Sally Ann Hackmann

Sally Ann (Sara) Hackmann (nee McDonald), born Feb. 20, 1920 in Winner, South Dakota, passed away after a brief illness on Saturday May 7, 2016 in Gilbert, Arizona. Beloved wife for 50 years of the late Brantner Anthony Hackmann, loving mother of Lesli Hackmann Wiseman (Brian), Gilbert, AZ; cherished grandmother of Natali Sara Wiseman, Seattle, WA, and Alexandra Sara Wiseman, Chicago, IL; dear aunt, cousin, and friend.

Graveside services will be held at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, St. Louis, MO, on Friday May 13, 2016 at 2:15 p.m.

Sally was a member of the Greatest Generation, those who grew up in the United States during the deprivation of the Great Depression, and then went on to make a decisive material contribution to the World War II war effort from the home front. Sally attended grade school in Denver, CO, graduated from Central High School in Sioux City, IA in 1938, and graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering from St. Louis University in 1943.

During World War II, as a military instructor, she taught aircraft radio and navigation to Army Air Corp cadets at Sioux Falls, SD and Madison, WI. After the war she continued teaching aircraft radio and navigation to Chinese cadets in the Chinese (Mandarin) language at Scott Field, near Belleville, IL.

Sally married Brantner Hackmann on May 27, 1945 in Sioux City, IA at St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church. They moved back to Brant’s hometown of St. Louis, MO in 1947, at which time Sally was employed as a design engineer at Emerson Electric Corp. In 1948 they moved to South Bend, IN so that Brant could attend the University of Notre Dame. There, Sally became a probation and parole officer for St. Joseph County and the couple also became house parents to a group home of children at the Children’s Aid Society in South Bend. Sally and Brant moved to Seattle, WA in 1951 so that they could work as design engineers at Boeing Aircraft Corp. Sally was involved with wind tunnel testing on the B52 aircraft and the Bomarc missile. Sally continued her engineering career at Lockheed Aircraft Corp. in Burbank, California as an experimental flight test engineer for the P4 and the C130. She also received a patent for the hot wire flow meter. She followed that as an electrical engineer photographing and timing experimental aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base in 1955.

In 1956, Sally’s career took a turn when she and her husband moved to Xenia, Ohio and she became a social worker at the Ohio Soldier and Sailor’s Orphan’s Home. Here, she and Brant developed lifelong connections with a number of the students who graduated from the orphanage during her time there. Sally and Brant were also foster parents to several of the former O.S. & S.O. students.

In 1961, the Hackmanns welcomed their first and only child, Lesli, into the world and, other than a few part-time positions such as Executive Director of the Camp Fire Girls of America, and a short career as a real estate broker in retirement, Sally dedicated her time to raising her daughter. She was a homemaker and volunteer extraordinaire, giving much of her time to her daughter’s school functions. She was a Girl Scout leader, volunteered at the Special Olympics, conducted fundraising particularly for the American Heart Association, and the American Cancer Society,

Sally’s greatest joys were to spend time with Brant, Lesli, and her grandchildren, Natali and Alex. In her later years she lived with her daughter and family in Elgin, IL and Gilbert, AZ.

Sally enjoyed traveling, going out to dinner with family and friends, hosting impromptu gatherings and picnics at home, following the Notre Dame Fighting Irish sports teams (she and Brant retired in South Bend specifically for this reason), keeping up with her SLU Billikens, reading, playing cards, dancing with Brant at the Officer’s Club at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, gazing at the planets through Brant’s telescope, and watching her daughter and granddaughters in their many school and sporting events. She was an avid follower of politics and could recite every president and vice president from George Washington/John Adams to the present day (thanks to the nuns at St. John's Catholic Grade School in Denver, whose memorization assignment she continued throughout her lifetime). She especially loved classical music, opera, poetry, and movies starring Nelson Eddy and Jeanette McDonald. She knew no strangers, and was generous with her time, her compassion, and her resources.