Sara Kemp Wood Wickham

   Sara Kemp (née Wood) Wickham died on Friday August 31 at home in Edenton, NC after a long illness.

   Sara was born on February 5, 1934 to Ann Langhorne(née Kemp) Wood and James Edward Wood in Norfolk, VA, completing the trio that will forever be known as the inimitably artistic, charming, and witty Wood Sisters of Edenton, NC; Nancy Wood Mordecai, Frances Wood Crawford, and Sara Wood Wickham.

   Sara graduated from John Holmes High School in Edenton, then went on to major in Studio Art at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, VA, art being a love and driving talent that would remain at the forefront throughout her life. After her graduation she moved to Front Royal VA at the suggestion of a R-MWC classmate to take a teaching position with Warren County Public Schools. It was in Front Royal that she met Fitzhugh Lee Wickham Jr, who was to become her husband. They married in 1957, at a joyous and unforgettable celebration at St. Paul’s in Edenton. The union of Fitz and Sara produced two children, Katherine and Fitzhugh III.

   Sara’s passion for art led her down the path of both portraiture and landscape. Her body of work is quite prolific and her oil paintings and pastels hang in homes all over the east coast, particularly Virginia and North Carolina. Of significant note is the mural she produced that graces the walls of the Parish Hall at Calvary Episcopal in Front Royal, VA, where she was also a long time regular on the Altar Guild.

   In later years, Sara was able to fully satisfy her yearning to see the world and thrilled at traveling extensively through Europe with her husband, other family members and dear friends.

   Sara had endless enthusiasm for life, particularly her family, extended as well as nuclear. Nothing made her happier than large gatherings of family and friends at her favorite spot on earth; Nags Head, NC, and she fostered in her children a lifelong love of being close to the ocean. She is predeceased by her husband Fitzhugh, and leaves sisters Nancy Mordecai of Edenton NC, Frances Crawford of Galax, VA, daughter Katherine, her partner Bradford Sherburne, grandson Wyatt and granddaughter Meredith of West Hartford CT, son Fitzhugh, his wife Diane, grandson Lee and granddaughter Abigail of Smyrna GA, many loving nieces and nephews and their families in Virginia, North Carolina, Oregon, Illinois, and England, cousins galore, and many dear lifelong friends.

   Funeral services are to be held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Edenton on September 29th at 11 am with the Reverend Malone Gilliam officiating. Family and friends will be received after the service at the home of Tom Wood, Mulberry Hill Plantation, on Sound Side Road in Edenton.

   In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that donations be made to the Alzheimer’s Association in Sara’s name.