Sally Ryan Tomlinson

CUMBERLAND FORESIDE - Sally Ryan Tomlinson, 90, an Associated Press journalist, genealogist, and beloved wife, mother, and grandmother died recently in Cumberland Foreside, Maine. Sally was born in Portland, Oregon in 1934 to Elizabeth Salway Ryan and Cornelius Hugh Ryan. As a girl, Sally was known for her keen intellect and athleticism. She grew up on “Sunny Hill,” in Lake Oswego, Oregon and adopted the nickname Jo after her favorite character in Little Women. Sally started a hand-written newspaper, the Sunny Hill Sun, when she was five years old; she was a pitcher on her softball team starting in seventh grade; played volleyball; loved campfire girls camp Ohnalee; told terrific stories about her three-week wilderness survival trip in the Three Sisters region of Oregon; and spoke often of volunteering to plant trees in the Tillamook area after devastating forest fires. She always said that Tillamook cheese was the best of all cheeses and was thrilled when Maine grocery stores began to carry cheese and ice cream from Tillamook.

Sally graduated from the University of Oregon in 1956 with a degree in journalism, following in the footsteps of her mother, longtime editor of the Oswego Review. Sally treasured the lifelong friends she made in the Alpha Chi Omega sorority, especially Phyllis (Phyzz) Pearson Berwick.

After graduation, Sally began her journalism career across the country in Farmville, Virginia. She worked for the Farmville Herald in the wake of the Brown vs. the Board of Education decision, reporting on the decision to close Farmville public schools rather than integrate them. Sally later returned to Portland, where she worked at the Oregonian and then for the Associated Press in Portland and Seattle. The highlight of her career was covering Don Schollander of Lake Oswego as he won four gold medals in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Sally accepted a transfer from Seattle to the New York office and became a business news editor. It was in New York that she met James F. Tomlinson, her AP colleague who became her husband.

Sally was a devoted mother to her daughters, Betsy and Tory. She raised her girls to take advantage of everything New York offered, from countless trips to the Metropolitan Museum, the New York Public Libraries, and Broadway shows to softball games and ice skating in Central Park. Sally supervised an after-school newspaper club and inspired future journalists. She created an elaborate craft room that was the envy of Betsy and Tory’s friends and sewed many dolls to benefit their school. She used her creativity to produce spectacular birthday parties and shared her love of travel by planning educational trips to Europe. Sally was a lifelong Anglophile who closely followed British politics and the Royal Family; her daughters and many of their friends called her the Queen Mother.

Sally spent decades as a genealogist, researching the Tomlinson and Salway family trees long before Ancestry.com existed. She made and maintained connections with genealogists around the world.

After moving to Maine, Sally made many new friends at Thornton Oaks, Bay Square, and the Mooring; continued her genealogy work; and loved keeping up with her grandchildren. Many thanks to lifelong friend Dinny Stevens Zinckgraf and Lisa Hamm who lovingly cared for Sally for years, and to the staff and volunteers at the Hospice of Southern Maine and the Mooring on Foreside who brought so much joy to Sally in the last months of her life.

Sally is survived by her daughters, Elizabeth (Betsy) and Victoria (Tory); their husbands Peter Sillin and John Herrmann; and their children Jack, Lane, Jules, and Kate. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the League of Women Voters. Internment will be at Arlington National Cemetery, alongside her husband, at a later date.

Please visit www.lindquistfuneralhome.com to leave condolences for the Tomlinson family and sign Sally's online guest book.