Sally Yoho Swaney

Sara "Sally" Yoho Swaney was born on November 8, 1942, in Energy, Pennsylvania, to John E. and Catharine Irene Yoho. The second-youngest of seven children—Neil, Jean, John, Ray, Leann, Sally, and Susan—she grew up walking a mile to Castlewood Elementary School in all kinds of weather before riding the bus to Shenango High School. Her childhood was filled with the simple joys of playing ball, hide-and-seek in the woods, climbing trees, ice skating on a nearby pond, and learning to walk on stilts.

A dedicated student, Sally graduated as salutatorian of her high school class. She worked her way through Geneva College and then Ohio Northern University law school, meeting her husband, Donald "Don" A. Swaney, while employed at the local bank. After their marriage, the couple lived in Washington, D.C., and later Nashville, Tennessee, where their son, David A. Swaney, was born. Sally passed the bar exam and began a distinguished legal career with the Tennessee State Legislature, serving with distinction for more than thirty years. Her commitment was formally recognized in 2012 with a Joint Proclamation from the Tennessee Legislature honoring her service.

To those who knew her as Aunt Sally or Ms. Sally, family was the center of her world. She cherished her role as Mimi to her grandchildren, Logan and Caitlyn. She found pleasure in golf, road trips with her sisters, attending Barbershop Quartet competitions, and the patient artistry of cross-stitching, including a five-panel Nativity scene that took more than five years to complete. A woman of deep faith, she sang in the choir at Cooks United Methodist Church for over twenty years.

Sally was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Don, and her siblings Neil, Jean, John, Ray, and Leann. She is survived by her son David and daughter-in-law Tricia; her grandchildren Logan and Caitlyn; her sister Susan; sister-in-law Norma Yoho; brother-in-law John M. Roth; and many beloved nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews, and great-grandnieces and great-grandnephews.