Sandra Allyn Hixson

A Seattle native, Sandra was born at Seattle General Hospital on Thanksgiving Day 1950. She grew up having frequent visits with her extended family from Canada, spending many summers in British Columbia. One notable summer was when she and her cousin saw the Beatles at their first Canadian concert in 1964.

She graduated from Lincoln High School in 1969, where she enjoyed singing with Chanters. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in history at the University of Washington. It was there she met her husband, Wayne, at the HUB bowling alley through a mutual friend. They married in August 1976, and she began her 30+ year teaching career in Seattle Public Schools, working with special education students and teaching from fifth grade all the way down to kindergarten, which she taught until her retirement in 2010.

Sandra’s greatest joy was working with children. She had an innate ability to connect with children and saw the potential in every student. “She was one of those ‘super teachers,’” a friend recalls, sewing costumes, crafts, and organizing projects for her classroom while simultaneously supporting her daughters in their own activities. As co-president of the band boosters for Roosevelt High School, she not only helped organize fundraisers and attend every football game each season but coordinated a 2-week overseas trip for the RHS Symphonic Band. Her secret to a well-run tour with a large group of teenagers? Assigning them to an adult the same way she would group her kindergarteners for a school field trip.

Sandra liked to joke that “she who dies with the most fabric wins.” While she may not have come in first (though this is still to be determined), she at least ran a close second. She loved sewing and crafting, often gifting her work. She frequently donated handmade quilts and pillowcases to charities for children in need like Project Linus. After joining “Senior Zoo Walkers” at Woodland Park Zoo, she became interested in digital photography and loved sharing photos and stories of the zoo animals.

She was a long-time and devoted supporter of local sports teams. She was a Seattle Sounders booster when the team played in the NASL at Memorial Stadium and the Kingdome and held UW football season tickets for almost two decades. She loved to tell the story of when “The Wave” was born – completely by accident – in Husky Stadium when yell leader Rob Weller was performing one of his “attitude checks.”

As a wife and mother, Sandra was extremely generous and supportive of her spouse’s and daughters’ hobbies and obsessions, even if it meant the house often had astronomy equipment set up all over the house or having to listen to endless repeats of The Phantom of the Opera soundtrack. Conversations would often be interspersed with quips from Monty Python’s Flying Circus, like, “What, the curtains?” or “I don’t want to go on the cart!” As a grandmother, she drew upon her decades of teaching to keep her grandson curious and engaged in art, baking, building, and reading.

The holidays will miss her energy and the multitude of baked goods she prepared, often for the sake of tradition (one, making Scandinavian fattigmand cookies, continued for over 30 years). Christmas was her favorite time of year, and she had fond memories of old Seattle, taking photos with Santa Claus at Frederick & Nelson, singing in the Northgate Mall Singing Christmas Tree with her Brownie troop, and buying Christmas trees from Chubby and Tubby.

Sandra is survived by her husband of 46 years, Wayne; daughters Jennifer (Max) Waugh and Alicia Hixson; sister Holly Mangold; and one grandson, Tasman, all of Seattle, Washington; cousins David and Loretta Cameron, Susan (Cameron) Hunt, and Jamie, Cindy, Matthew, and David Cameron, all of British Columbia, Canada. She was preceded in death by her parents, Hollis and Mary (Sim) Mangold; great-uncle and great-aunt Alfred and Mary (Sim) Mausner.

At Sandra’s request, there will be no services.