Sara Romero Hargreaves

Sara Romero Hargreaves peacefully passed away at home in her sleep at 3 p.m., 10 October 2009.
Sara left the world a better place; not for the big things that she did, but for the small things. Her door was always open, there was always hot coffee and her table was always full. She welcomed any who dropped by with a smile and an invitation to come in. She always had time to listen to a story, and to share her own. Sara’s home was a gathering place and a home away from home for many. Her passions included talking to people, playing bridge, tending to her rose garden, and her needlepoint canvases. Her life was focused on family, friends, and helping others.
Sara, the daughter of Maria Elisa Sevilla Gamero and Leonardo Francisco Romero Johanning, was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras on 28 November 1922. She had two sisters, Emma Josefina and Sonia Maria. When Sara was ten, she and her sisters traveled to the United States to attend Mount St. Mary’s, a Catholic boarding school in Los Angeles, California. After graduating from high school she moved to Louisiana where she attended Loyola University, volunteered at the Oshner Clinic, and worked for a shipping company. At the shipping company she was the first woman granted the responsibility for handling shipments to Latin America. After World War II she returned to Central America and worked for TACA airlines and the U.S. Embassy in San Jose, Costa Rica. While working at the embassy, she met George H. Hargreaves. They were married in San Jose on the 6 January 1951.
Sara was an attentive, loving and supportive wife who rapidly adapted to the many new countries where her husband’s work took her. She enjoyed meeting new people and made life-long friendships wherever she went. During her husband’s years as a civil engineer working for the U.S. Government, she had the opportunity to live in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Haiti, Honduras, Panama, and the Philippines before moving to Logan, Utah. During the years they lived abroad, she learned to speak French and Portuguese, worked for many charitable causes, and raised six children. In each country she adapted with dignity and ease.
In 1970 the family moved to Logan where George took a position as a research professor with Utah State University. Sara quickly became involved in the community: she helped the foreign students and their spouses, played bridge, and volunteered at the hospital. She received the Governor’s Silver Bowl Award for volunteer service in 1995 and continued volunteering through 2008.
Her legacy is the values she imparted to her children and grandchildren who were taught to find beauty wherever they find themselves and make their way confidently always forward. Sara stressed to them the value of education, and the importance of family and friends. She lived her words by treating every person she encountered with dignity and respect. She is survived by four of her children, (Margaret Stolpmann, Mark Hargreaves, Sonia Hart, and George Leo Hargreaves), six grandchildren (Darwin, Thea, Sara Carolina, Sofia Cristina, Frances, and Oliver) and four great-grandchildren (Renée, Isabella, Dimitri, and Diego). Sara was preceded in death by her husband, George, on September 5, 2009, and two sons (Ronald and Henry).
Memorial contributions for Sara may be made specifically to the Cache Valley Community Health Clinic where she volunteered for many years by contacting Christina Roberts at (435) 716-5430 or at “ http://www.loganhospitalfoundation.org ” www.loganhospitalfoundation.org .
Condolences may be sent to the family at “ http://www.allenmortuaries.net ” www.allenmortuaries.net
An evening vigil for Sara will be held at the St. Jerome Newman Center (795 N 800 E) on 23 October 2009 at 7 p.m. A funeral Mass for both Sara and George Hargreaves will be held at 10 a.m., Saturday, October 24th at the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church (725 S 250 E Hyde Park). Interment will be in the Logan Cemetery immediately following the service.