Sarah Jo B. Farnell, 66, a native Mobilian and resident of Auburn, passed away Sunday night, Oct. 26, 2014.
The daughter of Joseph Roy Bancroft and Sarah Alma Wentworth, Sarah Jo was an intellectual who never lost her sense of curiosity about the world around her. She reveled in nature’s beauty witnessed in the Great Smoky Mountains and fed her journalistic appetite with every day’s news cycle.
She loved all animals great and small, possessing a gift for nursing sick pets back to health.
She looked forward to watching the Auburn Tigers on Saturday and cheering for Jeff Gordon on Sunday.
Sarah Jo was a fun-loving woman who found humor in every situation, reminding us with her made-up words, infectious laugh and thoughtful observations to not take ourselves, or the world around us, too seriously.
A 1965 graduate of Murphy High School, Sarah Jo went on to attend Judson College, Mobile College and Samford University. She graduated with a double major in English and journalism, finishing in less than four years.
In her professional life, she worked as managing editor for the Tuskegee News and as a reporter for the Foley Onlooker and The Mobile Press-Register. Her fearless and trailblazing mentality lead to an award-winning career as the first female radio news reporter for WKRG.
In the late 1970s she left the professional arena to start a family with her husband, Emmett. Sarah Jo relished her role as a mother, and threw herself 100 percent into raising her two sons, John and Stephen.
She always passionately defended her decision to become a homemaker and never regretted it. She was ever-present at her children’s schools, especially Leinkauf Elementary. Countless hours were spent serving as a room mother, field trip chaperone, Cub Scout den mother and as an unpaid teachers aide.
Throughout her life she was involved at West End, Farmville, Dauphin Way and Cottage Hill Baptist churches, where she was heavily involved in Vacation Bible School, Bible Drill, Mission Friends and teaching Sunday School.
The hi-jinks she shared with her lifelong friend, Patsy, as well as the strong sense of security she felt from her older brother, Terry, remained on her mind even as her health declined.
Through her, a deep love for animals was instilled in her two boys as well as a strong sense of empathy and compassion for others.
Sarah Jo is survived by her husband, Herman Emmett; sons, John Bancroft and Stephen Madison; brother, Joseph Terry Bancroft (Linda); and her feline companion, Girlie.
She is greatly loved, and will be woefully missed.
Visitation will be held at the Jeffcoat-Trant Funeral Home in Opelika on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2014, from 6-8 p.m.
There will be a graveside service at Pine Crest Cemetery in Mobile on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014, at 2 p.m.
Flowers will be accepted, or memorial donations may be made to the Lee County Humane Society.
Arrangements by Jeffcoast-Trant Funeral Home, Opelika.
