Sally Kleaveland 1929-2025

Sally Kleaveland passed on the morning of November 17^th at the age of 96. She died peacefully and was surrounded by family, friends, and love.

Sally was born Sarah Catherine Essex on June 1, 1929, in Rochester MN. She had the good fortune to have parents that were intelligent, hardworking, curious, with a wonderful Midwestern civility and decency-- traits Sally readily absorbed and carried into her adult life.

As a child she was known for her athleticism and was reputed to be the fastest runner at Edison Elementary, boy or girl. She kept the blue ribbons to support her claim. She was soon joined by two sisters, Dorothy and Elizabeth, with whom she shared a lifetime of love and affection.

She left Rochester in 1947 to attend Northwestern University in Chicago,  where she was an enthusiastic sorority sister at Pi Beta Phi. While she was there, she met a young medical student, Richard Kleaveland (Kleave) on a blind date and fell in love. They were married soon after his graduation from medical school in 1951. She was 22 years old and he was 24.

Although she graduated from Northwestern with plans to become a teacher, her own children intervened and she was consumed with the full-time job of being a mother and keeping a household with an ambitious and all-too-busy husband.

True to her Midwestern upbringing, she was incredibly tough. While pregnant with her third child, she contracted polio. Frequently on crutches during her pregnancy, the baby was born without incident. Although polio diminished her athleticism a bit, it never put a dent in her cheerfulness, optimism, or her work ethic. She did not complain. With the help of her always supportive parents the young family (three boys under 5) was shuttled out to Spokane to start a new life in 1956. Two more boys would follow.

Being the wife of a young doctor in Spokane provided many opportunities to engage within the medical community and charitable and arts organizations outside of medicine. Thus began a lifetime and engagement and service to her Spokane community. Besides her own rich network of friends, she was active in Junior League, Medical Auxiliary, Wampum, Women Helping Women, Spokane Symphony, Frontier Behavioral Health, the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture and the Unitarian Church, to name a few. In an era where women’s lives were often defined by their husbands, she cheerfully cut her own path.

She and Kleave were true partners over 67 years of marriage. In addition to their rich social life in Spokane, they traveled the globe to Russia, China, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, the Caribbean and many other destinations. She enjoyed the grand beauty of the Inland Empire, especially the beloved family place at Spirit Lake, ID, that she continued to savor until her final years—57 summers of bliss.

Sally never strayed from her Midwestern roots. When Kleave bought a farm in the Northwest Iowa in 1976, she was up to the task of being the farm owner’s wife. While an excellent sounding board on farm issues, she was also adept at the “soft” skills of diplomacy, congeniality, and being about the nicest person in the world that you would ever want to meet.

Her final years at Rockwood Retirement were rich and bittersweet; sad to see old friends pass but always willing to make new ones and always willing to lend an ear to anyone who needed it. She will be missed.

She is survived by her four sons, Lanse, Bruce (Laurie), Jay, and Jeff (Alicia), and four grandchildren Kate, Henry, Jackson, and Brady. The family would like to express our deep appreciation for the attention of her caregivers and friends during her final days. We would also like to thank the staff of Hospice of Spokane who provided kind and thoughtful support during her final passage.

Memorial services will be held at a date and location to be announced.