Sally I. Blackmon

Iowa City-Sally Idessa Blackmon was born on October 20, 1939, in Columbia, South Carolina. The daughter of Waddy James Alexander Blackmon and Idessa Edna (Newman) Blackmon, she grew up in Columbia and conquered the social scene with beauty titles, including May Queen in 1959 when she was a student Saint Mary’s Junior College in Raleigh, North Carolina. As she grew older and moved to Boston, then to Iowa, she lost interest in anything having to do with the objectification of women and embraced the feminist movement during the Second Wave; she became active in Iowa, attending protests and organizing consciousness-raising groups for women.

She eventually earned her Master’s Degree in American Literature and wanted to earn a doctorate, but the higher education system is neither accommodating nor welcoming to single parents, and she was never able to complete her dissertation. She was very proud of her outstanding grades and the praise she received for her writing from many of her professors. Sally was also a poet.

She loved historical buildings and eventually bought a home in the College Hill Conservation District, where she planted trees in the front yard, gardened, and enjoyed all the birds that bathed in the birdbath. She worked as a receptionist at the Iowa City Ambulatory Surgery Center for the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. She retired in 2016.

She died Thursday, January 5, 2023 at Parkview Manor in Wellman, Iowa, at the age of 83 years.

She is survived by her two children, Edward Moore of Iowa City and Anna Blackmon Moore and husband Christian Fosen of Chico, California; two grandchildren, Ian Blackmon Fosen and Adele Lee Fosen, and a brother, Waddy James Alexander Blackmon Jr. of Merritt Island, Florida. Sally was preceded in death by her parents and her younger sister, Patricia Irene Blackmon.

Sally will be missed and loved by all.  

There will be no services at this time.  Powell Funeral Home in Wellman is caring for Sally’s family.  Messages and tributes may be directed to www.powellfuneralhomes.com.