Obituary of Sally Daniel
Sally Harding Storrs Daniel, 84, of New Canaan, Connecticut, and Chatham, Massachusetts, passed away peacefully Monday, July 6. Members of her family were with Sal as she moved to the great beyond.
Variously known as Sal, Sally or, for a time, Monk (before she sternly put an end to that nickname), Sally was born in Hartford, Connecticut on December 26, 1930. There was a period of time when Sal thought the proximity of her birthday to Christmas was cheating her of birthday gifts, but her family doesn’t believe this was the case.
Sally grew up in West Hartford where, while considered an indifferent student, she had the benefit of being “very cute, perky and fun”. Sal graduated from the University of Connecticut, in her namesake Storrs, Connecticut, where she and her two sisters reveled in being the Three Storrs Girls. Sally was quietly proud of the role the Storrs and Harding families played in the early settlement and creation of our country, and of her membership in The Society of Mayflower Descendants and the DAR.
Sal generally lived on the straight and narrow, though she howled with laughter when revealing that, after being spotted trying her first cigarette as a young teen, she was knocked to the ground by an unseen clothesline while fleeing across the backyards of West Hartford. Sally spent the summers of her youth in Giant’s Neck, Connecticut, and Pine Point, Maine. It was in Giant’s Neck that Sal met Ron Daniel, who would become the love of her life.
Sally was married in 1953. After a few years as a Navy wife, and living on bases in Newport, Athens, Georgia and Philadelphia, Sally settled in first in Glenbrook, and finally in Darien, where she began the task of raising three boys.
Days were always busy for Sally, whether shuttling the boys to Little League or Boy Scouts, or spending time with her friends in the Junior League or at the DCA. At home, Sally’s cooking was fabled, though not always for the right reasons. While her brownies were legendary, a flip through her recipe box suggests that dishes like Molded Tuna Loaf, Carrot Casserole or Curried Fruit Bake were not as timeless. If there were a prize to be given for the ability to extract the most edible matter from a lobster, Sally would have surely won it.
Sal is the adored mother to three boys—David, Peter and Stephen, the cherished mother-in-law to Jeanne and Mary Beth, and the “always smiling, happy-to-see-you” spoiler of eight grandchildren. She will be profoundly missed by all of us.
Services will be at the convenience of the family.