June 7, 1939-Octobcr 9, 2020
Sondra was born at home on her grandfather's farm in a rural area of northeastern Maryland outside of the small town of Rising Sun. She was the second child of the six children who lived born to her father. William James Boyle, and her mother Ellen Shirley (Poist) Boyle. With the arrival of three more children in fairly quick succession, the young family moved to a farm of their own across the Susquehanna River into nearby Harford County outside of the town of Havre de Grace. The house had no indoor bathroom facilities and very little heat, which was typical for rural farmhouses at that time.
Sondra and her brothers and sisters grew up loving the farm life, riding horses, raising farm animals, climbing trees, running through the fields, playing in the barn, and feeling completely at home in the woods. Sondra attended Havre de Grace High School, but only got as far as the 10th grade when her life took a decided turn. She met and fell in love with William R. Williams. Jr (Bill) who was a senior at Havre de Grace High but also served as the local school bus driver. We used to kid mom that she was the last stop down the country road and that was how the romance blossomed.
They were married on Halloween 1955 and soon welcomed their first child. William R. Williams III (Billy) in March 1956, followed by their second child Stephen M. Williams in July 1957 and by a daughter Pamela J. Williams in August 1959. Of course, the incredibly young couple were very poor, and Sondra very soon found herself living in a tiny trailer with three small children in the back lot of a distant relative's rural home. Sondra's parents continued to insist that she return to school in order to at least complete her high school education. She challenged her father to attend night school with her as he also failed to complete high school. He took up the challenge and together they returned to school and obtained their diplomas.
Sondra was a gifted student and that had been part of the reason why her mother had insisted she return to school. She obtained a scholarship to the local community college, Harford Junior College and started down the road of higher education. After two years at HJC, she won a new scholarship to Towson State University and also was awarded a student trip to Europe during John Kennedy's term in office in 1962. She often spoke about her first trip to Europe as a transformative time in her life. Sondra continued her education and continued to win scholarships eventually graduating with a degree in English from Johns Hopkins University and went on to obtain her master's degree at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins.
After graduation, Sondra became a public-school teacher at Aberdeen Senior High School in 1964. She taught Junior and Senior English and loved being a teacher and engaging older students, many of whom did not have much use for school. In 1966, the family moved from a ranch style house near Webster's Village, Maryland to a large historic farmhouse outside of Darlington, Maryland near the historic Berkeley Crossroads. The farm was "Swallowfield" and it and the Berkeley Crossroads are now on the National Register of Historic Places.
After moving to Swallowfield in Darlington, Sondra and Bill's marriage soon dissolved. Sondra found herself as a single mother of three children trying to make ends meet on a public-school teacher's salary. After teaching for several years, Sondra became interested in educational organizations that represent teachers and volunteered to help organize and bargain on behalf of the teachers in the Harford County Education Association. This experience would soon lead to Sondra's second career. In 1973 Sondra left teaching and took a job with the Houston Education Association, which was about to undertake a massive and historic strike of all of the teachers in the Houston Independent School District. The strike by some 9,000 teachers went forward even though Texas law at that time prohibited public employees from striking.
Sondra next worked for the Denver Classroom Teachers Association and in 1974 she accepted a position as the Executive Director of the Great Falls Education Association and moved her family to Montana. She held the position in Great Falls for the next three years before moving to California to work for the Mt. Diablo Education Association, the California Teachers Association (CTA) and finally her career path led her to take an executive position with the National Education Association (NEA), an organization with more than 3 million members and an affiliated organization in every state. Sondra had a flair for organizing and inspiring people and she eventually was put in charge of governmental relations for nine Western States and helped the teachers in each of those States support candidates who supported teachers and public education. Sondra earned the love and respect of every teacher or administrator she met and made dozens of life-long friends with whom she still vacationed on a regular basis.
Sondra was stunningly beautiful and although she never remarried, her life was filled with romance and happiness up until the very end. After moving to California in 1977 she met a dashingly handsome young education employee, Christopher Karlin who was working for CTA, having left his teaching career in Hawaii. The two of them purchased a home in Oakland on Sunny Hills Road in the summer of 1982 and enjoyed a full decade of traveling the world, skiing, hosting parties, dinners, and car camping throughout the entire West and into Canada.
In 1993 Sondra's job with the NEA resulted in her being transferred to Denver, Colorado where she once again built a fabulous new life filled with dozens and dozens of new friends, book clubs, silver singles, golfing, social events, theater, opera, symphonies and traveling worldwide. After moving to Denver in 1997, she met the man who would be the final love of her life, Irwin Horwitz. The two of them became constant companions for some 19 years. They traveled the entire world, enjoyed all things cultural and sought the most joy out of every single day they were together. Their spirit of adventure led them to far-flung destinations and activities such as skydiving, scuba diving, bungee jumping, and zip lining. They visited every continent and never stopped learning and being interested in and excited by the world. Irwin died in 2016 and Sondra spent additional time with her many friends, her children, and their families.
After a routine physical, shockingly, Sondra was diagnosed with advanced cholangiocarcinoma in October 2019. She moved to San Francisco to be treated at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center. After treatment failed, she died on October 9, 2020, at peace and grateful for the beautiful and amazing life she had led.
Sondra was predeceased in death by her parents and her older sister Patricia Carr. She is survived by her sisters Barbara Barrow, (Harry) of Perryville, Maryland and Beverly Bright (Jack) of Eclectic, Alabama and her brothers Michael Boyle (Cheri) of Boise, Idaho and William J.Boyle (Sally) of New Castle, Delaware and countless cousins, nephews, and nieces; she is also survived by her oldest son Bill and his wife Yasiekaya, their children Alyssa and Nicholas, of Shann El-Sheikh, Egypt, her second son Stephen Williams and his wife Margie Lao-Williams and their daughter Lauren Sondra of San Francisco; and her daughter Pamela J. Barnett and her husband Joel Barnett and son Ryan of Bear Valley, California.
A memorial service for Sondra will be held on Saturday November 21st at 10:30 p.m. at the San Francisco Columbarium. Those who would like to attend in person are welcome, social distancing and safety precautions will be taken at the service. Those who would like to may also attend remotely and we invite you to contact the family [email protected] to obtain a zoom link and information about how to access the remote service.
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