 21, 2014 at 1 PM, and a funeral mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Warroad at a date to be determined later. Gifts in Sarah’s memory may be sent to Africa Inland Mission, Back Bay Mission, Bread for the World, FINCA, Global Ministries (Vellore, India child sponsorship), or a charity of one’s choice.